REVIVAL...
After WWII, new names such as Ducati started to come into the limelight. Originally, the manufacturer's machines were little more than bicycles with clip-on power plants. With the arrival of designer Fabio Taglioni to the company in 1954, however, things began to change - dramatically! Taglioni in essence reinvented the manufacturer's line-up by introducing a single-cylinder motorcycle with a shaft-driven overhead cam that would become the blueprint for all of Ducati's machines.
He also implemented the "Desmodromic" valve gear - which uses the camshaft instead of springs to close the valves - to the Ducati's race bikes and, later, road-going machines.



As moderately priced motorcycles that required little maintenance became more popular after the War, companies began flooding the market with streetbikes. Scooters, which had enjoyed a period of popularity back in the 1920s, also were making a revival of sorts, thanks in part to fashion- and cost-conscious customers. Also spurring the scooter's re-emergence was the availability of surplus "folding bikes" that had been dropped via parachutes and used by airmen during the War.
Effects of the conflict were being felt all across the country. The call for cheap transportation found people with skills gained while manufacturing armaments now working to produce enough

scooters and motorcycles to keep up with the demand.
Innocenti and Piaggio, makers of the Lambretta and Vespa, respectively, were just two of the manufacturers to take advantage at the time. Available at a fraction of the price of a full-sized motorcycle, scooters were economical and still offered enough power to keep up with day-to-day traffic in most areas. The height of the machine's popularitycame during the '50s and early '60s.



Unfortunately, as the scooter craze started to wane, the state of the overall motorcycle market in Italy began to deteriorate as well during the '60s. Some of motorcycling's first and most well-known manufacturers -Bianchi, Benelli, Gilera, MV Agusta and many others - started to feel the crunch of a shrinking market.



As the '70s dawned on the motorcycle community, Italian manufacturers that were still producing bikes saw a demand for larger-displacement machines. As a result, the likes of Ducati, Moto Guzzi and Laverda all began taking advantage of the call for big bike and attempted to make a name for themselves by exporting machines to foreign countries. All the while, the manufacturers' interests inside Italy were protected thanks to import restrictions.
» next