Italian classics
- Thread starter daveh
- Start date
Some photos of Italian classics at Spa Francorchamps, June 2009. Mostly Laverda twins and triples, Ducati V twins, MVs.
http://s377.photobucket.com/albums/oo22 ... =slideshow
http://s377.photobucket.com/albums/oo22 ... =slideshow
Fullauto said:
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 ?
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
And maybe the yellow and white 350 but I'm not sure about the 350 ?
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
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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.
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!
They did go ok IF the necessary upgrades were done.
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!
They did go ok IF the necessary upgrades were done.
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Never to may Italian bikes
here are mine..
here are mine..
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.
