Ducati is an Italian motorcycle manufacturing company 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.
MV Agusta is a high end motorcycle manufacturer founded by Count Domenico Agusta on 19 January 1945 as one of the branches of the Agusta aircraft company near Milan in Cascina Costa, Italy. The abbreviation MV stands for Meccanica (mechanics) Verghera, the hamlet where the first MVs were made. The modern headquarters and main production facilities are located in Varese, Italy on the shore of Lake Varese.
The Ducati 916 is a fully faired sport bike made by Ducati from 1994 to 1998. Featuring a 916 cc (56 cu in) fuel injected, 4-valve, desmo, liquid-cooled, 90° V-twin engine in a trellis frame with a single-sided swingarm and USD forks, the 916 is frequently cited as one of the most beautiful motorcycles ever.
Cagiva is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer. It was founded in 1950 by Giovanni Castiglioni in Varese, originally producing small metal components. Giovanni's sons, Claudio and Gianfranco Castiglioni, went into the motorcycle industry in 1978. The name is a portmanteau derived from the founder's name 'Giovanni Castiglioni' and the founding location, i.e. CAstiglioni GIovanni VArese.
Massimo Tamburini was an Italian motorcycle designer for Cagiva, Ducati, and MV Agusta, and one of the founders of Bimota. Tamburini's designs are iconic in their field, with one critic calling him the "Michelangelo of motorbike design". His Ducati 916 and MV Agusta F4 were included in the Guggenheim Museum's The Art of the Motorcycle exhibit of 1998–1999.
Renzo Pasolini, nicknamed "Paso", was an Italian professional motorcycle road racer. He competed in the FIM Grand Prix motorcycle racing world championships from 1964 to 1972.
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 MV Agusta F4 is an inline four-cylinder sport bike made by MV Agusta from 1999 until 2018. It was the motorcycle that launched the resurrection of the brand in 1998. The F4 was created by motorcycle designer Massimo Tamburini at CRC, following his work on the Ducati 916. The F4 has a single-sided swingarm, large diameter front forks and traditional MV Agusta red and silver livery. The F4 engine is also one of the few production superbikes to have a hemi-spherical cylinder head chamber design with 4 valves per cylinder.
The Ducati singles were single cylinder motorcycles, made by Ducati from 1950 to 1974. Chief Engineer Fabio Taglioni developed a desmodromic valve system in these years, a system that opens and closes the valves using the camshaft, without the need for valve springs. This valve system has become a trademark feature of Ducati motorcycles.
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 Pantah is an Italian motorcycle with a 90° V-twin engine, produced between 1980 and 1986.
The Ducati 851 is a 90° V-twin fully faired sport bike with liquid cooling and four valve heads. It was produced by Ducati between 1987 and 1992, when it was succeeded by the Ducati 888.
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.
The Cagiva Mito is a small-engined Cagiva sports motorcycle. The powerplant consists of a two-stroke 125 cubic centimetres (7.6 cu in) single-cylinder engine.
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.
Ducati Bipantah was a prototype 90° V4 four-stroke motorcycle engine made by Ducati in 1981. It was designed by Pierluigi Mengoli under the supervision of Fabio Taglioni. It had four cylinders and made coupling two Ducati Pantah V-twin engines. It remained a prototype, although it had good results during dyno-tests. The project ended in late 1982, when then-owners VM Motori decided not to build the bike for which the motor was intended for.
The MV Agusta 750 Sport America was a motorcycle manufactured by the MV Agusta company from 1975 to 1977. Derivative models were produced in limited numbers until 1982, and the Magni models are still available to special order.
The MV Agusta 600, also called the MV Agusta 600 4C and the MV Agusta 600 Turismo, was a motorcycle built by the MV Agusta company from 1966 to 1970. For the first time, a four-cylinder engine was fitted transversely to the direction of travel on a standard motorbike and cable-operated disc brakes were used. A total of 135 of this model were manufactured.
The MV Agusta 125 Bialbero was a 125 cc factory racer from the Italian brand MV Agusta, which was used between 1950 and 1960. The machine won 34 GPs, 6 rider's championships and one manufacturer's championship. The machine also won 4 Italian Championships and 10 National Championships in other countries.
The Ducati Monza is a 249 cc (15.2 cu in) single cylinder bevel drive SOHC motorcycle produced by the Italian manufacturer Ducati from 1961 to 1968. It was the touring version of Ducati's first 250 cc road bike. Reviews of the Monza praised its speed, road holding, engine smoothness and brakes.
