Ducati: 50 Golden Years

Ducati: 50 Golden Years

CONTRARY TO THIS BOOK’S TITLE, NOT ALL OF DUCATI’S 50 years have been golden. The Italian manufacturer’s history is pockmarked with dubious marketing decisions, dark periods under state ownership and money troubles. During WWII, when the Ducati factory made electronics, it literally was reduced to rubble by Allied bombers.

Fortunately, this lavishly illustrated photo album focuses on the positive-specifically the glorious sporting motorcycles Ducati has produced since the first Cucciolo rolled off the assembly line in 1946.

With no archives of its own, Ducati turned to Italy’s Motociclismo magazine to produce a publication commemorating its golden anniversary as a motorcycle manufacturer. And while the English translation is generally good, the occasional awkward phrase or Italian bias creeps in.

For example, while early U.S. importer Joe Berliner is cited as the driving force behind the ill-fated Apollo V-Four and the successful Scramblers, Ducati’s current owner, the Texas-Pacific Group, receives only a passing mention. And while 1991-92 World Superbike Champion Doug Polen gamers his own chapter, Cook Neilson’s 1977 Daytona Superbike victory only rates a listing in the appendix. Even more painful, a caption discussing John Kocinski accompanies a photograph of Neil Hodgson.

Those criticisms aside, Ducati: 50 Golden Years is an enjoyable, surprisingly informative read, and a Fitting tribute to a company that tmly has cause to celebrate. Ducati: 37 Golden Years wouldn’t have had the same ring to it.

Brian Catterson

Ducati: 50 Golden Years, Luigi Bianchi and Marco Masetti, 224 pages, $40; Classic Motorbooks, 729 Prospect Ave., Osceola, Wl 54020; 800/826-6600