Ducati is an Italian motorcycle-manufacturing company that is part of the Ducati group, and is headquartered in Bologna, Italy. The company is directly owned by Italian automotive manufacturer Lamborghini, whose German parent company is Audi, itself owned by the Volkswagen Group.
Fabio Taglioni was an Italian engineer.
Stanley Michael Bailey Hailwood, was a British professional motorcycle racer and racing driver. He is regarded by many as one of the greatest racers of all time. He competed in the Grand Prix motorcycle world championships from 1958 to 1967 and in Formula One between 1963 and 1974. Hailwood was known as "Mike The Bike" because of his natural riding ability on motorcycles with a range of engine capacities.
The Kawasaki GPZ900R is a motorcycle that was manufactured by Kawasaki from 1984 to 2003. It is the earliest member of the Ninja family of sport bikes. The 1984 GPZ900R was a revolutionary design that became the immediate predecessor of the modern-day sport bike. Developed in secret over six years, it was Kawasaki's and the world's first 16-valve liquid-cooled inline four-cylinder motorcycle engine.
Bimota is an Italian manufacturer of custom and production motorcycles. It was founded in 1973 in Rimini by Valerio Bianchi, Giuseppe Morri, and Massimo Tamburini. The company name is a portmanteau derived from the first two letters of each of the three founders' surnames: Bianchi, Morri, and Tamburini.
Giacomo Agostini is an Italian multi-time world champion Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. Nicknamed Ago, he amassed 122 Grand Prix wins and 15 World Championship titles. Of these, 68 wins and 8 titles came in the 500 cc class, the rest in the 350 cc class. For these achievements obtained over the course of a career spanning 17 years, the AMA described him as "...perhaps the greatest Grand Prix rider of all time". In 2000, Agostini was inducted into the MotoGP Hall of Fame as a MotoGP Legend, while in 2010, he was named an FIM Legend for his motorcycling achievements. He considers himself a "dubious" Roman Catholic.
The 1967 Isle of Man Tourist Trophy was a motorcycle road racing event held on the 37-mile Snaefell Mountain course on the Isle of Man. Five races, in different engine capacity classes of 50, 125, 250, 350 and the 500 cc Senior TT, made up the second round of the FIM World Grand Prix motorcycling championship season. Mike Hailwood, on the four-cylinder Honda RC181, duelled with Giacomo Agostini's MV Agusta 500 Three.
Phillip William Read, was an English professional motorcycle racer. He competed in Grand Prix motorcycle racing from 1961 to 1976. Read is notable for being the first competitor to win world championships in the 125 cc, 250 cc and 500 cc classes. Although he was often overshadowed by his contemporary, Mike Hailwood, he won seven FIM Grand Prix road racing world championships.
The Ducati 750 Imola Desmo is a racing motorcycle built by Ducati that won the 1972 Imola 200 race in the hands of Paul Smart. This win helped define Ducati's approach to racing.
The L-twin is a naturally aspirated two-cylinder petrol engine by Ducati. It uses a 90-degree layout and 270-degree firing order and is mounted with one cylinder horizontal.
The Ducati SportClassics were a range of retro styled motorcycles introduced by Ducati at the 2003 Tokyo Motor Show, and put on sale in 2005 for the 2006 model year. The Paul Smart version was made for the 2006 model year only, while the Sport1000 ran from 2006 through the 2009 model years, and the GT1000 ran from the 2007 through 2010 model years.
The Ducati Supersport and SS are a series of air-cooled four stroke desmodromic 2-valve 90° L-twin motorcycles made by Ducati since 1988. A limited edition Supersport called the SuperLight was sold in 1992. The name harked back to the round case 1973 Ducati 750 Super Sport, and the 1975 square case 750 and 900 Super Sport. The appellation 'SS' was applied only to the later belt drive (Pantah) based models.
Paul Smart was an English short circuit motorcycle road racer who later entered Grands Prix.
The Ducati Mach 1 was a 250 cc single-cylinder engine motorcycle, the fastest 250 road bikes at the time. It was capable of just over 100 mph in full road going trim. Many were converted for racing use, and in the hands of Alastair Michael Rogers it gave Ducati a TT win when he won the 250 cc production TT. The regulations for the production TT were strict, and Mike Rogers averaged 134.84 km/h on his almost production condition Mach 1 with a fairing and painted green. Mike Rogers was blind in his left eye as a result of a childhood accident, but his efforts and the consistent performance of his Mach 1 enabled him to win. Nowadays, Ducati Mach 1 is one of the most sought after machines among enthusiasts of older bikes. The engine number was DM250M1 00001-01950 and the DM250M1 engine was also used in some Ducati Mark 3s. A total of 838 Ducati Mach 1s were produced, but not many are still in existence as they were also used for racing.
Pierre Terblanche is a South African motorcycle designer born on 6 November 1956 in Uitenhage, Eastern Cape. He started his career in advertising but felt the need to move into the design world. After moving to Germany and working with Volkswagen design, he worked at Cagiva's research center at San Marino under the direction of Massimo Tamburini. When Cagiva decided to sell Ducati to US-based Texas Pacific Group, Pierre Terblanche chose to follow Ducati. In December 2007, he left Ducati to pursue other interests, believing that he should be a designer and not a manager.
EMC Motorcycles or the Ehrlich Motor Co was a British motorcycle manufacturer. Based in Isleworth, the business was founded by Joseph Ehrlich who emigrated to the United Kingdom from Austria in the 1930s.
The Triumph Bonneville T120 is a motorcycle originally made by Triumph Engineering from 1959 to 1975. It was the first model of the Bonneville series, which was continued by Triumph Motorcycles Ltd. The T120 was discontinued in favour of the larger 750 cc T140 in the early 1970s.
Colin Jordan Seeley was a British motorcycle retailer who later became a motorcycle sidecar racer, motorcycle designer, constructor and retailer of accessories. In 1992 he was involved in running the Norton Rotary race team.
Michael John Gilbert Walker, commonly known as Mick Walker, was acknowledged as one of the world's leading motorcycle authorities. Walker was a British former motorcycle dealer and racer with a particular interest in Italian motorcycles, who played a key role in popularising the Ducati marque in Britain, but was also an expert on numerous other models of motorcycle dating from the 1950s to the present. He was the writer of over 130 published books about motorcycles and motorcycle racing, and an autobiography.
The MV Agusta 500cc road racers were motorcycles that the manufacturer MV Agusta built and which were used to compete in 500cc Grand Prix motorcycle racing series between 1950 and 1976. 18 500cc world championship titles were achieved with these machines ridden by John Surtees, Gary Hocking, Mike Hailwood, Giacomo Agostini and Phil Read between 1958 and 1974.
