Thursday,
September 21, 2006
Dr. T. or Dr. Desmo,
Fabio Taglioni of Ducati is
a Legend
The
ANNOTICO Report
FabioTaglioni is generally and incorrectly given credit for
inventing the Desmo-style valvetrain
when, in fact, he was simply the first one to get it to work properly on a
motorcycle engine. (Norton and others tested it unsuccessfully) What is Desmo? In a nutshell, an engineering technique to thwart
valve float so period engines could rev higher. This design was amazing, and
its use in race and street engines was super-significant back when
two-valves-per-cylinder street engines littered the dealership floor.
Taglioni as chief designer at Ducati
from May 1, 1954, and oversaw Ducati
Happy
Birthday, Dr. Desmo
Super Bike Planet
by
Dean Adams
Wednesday, September
20, 2006
If you own a Ducati motorcycle there is one fellow you should be glad
was born on this day in 1920-Fabio Taglioni-the famed
"Dr. T".
Taglioni was the absolute driving force
behind Ducati
Taglioni was born in northeast
Like most of his
generation, WWII was a seismic personal event for Taglioni;
he was a natural mechanic, budding engineer and had some mechanical and
engineering education, hence he was assigned to the Italian army
After the war, he
finished his education in
There
His first day of
employment at Ducati was May 1, 1954 with Taglioni as chief designer. He oversaw Ducati
Taglioni
Taglioni is generally and incorrectly given
credit for inventing the Desmo-style valvetrain when, in fact, he was simply the first one to
get it to work properly on a motorcycle engine. (Norton and others tested it
unsuccessfully) What is Desmo? In a nutshell, an
engineering technique to thwart valve float so period engines could rev higher.
This design was amazing, and its use in race and street engines was
super-significant back when two-valves-per-cylinder street engines littered the
dealership floor.
Ducati
Those who knew Taglioni when he was at his peak say he was an archetypical
old-world Italian designer: aloof, aristocratic and dedicated to his own
engineering ideals. Pictures exist of him at work at his drafting table at Ducati in the 1970s, with Dr. T wearing a short cape, which
should give you more of an idea of what he was like than mere words can
accomplish. And he was cut-throat competitive; stories are told from his final
years at Ducati where he fought with younger
designers over engineering principles or directions?and not just by simply arguing theory with them. Taglioni had few problems using his fists to get his point
across.
Away from Ducati, he was not anything like his workaday persona: Taglioni
It may be hard for newer
fans to comprehend this, but during the entire 40-odd years that Taglioni was at Ducati, the
company nearly always faced an uncertain future; in fact, a "death-watch"
on Ducati never really stopped from 1960 to 1975.
After decades of near-scrapes, Ducati was taken over
by Cagiva in 1983.
Which is quite ironic, as
Ducati were then making their most popular bike in a
decade--a machine somewhat related to the 999 in your local dealership?the 750F1 streetbike; and
later, the TTF2 "race bike" that followed in 1985. These machines
were the last that Dr. T would design for Ducati and
stand out as landmark bikes in the long history of motorcycles. Also, to many
enthusiasts, these two bikes were the "last of the true Ducatis." Because Ducatis
produced after this period had Cagiva
Taglioni
While Taglioni
may have felt forgotten for a few years after he retired from Ducati, in 2000 it was decided that he was strong enough
(he was a life-long smoker and then suffering from emphysema and other
maladies) to leave the hospital and make a brief appearance outside the factory
at the culmination of World Ducati Weekend.
Introduced by Ducati CEO Federico Minoli,
Taglioni looked out into the concert-like crowd of Ducati fans in complete surprise as a roar of emotional
cheering blasted from Ducati fans to their "Dr.
T" after the introduction was made. Seated in his wheelchair, with a light
rain falling, the usually stoic and stone-faced Taglioni
broke down, smiling through tears as his fans showed their appreciation and
adoration for a man who worked so hard and sacrificed so much for Ducati motorcycles. When the pace of the rain quickened, Taglioni was whisked away, but he smiled and waved as he
was powered away, his male attendant had the wheelchair kicked back on its! rear wheels, wheelying him down
the sidewalk. Standing there, I found that manner of exit wonderfully
appropriate for such a great man with the heart of a racer inside his chest.
A little over a year
later Taglioni would be
dead. He died on July 18, 2001 in
Taglioni built bikes in a period when one
man could still engineer an entire motorcycle and enjoy near complete
autocratic control over the project. No focus groups, no polling of current
customers to better gauge what will sell, Ducati
While he certainly was
quickly out-gunned in terms of design and engineering resources?and most certainly in scale?by
the Japanese in the 1970s, many of the bikes that Dr. T built in response are
considered classics today.
In 1986, Taglioni summed up his theology regarding motorcycles this
way to then journalist Steve Anderson: "The Japanese motorcycle
companies want to make an easy car. I want to make a difficult bicycle,"
he said.
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