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To celebrate 100 years of Ducati, the Italian manufacturer created 10 special-edition motorcycles inspired by some of the most important moments in its history. In this video, Adam Child picks three standout machines and explains why they matter, from the legendary 1972 Ducati 750 Imola Desmo to the wild 1977 Ducati 750 Super Sport “California Hot Rod” and the classic 1962 Ducati 250 Scrambler. It’s a look at the racing heritage, design evolution, and stories that helped shape Ducati into one of motorcycling’s most iconic brands.

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Transcript
00:00Welcome to Cycleworld, welcome to Bologna. This is the heart of Ducati. Just behind there
00:06is the actual factory where they still produce bikes. But what we're doing today is celebrating
00:12a hundred years of Ducati. And to do that, Ducati have produced 10 liveries of very special bikes.
00:20What we're going to do at Cycleworld is briefly look at all 10, but I'm going to pick out my
00:25top
00:25three. So without any further ado, let's go check out bike number one. I guess for the USA,
00:31we have to start with the iconic Scrambler. 1962, Ducati launched a specific bike just for the USA
00:38market. And it was a 250 single cylinder Scrambler. And that kind of launched Ducati
00:44into the US. And to celebrate that, Ducati have replicated that on their current Scrambler.
00:50So we've got the lovely blue livery. And even blue on the swinging arm. We've got blue on the
00:56foot peg holders. We've got the original coloured on the wheels. We've got the original kind of logo.
01:01And this is going to be available just 100 units with matching helmet and matching jacket.
01:06But what it makes it for me so special is the detail that Ducati have gone to,
01:10because it's the exact original blue. Everything has been done one off. And it's not just a case of
01:16getting blue paint and painting the tank because you're going to have to use a different blue to
01:20match it for the frame. A different blue again for the swinging arm. The one off old school logo.
01:26It's an absolute little beauty. And it just celebrates when Ducati first went to the USA
01:31with that 250 Scrambler that kind of is now written in the history books. But if you think this
01:37is pretty special, let's look at the bike that celebrates the Daytona win. We've already seen
01:43the iconic Scrambler and that kind of launched Ducati in the US market. But Ducati were kind of
01:48synonymous with producing single cylinders. But that kind of all changed in Daytona in 1977.
01:54Cycle magazine editors Cook Nelson and Phil Schilling bought a 1974 Ducati 750 Supersport and made it into
02:02a super bike racer, launching the Italian marks performance reputation in the US. Dubbed the California
02:08Hot Rod and later Old Blue. The bike ridden by Nelson won the 1977 Daytona Superbike race. It is
02:15perhaps the most important Ducati V-twin behind Paul Smart's 1972 Imola 200 winning machine and helped
02:22establish the worldwide performance reputation and certainly cemented Ducati's performance
02:26reputation in the States. And to celebrate that kind of benchmark when Ducati were now known as a race
02:33winning team, we produced the ex-Diavol V4 in this iconic kind of colour scheme that I think looks
02:39really beautiful in the kind of blue and silver. But it's not just a case of just painting a bike
02:45blue and silver. There's some nice little duchess to this, like the bronze on the top here, the bronze
02:49calipers, which is the only time you'll ever find a bronze caliper on any bike. Brembo are not going to
02:55do this on any other motorcycle. Again, we've got matching crash helmet, we've got the matching jacket
02:59to go with the bike and they're going to produce in 100 numbers only. I think it's really beautiful.
03:05It's not something I was expecting, but I think it really works. And again, it's another landmark and
03:10another step in Ducati's history in the USA. We've looked at the iconic Scrambler, which was the first
03:16bike to move Ducati into America. We've looked at the famous Daytona Win in 77 and this is just my
03:23favourite of the collection. This is obviously the Desmond 1972 Paul Smart replica, the bike that won
03:32the famous Imola race, which really put Ducati up there on the top shelf. At the time, MV and Ago
03:39were winning everything and Paul Smart and his team came together at Imola and it was the first time
03:44they kind of beat MV in their home ground. But even if you forget about the history and even if
03:48you forget
03:49about the legend that is Paul Smart, who is a real dear friend and a true gent. The bike just
03:54itself
03:55is absolutely fantastic. To get this paintwork must have been an incredibly difficult job.
04:02They replicated everything from the classic green frame colour to the swinging arm, even the glitter
04:07on the rear stand. They're going to be producing 100 again replicas of this bike and there is a Paul
04:13Smart helmet and a Paul Smart jacket to match. The helmet and jacket are absolutely beautiful.
04:18It's just such an iconic bike. This bike is probably one of the most famous bikes in Ducati's history.
04:24It really put Ducati out there as a race winning brand. Nice little touches like the dry clutch,
04:31we've got the termi pipes and this is the V4S model so we've got the semi-active suspension. I'm
04:36unsure how many of these bikes are actually ever going to be ridden but I'd really hope somebody
04:40somewhere takes this on track and just really enjoys it. It is an absolutely beautiful work of art.
04:47It must have been an incredible difficult job but a really enjoyable task to pick 10 iconic liveries
04:55and to put it on 10 different bikes. There's arguments for should there be a Foggy, a Casey
05:02Stone, a Valentino, an 851, an 888, a Paso. There's so many bikes in Ducati's range over those 100 years.
05:09But I think Ducati have done an amazing job of producing such iconic liveries across the range
05:16of all different models. For each model there's going to be 100 units in very limited numbers that
05:22are going to be available after Mugello MotoGP to some very limited special customers and bikes are
05:29going to be in production around November and we hopefully should start to see a few bikes after
05:35that. It's really difficult to be able to pick my top three but if I had the money and the
05:41wife would
05:42let me then it'd definitely be a smart replica. Hope you've really enjoyed it we're going to throw
05:47in a load of b-roll of these absolute beautiful bikes and all the livery and all the accessories.
05:52What a great way to celebrate a hundred years of Ducati.
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