Back to the beginning

 

In the beginning...

In 1926, the brothers Adriano, Marcello and Bruno Ducati founded Societa Scientifica Radio Brevetti Ducati, producing components for radio's, business was good and a new factory was built in the Borgo area of Bologna in 1935. At the same time, in Turin, Aldo Farinelli designed and built a small 4 stroke engine to be used as a cycle motor for a company called SIATA. Immediately after the war, this engine became available to the public and named the Cucciolo

 A number of companies soon produced motorised cycles based on the engine, but it was in 1950, after around 200,000 units had already been sold that the Ducati company joined forces with SIATA to manufacture their own Cucciolo motorcycle.

With 60cc and weighing just 44Kg the bike gave 200mpg (64 Km/L)

The Cucciolo (Puppy) name was soon dropped in favour of the 55M and 65TL.

    

  Apparently the name derived from the sound of the engine, see what you think.

OK that's enough history, the point of this post is that with a quarter of a million of these engines around it was inevitable that people would start to race them.

Below are a few examples.

But it wasn't just road racing, people 

even made board racers

  

And in England someone took things even further, below is the Britax Hurricane of 1954

And here, in action

The wonderful beginnings of Ducati single cylinder racing


Here endeth the lesson......   

except, if you didn't think it could get more strange......    

someone (or rather some people) built tandem versions

It's a strange way to start a legend