2006 Paul Smart Ducati 1000LE

In 1972, racer Paul Smart played a crucial role in shaping Ducati’s future by winning the Imola 200 race aboard a new and powerful 750cc twin-cylinder machine from the Italian factory. Smart’s impact cannot be overstated, and in 2006, Ducati paid homage to the man by releasing the one-year-only SportClassic Paul Smart 1000LE. With only 2,000 of the retro/modern machines built for the global market, the LE poignantly stands for Limited Edition, and Wisconsin Ducati enthusiast Gary Heinitz owns one of them.

Gary’s motorcycling story will sound familiar to those who grew up in the late 1960s and early 1970s when minibikes and youngsters went together like peanut butter and jam. With money saved from his job caddying at a Milwaukee country club, Gary first bought a bare-bones Sears minibike. A Honda SL125 followed, then a Kawasaki KH500H1.

Learning about Ducati

“In Cycle magazine, I got more involved reading about what Ducati had done,” Gary says, and continues, “Specifically, what Paul Smart had done in Italy in 1972 on that amazing Ducati 750SS. I’m a kid from Milwaukee, and we didn’t know anything about European motorcycles here, where it was either Harley-Davidson or Honda. I started reading and I was impressed about how this little Italian motorcycle company built this amazing two-cylinder motorcycle and went out and kicked everybody’s butt. At that point, I got a taste for wanting to try something new.”

In 1981, Gary laid out $4,100 for a Ducati 900SS, and “that was a lot of money,” he emphasizes. He absolutely loved that motorcycle, which he was told was a rare machine to have in the U.S. He rode it everywhere and enjoyed attending bike shows where people always asked him questions. Gary told them as much as he could about Ducati, and he was obviously a proud owner. “But then my wife and I started having more children, and I’d started my own business, and it just got too hard to afford that motorcycle,” he recalls. “So, I sold it in 1986 and essentially got out of bikes for a few years after that.”

After the kids had grown a bit and Gary’s business found its footing, however, he began to collect Ducatis, and his first was a brand new 1997 916. Unlike in the early 1980s when Gary was a loner on his Italian-made machine, he now found plenty of others who were dedicated to the brand. They were using them for track days, and in 2003, one of his friends started the Wisconsin Area Ducati Enthusiasts club, or WADE. The club is now known as Wisconsin Ducati Owners, or WDO. Shortly after its formation, Gary became president of the group that numbered close to 100 members in the early 2000s.

“All of a sudden, I was deeply involved with the Ducati people, and went to Italy numerous times for World Ducati Week and got more exposure to the brand,” he says. “As a result, I kind of got a heads-up on what was going to be coming out over the next couple of years, and they were telling me about the SportClassics, and that really piqued my interest. As soon as it was available, I put my money down on a Paul Smart because I thought that was one of the coolest things I’d seen in a long time, especially because of the Paul Smart connection.”

For those unfamiliar with Ducati’s history, the manufacturer built primarily smaller-bore single-cylinder machines after World War II up until the late 1960s, with a 450cc being the largest. By this juncture, other manufacturers were steadily increasing motorcycle engine sizes and in multi-cylinder layouts, such as the BSA/Triumph 750 triples and the Honda CB750 Four.

A Ducati publication about the PS1000LE in Gary’s collection of materials highlights the early development of the manufacturer’s twin-cylinder engine. “Although Ducati had been successful racing single cylinder bikes for years, by the late 1960s it was apparent to Ingenere [Fabio, or Dr. T] Taglioni that to be competitive in the larger displacement classes, a new engine was called for.”

Ducati writers continue, “Resisting the temptation to develop more power with four-, five-, and six-cylinder engines as was the trend, Dr. T sought a better idea. A design that could not only win races, but also power a production motorcycle — the Ducati 90-degree L-Twin.” To not only win races but be relevant in the marketplace, Ducati needed a solution, and it looked not too far into its past for an answer.

The Apollo project begets the L-twin

In the late 1950s, responding to a request from American Ducati importers Berliner Motor Corp. for a powerful machine suited for touring or police use, Ducati designer Taglioni developed a 1,260cc air-cooled, 90-degree L4 engine housed in an open-cradle duplex frame. Two running prototypes were built, with two extra engines, and one of the machines was delivered to Berliner in the spring of 1964. The project was shelved, though, after it became apparent the engine was ultimately too powerful, and with the tire technology of the day, the rear rubber couldn’t cope with the power.

