FACTORY VISIT. FANTASTIC
 

I have just reurned from my holiday to Tuscany in Italy.
Whilst there we made the 3 hour trip to the Ducati Factory in Bologna.
I expected the factory to be on a huge plot of land, on its own, with Ducati flags and signs outside.
Oh no! It is accesed, by practically turning down a side street, with a cafe on the corner!!!!
Anyway, things soon changed, after parking up and walking through the gate house, and on up to the Ducati Cafe.
All the cafe staff wore red T-Shirts, and the walls have huge pictures of Capirosi.
I was at this point getting very excited.
The tour is split up into different languages, and starts at the engine casing section.
The engine casings are brought in, and machined, were the loose 40 per cent, of there original weight!
Then each engine is assembled by one person.It takes 1 hour to build a 4 valve engine, and at the end of the assembly that person has to sign documents to say that they have built that particular engine.
The engine is then turned over in a testing booth at no more than 2000rpm. If a fault is detected, the engine can then be traced back to who built it. They are then asked to explain why a fault occured, and told to remedy it!!!
Nice to hear,that the engines alone are not just assembled, but care and attention is taken.
Moving throgh the factory you see all the various stages of build and testing. Including a section were the Desmodeci engine are built.
After the factory tour,you are then taken up to the museum.Inside you will see a fantastic collection of Ducatis, starting athe beginning, right up to the latest race bikes.
The star attraction for me was having my picture taken next to Capirosi,s 2003 GP bike.
You can also go to the staff shop, were leathers and bikes can be bought.
They display two prices, one is for visitors, and the other is for staff. We where told that staff, receive 30 per cent discount on everything, including bikes!!
Anyway, if you are thinking about a visit. DO IT.
All this prior to my Red 749 arriving next week, I hope.

Regards

Peter G

We had a DSC organised trip earlier in the year - 33 of us went in the end and had lunch in the canteen with the staff!

An excellent day out, with cheap flights (approx 20 quid return) through Ryanair and car hire (10 quid per head) through Hertz.

Some pics of the day here:
http://public.fotki.com/DucatiRacer/

Looks like Everton's next bike to me:lol:

When is the next one? :D

Sound like a stunning day out, wife has always wanted to go to Italy!!
Hope to be picking my red 749 up this afteroon, fingers crossed!!:burn:
Happy running in!!

Did the tour while at WDW2002,it was brilliant,i would recommend it to any Duke fan!! The only problem was the 42 decree c heatwave they were having!!

Ducati Kip

Good luck with the 749.
Let me know what you think?

Cheers
Peter G

Thanks, I'll let you know how it goes. Just posted a reply to your thread re Termi's & Arrows as well.

I've been looking at the flights recently, but Ryanair have changed their schedule so there is no longer a morning flight to Italy. The return flight is also later in the evening I think.

This means that you'd only get half a day out there, so only really the chance to do the factory visit and probably miss out on a lunch as well.

I'll have a look round at other flight options and try to work something out...

Easyjet fly to Rimini, what they doing mate?

Also check if this is a summer timetable Ant...