Ducati Sebring

The Ducati Sebring is a 340 cc single cylinder, bevel drive, single overhead camshaft motorcycle that Ducati built in Italy from 1965 to 1968. Ducati's main market then was the United States, and its American importer, Berliner Motor Corporation, asked for a bigger machine than the 250 cc singles designed by Fabio Taglioni. Taglioni stretched the 250 to 340 cc but doubted the strength of its bottom end, so the engine was kept in a mild state of tune with soft camshafts, small valves and a restrictive 24 mm carburettor. Ducati named models after circuits where it had won, and the Sebring took its name from a race at Sebring in which works rider Franco Farne won the 350 class on a racing machine that had little in common with the road bike. It claimed 20 horsepower and a top speed of about 125 km/h, and was the largest Ducati of its day. Production of the original model ended in 1967 when the wide case Mark 3 arrived, though just over 200 more were built in 1968 with the wide case engine. Around 3,500 were made in all, many of them sold cheaply in Britain after Berliner refused a consignment in 1967.