How Ducati’s Quest for GP Glory Began
Following the success of the Ducati 1955 Gran Sport, the very first design effort by one Ing. Fabio Taglioni, Ducati decided to enter the 125 Grand Prix World Championship with a double overhead cam version of the bevel single. This motorcycle is that first prototype GP racer, the Bialbero.
The Gran Sport, nicknamed Marianna, was built in limited numbers for racing and was extremely successful winning the 100cc class of the Giro d’Italia in its first attempt. With a single overhead camshaft driven by straight cut bevel gears the 100cc engine produced 9bhp at 9,000rpm. The success of the Gran Sport was such that it allowed Taglioni to adapt his advanced cylinder head design for production use at a time when most competitors still used pushrods.
However Ducati had ambitions for GP glory so Taglioni designed a double overhead camshaft head for the 125cc version of the Gran Sport, a bike named the Bialbero. The company still had very little racing experience so leaping to GP’s was a very brave move. The little single revved to 11,500rpm and made 16bhp. However it wasn’t enough to go up against the MV Augustas, Gileras and Mondiales. During the 1956 season the factory had little success. However the little racer looked stunning especially with its dustbin fairing in place. The featured bike is the 1955 prototype for Ducati’s DOHC (Bialbero) 125cc racers. It was sold to Willie Scheidauer in 1956 who raced it in Germany (winning several national championships) up until the mid ’60s.
Recently restored under the supervision of Hugo Gallina (see the video below) with a new, hand made alloy, exact copy of the original dustbin fairing & seat cover by Evan Wilcox. It was photographed recently in Los Angeles, USA by Phil Aynsley.
Although the Bialbero wasn’t a racing success it paved the way for what was to come. Taglioni, grappling with valve float at high revs and the fatal consequences of missed gears on the race track moved to do away with valve springs completely with the now trademark Desmodromic valve system. In 1958 the DOHC 125 Desmo Racer narrowly failed to take the 125 GP title. In 1959 a young 19 year old Englishman won his first ever Grand Prix (Ulster) on a Ducati 125 DOHC Desmo Grand Prix. His name was Mike Hailwood.
Hat Tip to @steve19brogan for the video link, Photographs with permission from Phil Aynsley
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