Ducati Cucciolo

The Ducati Cucciolo was a four-stroke clip-on engine for motorized bicycles, conceived during and shortly after the Second World War by the Turin lawyer Aldo Farinelli and developed with the self-taught engineer Aldo Leoni at the firm Siata. The first prototype ran on the streets of Turin in the autumn of 1944, and the small pushrod engine weighed a little over 7.7 kg. When demand outran Siata's capacity, Ducati of Borgo Panigale took on production under licence, building from 15 units in 1946 to over 25,000 in the years that followed and later holding the exclusive agreement. By 1952 about 200,000 had been sold, and Ducati then used it in its own complete mopeds and light motorcycles until the 98 line replaced it.