1979 900 Ducati GTS Models

Two Friends, Two Ducatis

By Clement Salvadori
Updated on June 13, 2024
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by Michael Blunden

A mildly curious bike, this 900 Ducati GTS, as it was never fully appreciated by sport-riding Americans, who were lusting after Japanese multis in the late 1970s. With some reason, as it wasn’t really all new (just an improved 860), with no real change in the engine. But as an all-around touring machine it did garner a number of repeatable quotes.

One that I can’t find now said something like this: The 900 GTS is a better choice than a Harley for any touring rider who likes big V-twins. Should we choose to ignore the fact that the Duke was powered by an overhead cam V-twin of 90 degrees (actually an L-twin), while the Harley was a OHV V-twin of 45 degrees. No figures on how many Milwaukee fans switched to Bologna, Italy.

The backstory

Before World War II, the three Ducati brothers had a very successful business building radios — but that got flattened by Allied bombers in 1944. After the war they decided to get in the motorbike business and in 1946 had made a 48cc clip-on 4-stroke engine for bicycles. Their first full-fledged motorbike was the Ducati 60 in 1949, and onwards and upwards. Then in 1954 Ducati hired Fabio Taglioni, a brilliant engineer who saw the advantage of overhead camshafts. In 1955 his OHC 98cc Gran Sport single put out 9 horsepower at 9,000rpm and was clocked at 87mph. The market for racing bikes was notable, and Taglioni developed the Desmodromic valve system.

For those few readers not familiar with the Desmo tech, all it did was improve the closing of valves. Traditionally, valves were closed by springs, which operation relied on the strength of the springs, while Desmos used a complicated (but effective) mechanical closure. Singles grew to 125, 250, 350 and in 1969 came the 450, in both Desmo and valve-spring versions, with a true capacity of 436cc.

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