Italian classics

this topic seems me to be a nice opportunity to post a picture of my Ducati MHR ...

Italian classics
 
What a gorgeous bike, Paul.

My highest compliments on a timeless classic that is more or less one of my lifetime dream bikes to own (750SS).
 
Some more Italian machines, but not the type you see every day. These were taken at the Dunboyne Festival, Co. Meath, Ireland, this afternoon.

Guazzoni
Italian classics


Motobi 250 replica

Italian classics


Motobi (not sure of cc or model)

Italian classics


But this is certainly more familiar:

Italian classics
 
Fullauto said:
Never seen a yellow Ducati Desmo or 750 Sport.

Seen plenty of orange ones.


If you mean BEVEL as opposed to Desmo, you may be right. But Ducati's made a lot of yellow bikes, and I don't think they've had any non-desmo bikes in a long time, if ever.

my 97 900SS, for one, is yellow. And therefore, much faster than any red bike.
 
Only the Sport Desmo was desmo, the 500 red and white bikes. (they were still a paralised twin though)
And maybe the yellow and white 350 but I'm not sure about the 350 ?


Italian classics


All the belt Ducatis are desmo.
Yellow 750 Sports' (or orange, actually street sign or catapillar yellow) were not desmo.
Of the bevel twins only the SS' Darmahs' and Hailwoods' were desmo, GT's and GTS' were not desmo

The singles are another matter,

graeme
 
Wonder what they were really like as a bike. Sure, they don't have the x-factor a v-twin has, but were they really that bad? Did they deserve to flop as badly as they did? Anyone ever ridden one?

Wonder if there's any kicking around in barns here in Aus, I seem to recall a few coming in to the country. My brother had an 860 tourer thingy at the time. Same sort of styling as the parallel twins, but vertical seams on the mufflers - what were they thinking? I remember riding it to Bob Brown's for a service. Scared the crap out of me as I had only ever ridden 350s up to that time. Lotsa grunt.
 
The 500 desmos are getting more expensive, but still cheap in comparison to the Vs'.
There were plenty around in Australia and a lot had the motor swapped for 500 Yamaha singles. That made a bike that handles well and also went and didn't poo itself.

Taglioni (the factory engineer )didn't want anything to do with them, but the bean counters demanded they be produced.
When the factory ended up with huge amounts of unsold stock and heaps of warranty claims, and was nearly broke (again) he pulled the plans for the Pantah out of his draw which ultimately saved the company.
He designed the Pantah in '74, but they wouldn't produce it because the bean counters were sure the world wanted a parralel twin, same as the english factories were selling.

Most Paralised Twin owners were like this, or worse. This is a non desmo GT. He recons he was jump starting the ute!

Italian classics


They did go ok IF the necessary upgrades were done.
 
davamb said:
Were the ill-fated parallel twins desmo?

Ducati made both the Sport desmo and conventional valve spring (GTV?) versions of their parallel twins.

Has anyone ridden one of these?

Edit: Grm450 has given a much more comprehensive reply as I was writing mine!
 
I wasn't as busy as you Dave at the time.

Yes, they handle and stop well and don't vibrate much, not like the 450 single. That was a while ago though.
They're not as sweet as a 500 Pantah.

graeme
 
As for the 860. I dunno now. Maybe my tastes have changed or it was not suited to its time. Still don't like the vertical muffler seams though.
Italian classics

If memory serves Pinifarina was involved in the styling???
 
mikegray660 said:
Never to may Italian bikes
here are mine..

Nice collection, and if your Lav is early 80s (?) it would span three decades. The 750GT interests me. How does it compare with your Commando? More photos??

Edit: just noticed in the small print that your Lav is 70s!
 
Sorry to be away from this discussion for a while. The orange bikes I was referring to were the '73 on Desmo singles and the '72 on 750 Sport, not any later bikes. I've never seen one in the flesh that looked "yellow", only "orange". Ian Gowanloch ended up with a treasure trove of early Ducati spares and one time he laid out a heap of 750 Sport bodywork and counted no less than 14 shades of orange through to dark yellow. It's always bothered me that people refer to them as yellow when the majority are plainly and patently orange. It annoys me the same way as when I see Agustas referred to as MV Augustas.
 
True, but there is nothing more orange than a Laverda. Ducatis aren't that orange, even the most "orange" of them.
 
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