Ducati is going racing this year, although only on a regional level, to further develop its new Desmo450 MX motorcycle before it goes on sale to the public next year.
Monster Energy has put out a video featuring Antonio Cairoli, a nine-time World Motocross champion and a member of the winning team at the Motocross of Nations in 2021. Cairoli has done much of the test riding/development of the new bike. In the video, the bike looks to be well along in its development cycle and very capable on the track. Take a look below.
Dirt – Desert – 2 vs 4 stroke.
* 1970s, – Watched a 500 4 stroke Yamaha thumper, motor on up a very steep hill climb (about 400 feet) with little commotion, cresting the top at an idle rpm. He started at the very base, full stop, while about 30 different 2 strokes (including some 400 Suzukis) charged the hill from 100 feet before the base, and spun their tires all the way up with great commotion and scary left and right action.
* Same time decade – Towed a 250 Elsinor with a sized jug 10+ miles across the desert on my modified Honda CL450 through mostly sand with no problem.
* Did ride a BSA 4 stroke thumper all day in summer heat in english trials terain with no problem.
* Nice advantage of Desmo thumper is low internal power consumption at medium/slow speeds to whiz down the trail.
* 4 strokes are way double ought triple balls COOL. No problem.
My first “dirt bike” was a used 74′ XL100 bored to 125 from the local speed shop that I found in the Tradin Times. I was only a naive 7th grader (79′) so I thought I was steppin-up; hey it’s all about displacement, right?
That didn’t last long – every RM or YZ two stroker with nearly half the displacement was kicking my butt out in that dirt field. That’s the time I quickly learned about the 2 vs 4 debate.
I had to settle that argument once and for all at that hill, so I promptly picked up a CR480 the next go around in 82′. 😉
Nice to have memories of doing stuff when starting out, rather than remembering passwords and web sites, while all comfy indoors.
Awaiting moderation approval by Chief of the Neatness Commandos. Oky Doeky.
Hey! I had a CR480. Great woods bike. It had a heavy clutch pull and vibrated a bit. But man did thing ever work nice. Even the drum brakes were way more powerful than they had any right to be. Some dirt bike mag voted that particular bike and year to be one of the ten best bikes of all time.
The left hand kick had some of my less ambidextrous buddies hating the thing. But I replaced the 480 with a KTM 350EXC which also had a left hand kick. Theft deterant! 🙂 Kind of like having a manual transmission car now days. I burned a zillion gallons of gas through both those babies. I kind of wish someone would make another 350 long stroke two stroke. That was a sweet woods engine. Hook forth gear and ride all day in it. It would go from almost zero to about 50mph in forth gear. I even plated it and used it as a street bike once in a while. It was like getting away with murder.
I bought a 325 kit for one of my YZ 250s in the hope of something similar. But even though I ordered the torque monster edition it still came ported more for top end power than I was after. The old 350 was nice and dumb. If it was running at all, and it was hard to kill, it made great power.
Today – Testing, do not be afraid this is only a test.
* That is all.
If your hoping this video has any good images of the bike, dont waste your time.
I have warned you guys not to watch the videos. You will never get that time back. Nor can you unsee the images portrayed.
Friends don’t let friends watch promotional videos.
Or ride four strokes.
And if it was blue it would look like a Yamaha
It looks like a Honda how?
Because it’s a shade of red with Showa decals?
I am wondering if the Ducati dealers have any experience with motocross.
Maybe they’ll need to hire new staff that knows that kind of bike and riding.
How many Ducati dealers are there in the USA?
I Googled and came up with only 129, versus 964 Honda dealers.
Also wondering what the MSRP will be.
Well. The general frame lay-out is very similar to the Honda. Intake over the rear shock and center port exhaust are the same. Chain guide is almost identical. Metal fuel tank.
Ducatis are already copying Harleys. They have two cylinder arrayed in a V, fenders (front AND rear) and a metal gas tank…
Please look more closely at motocross bike design before commenting. I wasn’t referring to common design elements shared by all manufacturer. Only those specific to current Hondas. Also I didn’t write anything about copying. The question was why (or if) the Ducati looks like a Honda.
It’s exciting to see new manufacturers enter. Despite a history of winning in off-road racing, when KTM started participating in MX/SX they were the clear underdog. Roger DeCoster built a great team (both on and off the track) and gave the program the necessary focus, allowing Ryan Dungy to win their first SX championship.
I look forward to Ducati and Triumph putting together world class teams and making an impact on the sport. Riders who are supported by a factory team have clear advantages, and additional factory teams are good for both the riders and fans.
As noted above, these off-road programs are very different than the road racing programs where Ducati (and Triumph) have success. If they are able to raise to a competitive level, future products will improve from the experience.
Desmodromic valve train? Looks like a Honda.
