Cucciolo and Cucciolo Derivitives - Photos

This photo gallery is dedicated to the little motor that for Ducati, changed everything, the Siata designed clip on engine known as the "Cucciolo" or Little Pup in translation. I have included photos of Cucciolo derivitives as well, bikes that evolved from the clip on but weren't quite motorcycles yet. (So bikes preceeding the Ducati 98 would be found in this gallery). The hope is that these photos will help guide future restorations and get more of these little bikes out where others can enjoy them.

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You will notice both Siata and Ducati logos present on the very early examples. Siata was primarily an automotive racing engine company who's engineer Aldo Farinelli designed the engine to be mounted on a bicycle and a few pre-production examples were built by Siata. They couldn't keep up with production demand given the circumstances of the post war times and Ducati was given license to produce the engine which it had the capacity to manufacturer in great numbers. Soon after they re-designed it which became the model T2 which was the first actual Ducati design.