Ducati’s versatile Vee
Ducati makes some cracking V4 models these days, but the firm’s trademark engine layout is unchanged: two big cylinders, arranged at 90 degrees and set in line with the bike, with top-ends employing the desmodromic system of positive valve closure. It’s as much a Bolognese signature as a bowl of spaghetti with meat-and-tomato sauce.
And of the desmo V-twins of recent years, the most successful and widely used has been the dohc, eight-valve unit that Ducati calls