Ducati Disasters – The Parallel Twins
Ducati make some of the most evocative motorcycles in the world. With the introduction of the 1198 Superbike, Hypermotard, and Streetfighter, Ducati has perhaps its strongest product lineup in its entire history. As we wait for the new Multistrada 1200 to hit dealerships around the world I thought it would be interesting to look at some of the bikes that didn’t quite hit the mark. Sometimes the bike was ahead of its time, sometimes it was just plain bad. Whatever the reason, the Ducati Disasters series will tell the story. We recently covered the Ducati Indiana Custom. Now it’s the turn of the Ducati 500 Sport Desmo Twin.
In 1973 Ducati management had decided that the future for middleweight motorcycles lay in parallel twins. This was a strange decision given that Ducati had produced parallel twins in the past that had not been successful. Another portent was that famed engineer Fabio Taglioni refused to become involved (although he later did design the Desmo head for the Sport Desmo).
The engine was a big deal, being Ducatis first entirely new design in more than 15 years. The design was compromised from the start with a need to control costs. The cylinders were canted forward 10 degrees atop vertically split aluminum crankcases with the crankpins spaced at 180 degrees. The 500GTL (a 350 was also made for the Italian domestic market) was a valve spring engine with the single overhead camshaft acting on screw and locknut type adjusters.
The styling was based on the 860 GT (translation ugly) and was not well received. Even worse was the propensity for crankshaft failure. Performance from the meager 35bhp was pretty tame. In an effort to spur sales, Italjet was commissioned to create a sporting version which resulted in the much prettier Sport Desmo 500. Finally Taglioni was convinced to become involved and he designed a Desmo head for the twin which helped boost power to 50bhp.
The 500GTL became the 500GTV when the odd 860 based styling was dropped in 1977. The 500GTV was essentially a Sport Desmo with a valve spring head and was reminiscent of the Darmah in styling.
Around 7,000 parallel twins were produced between 1975 and 1983 but they were never a commercial success. With sales so poor Taglioni was finally allowed to build the belt drive V-twin he had envisioned since 1971. That engine, the Pantah, went on to great success and is still the basis for all the air-cooled Ducati models today.
Sources:
The Standard Catalogue of Ducati Motorcycles by Ian Falloon
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My brother-in-law had one of the 500 Sport Desmo bikes. I actually kind of enjoyed riding it. It felt very heavy and kept vibrating fuses out of their sockets but the overall handling was still a lot of fun. Just seemed to be along the “sporty standard” line of thinking, never felt like it was really meant to be anything beyond that. For only 50hp it sure felt lively. I liked it for it’s uniqueness (at that time I had never known there was anything other than the V-twin Ducatis). It’s what started my interest in Ducatis. My brother-in-law sold it shortly after that, and later bought a 907ie, then a 900 SS CR, and finially the Monster 750 (which I later bought from him and still ride).
Ducati has battled with it’s buyers being conservative , very much so in the 1970′s-80′s . When it introduced the square case engines they were not well accepted, people still wanting the early round-case engines.
Some of the failures for Ducati in hindsight were not so, like the 860 bike which introduced the square case engine and was a sensible bike in many ways.
History is important and it is easy for people to take a swipe at bikes they have no real knowledge of.
I suspect Taglioni could have solved the problems that the 350-500GTL bikes had but it was possibly belligerance on some-bodies part that the design team allowed the bikes to be built with these faults? Did the company no favor.
Ducati was trying to increase it’s market share and there were only so many people who then wanted sports bikes. The Japanese rightly figured there was a good market for bikes like the Kawa Z250,Honda CB250-400 etc, so Ducati was not really stupid in going down this path.
Here in OZ the 500Sport is not well regarded , every second Ducati person has an opinion based on some one else’s opinion and i have yet to meet one who has actually ridden one much less owned the actual bike which they are happy to deride.
To make matters worse the Ducati dills who spread these silly stories encourage dills who ride other bikes to spread more rumours………….
Just shut up!
Australian Motorcycle News did an in depth article on the woes of one particular 500Sport where the owner ended up putting a Yamaha650 engine in his bike.
This is used as the proof by most dills to discredit the 500Desmo.
I have this particular blown engine that cause the stories.
What happened was the crank nut came loose and the bike was ridden til the flywheel chewed through the engine case!!
Different version of events?
Operator error!!
The 500 Sport is a very good looking bike.
It’s chief flaw is the poor ignition system , related to the 750GT, this manages to make starting difficult and the bike run poorly in many instances,flattens the battery .
Otherwise the very narrow power-band is irritating, but there in runs well.
The handling is stiff not unlike the 750Sport.
Ridden hard the 500 Sport would more than keep up with larger bikes of it’s era , just bloody tiring floggin the arse off it for 100′s of klms!
Oil pressure problems were more or less fixed on the Desmo bikes and when you pull one apart it is thoughtfully constructed and nicely made inside the engine. Gearbox looks like a box from a single.
A few of the Ducati die-hards have one in their collection, so there must be something about them?
Captain Fuego
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Thanks Captain for your considered comments. The Ducati Disaster series is really targeted at commercial failures, this doesn’t necessarily speak to the merits of the machine (e.g 999). IN addition many people with little Ducati experience find it interesting to hear about some of the models which are entirely new to them. I’d love to ride a 500 Sport Desmo, I agree they are a nice looking machine! Thanks Again.