The Ducati Story

THE DUCATI STORY

CW BOOK REVIEW

Ian Falloon Motorbooks International 729 Prospect Ave. Osceola, WI54020 800/826-6600 160 pages, $30

READING THE DUCATI STORY IS, IN A way, almost like reading about the life of Frank Sinatra: periods of fame and glory followed by lean times, of being lost in the wilderness, only to come back better than ever (or at least as good as ever), with a new hit or an Academy Award-winning movie. From Here to Eternity, for instance.

No motorcycle manufacturer seems so often to have walked the tightropes of insolvency, changes of ownership and occasional product indecisiveness, and still kept its balance in the long run, coming back with a bang-and a new generation of race victories and motorcycles to fit the mood of the times.

Behind it all, as you learn from reading Ian Falloon’s nicely documented new book, is the intelligence and spirit of Ingenere Fabio Taglioni, educated at Bologna University and hired away from the Mondial factory by Ducati in 1952, when he was 32 years old. Time and again, it seems to be Taglioni’s instincts that bring the company commercial success and racing victories, but when management wanders too far astray in pursuit of trendy marketing ideas, their heresies are soon repaid with either disaster or indifference among the Ducati faithful.

And Taglioni’s instincts, as Falloon shows, have always been: (a) To honestly improve the breed by racing, and (b) to win races by making balanced motorcycles that find the perfect middle ground in horsepower, weight and handling.

Falloon tells this story in very readable, straight-ahead fashion, starting at the beginning with the Ducati brothers’ radio business and post-war foray into the motorbike world with their much-loved 50cc Cucciolo, or “Little Pup.” He continues, taking us era-by-era through the significant Singles, bevel-drive Twins and modern belt-driven Desmos of the Cagiva period, with considerable focus on the racebikes of all decades. He also gives mention to the various dead ends, two-strokes and oddball bikes, but blessedly doesn’t waste much of our time on them, except to explain succinctly what went wrong.

The book is chock full of hard information about the motorcycles-as a fellow writer, I got the shakes just thinking about the hours of research that went into establishing the correct gear ratios, weights, cam timing, horsepower and performance figures-and, as such, it makes a great

resource if you simply want to look up a single bike and find out what it was all about. It also takes the recent racebikes of the Nineties, year by year, and tells what changes were made, and why.

The book abounds, too, with quotes from road tests and magazine articles of each period, along with insightful comments on-and by-those who were most involved with the Ducati legend: engineers Taglioni, Bordi and Tamburini; and the creators of the “California Hot Rod” triumph at Daytona in 1977, Cook Neilson and Phil Schilling. There’s also a very good description of the work done by Giorgio Nepoti and Tino Caracchi of Scuderia NCR in their preparation of the 900SS with which Mike Hailwood won the Isle of Man.

But this is more than just a reference book for dropping in and out of favored sections of Ducati history; it’s best read cover to cover for a full appreciation of what Ducati has meant to motorcycling in the second half of our century. If you are a long-time Ducati enthusiast and owner, as I am, it’s almost like reading a history of your own life as it relates to the ups and downs of the company. Falloon likes the same bikes I do, for the same reasons, and it’s fun to see the passion in his prose pick up steam as he describes the Mach 1 and the original bevel-drive Twins, the engineering depth of the 851, 888 and 916, or the finally-got-it right development of the latest 900SS.

A worthy addition to the Ducati bookshelf, along with the works of Alan Cathcart and Mick Walker; full of details that add new pieces to the jigsaw-puzzle story of a company that, for many of us, has almost single-handedly rekindled an interest in roadracing, sportbikes and motorcycling in general.

Peter Egan