Yes, Desmo. It seems to make the head pretty big. I wonder how hard it is to set the valves. Desmos generally aren’t as difficult as people seem to think they are and the rest of the faux stroke Moto bikes are a shim under bucket pain requiring cam removal.
I do my own Desmo valves on three bikes. But my bikes are two valvers. Four valves are the same with a bit less room to work.
And like a Honda it does have Showa suspension. Though it looks like they are going full mountain bike on the rake. It’s irrelevant to me. I ride carbureted two strokes, electric, or pedal. Four stroke dirt bikes need not apply.
MIck, many are not shim under bucket, instead use finger follower. I think for many who think to “take the cam out”, is so difficult, keep in mind most of all these engines are completely disassembled between races. Taking the cam out, is only one of the 200 steps in engine rebuilding. these are not the droids you are looking for.
I remember back in the day when I got into riding motorcycles off-road, one of the fears most riders had was if they were to need tearing down the top end of their 4-stroke dirt bike.
The extra steps of doing the cam timing was made out to be something to avoid if you could avoid it.
I think that you might be confusing the play bikes, finger followers, with the motocross bikes, cam under bucket. KTM was the last holdout. But that was over twenty years ago.
Further, there is a difference between the pro riders on 250Fs (gem encrusted maintainance nightmares) , pro riders on 450Fs (not nearly so much because they are overpowered and therefore more reliable), and everyday racers on either who often ride the thing until it won’t start because the valves are out again and break out the shim kit for the thousandth time. Dreading the day they need new valves. A lot of them ditch the Ti valves at that point and buy SS valves for better reliability.
I had some of these bikes and made ice race tracks for several years. I do have some exposure to the bikes and the guys who ride them.
John, I found that you can simply zip tie the cam chain onto the cam sprocket on most of those things and just move the cam out of the way far enough to get the job done. It saves a bit of time. But yeah, what a pain. Never again. Suboptimal equipment. All hail the mighty two stroke.
No play bike in the world has finger followers… It very much race bike design to enable more aggressive cam profiles. Furthermore Honda and KTM 450s are SOHC designs.
Geez GUU. I still have an XR650R. Big play bike. Though Honda did use those for their Baja bike. They have finger followers. I had a 525 KTM. The old RFS KTM was about the last finger follower high power four stroke. KTM went shim under bucket after the RFS. It’s a cult classic. My Honda CR450 was SOHC and shim under bucket. I’m not quite sure what significance SOHC has in this discussion. I’m just happy not to have to maintain any of those things anymore.
You are confusing technologies and/or terms. A finger follower is a relatively new development. For example the Kawasaki ZX10R got it for 2019. Finger follower replaces the bucket in the valve train for less mass and more aggressive cam profiles.
The bikes you mentioned had rocker arms. More weight and less aggressive cam profiles compared to even bucket design.
Good on you for abandoning four-strokes, but that doesn’t mean that they are not developing all the time.
It does look like a Honda, doesn’t it.
On the surface it seems like they are not trying to reinvent the chassis. Though they do seem to have more rake than the rest of the market. The head looks huge, making me wonder about ease of service. The seat looks a bit low, and not flat, but maybe their test rider is short.
Whatever, a faux stroke. It would be nice to see a real dirt bike from them. But I’ll not hold my breath.
Most of the four stroke guys I know that don’t weigh over 300 pounds ride 350s or big bore kitted 250s now days. So I’m wondering if perhaps they will eventually make a regular guy four stroke for those so inclined. Or like a lot of other attempts. Maybe these guys and Triumph won’t be in the dirt bike business for very long. I ride carbureted two strokes so I’ve pretty much been sentenced to the used bike market for life at this point. But that’s OK.
ROFL “faux stroke”
Geez just go live with the Amish and have a horse cart.
While it’s true that the Amish deny themselves the joy of riding a proper two stroke, poor guys. At least they don’t fall down the rathole of racing four strokes. A fate worse than death.
A guy’s gotta think that those dudes got a huge posse of hot babes keeping them honest. That or they’re almost ae weird as the four stroke guys.
I just recently picked up a Beta 200 rr, a carbureted 2-stroke. Currently the hottest enduro available. Maybe you should look into that. Heck, the Sherco 250 and 300 are also carb’d.
I rode a Beta test ride day summer. I thought the 200RR was the best one in stock form. For some reason I had to shift the 250 and 300 more often. On the 200 I rode most of the test loop in forth gear and the bike was happy to do it. Good bike for a long Enduro. You can hold a great pace for hours without wearing yourself out. You get on the box at an Enduro by finishing strong.
The only thing I thought was missing was that I didn’t get the feeling that I was riding an overachieving 125, which I was kind of hoping for. It didn’t feel that much smaller or lighter than the bigger bikes. It just felt like they really nailed the setup on that one. Nice bike!