The next new Ducati engine to appear after the Ducati Apollo was the 90°V twin, initial Grand Prix racing versions being 500 cc, and the production bikes were 750 cc. There was also the Ducati 750 Imola Desmo that won at Imola in 1972. These engines had bevel gear shaft drive to the overhead camshaft, and were produced in round, square, and Mille crankcases. In the 1980s these gave way to the belt drive camshaft engines that have continued to this day, in air and liquid cooled form. The Mille used a plain bearing crank, like the belt models.
V-Twin or L-Twin
Generally, any two-cylinder motorcycle engine with its two cylinders at an equidistant opposite angles from the center rotation of the crankshaft is referred to as a V-twin.
The Ducati V-twin is unique in that the "V" is tilted forward so the front cylinder is nearly parallel to the ground, leading many to refer to it as an "L-Twin" engine instead. Either usage is correct since a "V-twin" engine is not designated by a specific angle.
L-twin refers, in fact, to a configuration with a 90 degree angle between the two cylinders, where the forward cylinder is nearly parallel to the ground.
L-twin refers, in fact, to a configuration with a 90 degree angle between the two cylinders, where the forward cylinder is nearly parallel to the ground.
Two valve engines
Ducati engineer, Fabio Taglioni, once said that when they started building the plain bearing crank, belt driven camshaft engines, instead of the old ball bearing crank,