But it wasn’t for naught. To create a larger capacity multi-cylinder machine in early 1970, Taglioni drafted a new L-twin engine, reminiscent of the Apollo layout minus the other two cylinders. This twin had an 80mm by 74.4mm bore and stroke with cast-iron liners in alloy cylinders attached to a vertically split crankcase with four studs per cylinder. From the crankshaft, overhead camshafts were driven by helically cut bevel gears. Primary drive from the crank to the 5-speed transmission was also by helically cut gears. With the motor as a stressed member in a tubular steel frame, Ducati debuted its new 750GT model in 1971 at the Olympia motorcycle show in London.

Modifying the 750GT platform, Taglioni installed a desmodromic valve system on several engines to positively control the intake and exhaust valves. Using this new desmo 750, Ducati built seven race motorcycles and appeared with them on April 23, 1972, at the Imola 200. To pilot the new Ducati, Barry Sheene had initially been approached but declined. Ducati found English racer Paul Smart, who admitted he knew little about Ducati, more amenable to the prospect. He and teammate Bruno Spaggiari raced the new factory-built desmo-engine Ducati twins and took Imola in first and second place, respectively.

“Paul Smart’s historic Imola 200 victory in 1972 on the 750 Imola Desmo marked the beginning of the modern Ducati racing era and the emergence of the big-bore twin, sport bike dynasty,” reads a circa 2006 Ducati brochure featuring the Paul Smart 1000LE. “The new Paul Smart Limited Edition is a tribute to Smart’s victory and the timeless styling of his silver racer.”

Paul Smart 1000LE

Cycle World editor Mark Hoyer penned a piece in the May 2006 issue of the magazine about the new Paul Smart 1000, or PS1000, and said, “This bike exists precisely to suck us in, to tweak our nostalgia, even if not everyone was around (or aware) when Paul Smart ripped up Imola for 200 miles to take the epic 1972 race win that put Ducati on the V-Twin sportbike map.” He continued, “Actually, there wasn’t really even a V-Twin sportbike map at that point! Well, there is one now, and Bologna is right in the center of it.”

The beating heart of the PS1000 is a 992cc L-twin engine with two valves per cylinder actuated by desmo drive. According to Cycle World, the twin placed 84 horsepower at the rear wheel through a 6-speed transmission. There’s no question this is a “modern” motorcycle, as it’s equipped with an ECU and 45mm throttle bodies with Marelli fuel injection.

Designed by Pierre Terblanche, the PS1000 echoed many elements of the machine ridden by Smart in Imola. Notably, the green (Ducati calls this color blue) trellis frame, and the silver bodywork. Updates include the Ã-hlins 43mm fully adjustable inverted front forks and the Ã-hlins monoshock suspended rear swingarm, which consists of a beefy set of tubes. The two 17-inch wire-spoke wheels feature polished alloy rims with twin-piston Brembo calipers all around acting on twin 320mm discs up front and a solo 245mm rotor out back.

Only a single saddle was offered, and some of the pieces, such as the chain guard with integrated lower rear fender, were produced in carbon fiber. From the factory, the PS1000 came with dual fairing-mounted rear-view mirrors and a clear windscreen over the six warning lamps and dual white-faced analog instruments, speedometer on the left and tachometer on the right. Controls on the clip-on bars have the starter button on the right.

Of the start-up procedure, Hoyer wrote, “All one does is tap the starter button to activate the firing sequence — the ECU completes cranking until the engine starts. We balked at this kind of automation at first, but the engine running is so consistent that you don’t really have cause to want to adjust anything.” Humorously, he added, “Go set the floats on your ’74’s Dell’Ortos if you get bored with the perfect running of the Smart Replica.”

Paul Smart’s defining race

There’s a great article penned by the legendary Kevin Cameron about Paul Smart (April 23, 1943-October 27, 2021) posted on Cycle World‘s website November 15, 2021. In that piece, Cameron recalls finding himself together with English racer Cliff Carr in Italy for the Imola 200 in 1972. When the pair met Smart, who began racing in the late 1960s, they asked what he was set to ride. “It’s some kind of new Ducati,” Cameron reports Smart said. “I haven’t even seen it yet. They’re telling me it makes power at 9,750! Is that even possible?” Cameron goes on to explain that Smart, who was turning 29 on the day of the race, hadn’t volunteered for the ride. Instead, Maggie, his wife, picked up the receiver when Ducati dialed and told them he’d be happy to take the controls. “Why was he so surprised at 9,750rpm?” Cameron adds, and continues, “Because he’d come up in the world of Manx Nortons that were shaking hard at 7,200 and breaking crankpins too often. And Triumph/BSA triples, such as the one he’d ridden to a compression-overheated DNF at Daytona in the year before, revving to 8,500.” At the ’72 Imola 200, it was believed MV Agusta-mounted Giacomo Agostini would take the race. Cameron notes, “He did lead, then stopped.” That allowed Smart and teammate Bruno Spaggiari to take first and second place. “Quite rightly, to this day, Ducati’s spectacular entry into the ranks of big, superfast bike builders is associated with Paul Smart,” Cameron concludes.

Taking delivery

Gary waited a year after putting his money down, but when his 2006 Paul Smart 1000LE landed at Corse Superbikes late in 2005 in Saukville, Wisconsin, he says, “I loved it, but it was a little too quiet for me, so I put accessory Termignoni pipes on it, just to make it sound a bit nicer.”

“And there was one thing that I thought was missing on the bike,” Gary continues. “It didn’t have the green stripe that Paul Smart’s original race bike had on it. So, what I did, I took it to my body guy with pictures of Paul Smart’s race bike and had the green stripes painted on to resemble what his bike looked like.” The stripe runs down the gas tank and picks up on the rear tail section, and the lower half of the fairing is also green. The original PS1000 is completely silver. Gary also removed the fairing-mounted mirrors and installed Rizoma bar-end units.

While collecting Ducatis, Gary managed to find and purchase another 1981 900SS. What he enjoys doing is heading out first on the 900SS, only to return home and switch to the PS1000. “I feel nostalgic on the ’81, I hear the sounds, feel the pull of the engine and enjoy the long wheelbase on it. Then I jump on the Paul Smart and ride that, and it just feels so much fresher than the old 900SS. But, strangely enough, there are similarities. You can feel the bloodline from one bike to the other.”

Specifically, he references the slightly longer wheelbase of the PS1000 over other Ducatis of the more modern era. “With it being longer, it takes more of a push to get it to tip into a corner, which is like the old Super Sports. And the sound of the engine is also similar, that sound is so sweet. Ergonomics are also similar. They are both not comfortable bikes to ride, but you don’t care because it is a joy to be flipping it around in twisty corners.”

Gary is 6 feet 4 inches tall, however, “So any motorcycle that I must lay out on, my knees, elbows, and ears end up in the same general place on both of those bikes. But it’s irrelevant because I’m enjoying the ride.” Now living in the town of Erin, Wisconsin, Gary enjoys riding some spectacular rural two-lane blacktop roads. “If you ignored the road signs, you’d think you were in Europe somewhere,” he adds, “and it’s nothing for buddies and me to put a 500-mile ride on in a day.”

With 6,500 miles on his PS1000, the bike has never let him down. He performs all his own routine maintenance and has never blown up an engine. “Fuel pumps go, tires, brakes, that’s nothing,” he says. “And I don’t understand why some people say Ducatis are expensive to maintain. If you don’t take care of them, sure. But if you take care of the maintenance and you watch everything, they’re not that expensive.”

For Gary, who loves both his first 1981 900SS Ducati and the one he bought to replace it, the PS1000 makes him believe he’s riding a bike from 30 or 40 years ago. “But it has modern conveniences. My ’81 is a kicker, and you’ve got to tickle the carbs and play with the throttle and choke to get it running. This is fuel injected, it doesn’t hiccup, and it starts at the push of a button,” he explains. “It’s like the 900 has evolved into the Paul Smart, which offers rail-smooth riding. It’s not nimble, but it’s very smooth and direct. Pierre Terblanche got it right, but I wouldn’t take it across the country.”

Finally, Gary says, “I like it simply because it’s recalling those amazing days when Paul Smart put Ducati on the map. If it wasn’t for him, who knows where Ducati would be today.” MC