Ducati's Motorcycle: a Combination of Technology and Fashion

Tim Ingold’s idea of “thinking through making” explores the manufacturers' thinking processes and the products they use are in a continuous communication cycle and are becoming through each other.

Ingold claims that imagination arises from a continuous improvisational cycle involving creators, resources, and other non-human objects, such as their tools and their surrounding environment. These non-human beings play a vital role in influencing the maker’s thinking process and vice versa. Content development and learning transpire between these powers from within dynamic and reciprocal relationships.

This indicates that creative concepts and items such as artworks are not created by humans expressing ready-made thoughts on the materials as this method “leaves out the very creativity of the process where both things and ideas are generated on one hand in the flows and transformations of materials of the make”. Artworks are bursts of materialized frequency that represent a much broader, vast, and constantly integrated network of relationships. Ingold contests the properties of creativity and how creativity itself is produced.

So how do artworks, installations, materials, and products speak back and influence the thought process of humans? This essay will examine Tim Ingold’s ideology and statement of “thinking through making” using the topic of motorcycles and motorcycle manufacture, specifically through the Ducati brand and its line-up.

The roots of the Ducati group are not in bikes or vehicles but in electrical parts. Originally, the three Ducati brothers in Italy started producing parts for electrical systems at their company based in 1926. When the Second World War broke out, and Italy needed the means to generate the vehicles necessary for its war machine, it seized the company of the Ducati brothers and forced them to move to the production of motorcycles. It would not be until 1946, after the war, that the company produced its first motorized vehicle. This first effort consisted of an add-on 50cc motor mounted to a bicycle, known as “Cucciolo” (cub), which was very different from the machines that make Ducati known today.

Cucciolo as stated above consisted of a motor attachment mounted to the pedals of a regular bicycle. For contemporary Italians, a “motorino” means a scooter or a motorbike, but initially, it meant a compact auxiliary vehicle. So when the Cucciolo was conceived, nobody was thinking about its potential appearance. It was packaged in a box, along with a can-shaped container that acted as a fuel tank and a wide lever with the drive gear that was incorporated inside the axle. It could be mounted to your common bicycle, but the installation could only be achieved by a qualified technician. Evolving, it’s pedals were dismounted, creating the very first lightweight motorcycle. The discovery changed the vision of the Cucciolo (cub), making it a breakthrough in transport and ever-evolving technology.

The Cucciolo is an example of birth, from an exclusive precision engineering tradition which established the knowledge of Ducati’s engines, and eventually led it to motorcycle design control. The “cucciolo” was a step into the future of a two-wheeled motorized vehicle which “enhanced its scope, and symbolized an improved quality of life”.

Being a high-performance, highly successful motorcycle racing team, as well as dominating the commercial market has proved to be a winning strategy for Ducati. Ducati is a relatively small company with around seven hundred and twenty-five employees. This allows Ducati to manage its design and manufacturing processes accordingly. It does this by promoting cross-departmental collaboration with its internal teams in order to produce the best possible results in motorcycle development and racing. Its operating environment is formal compared to competitors. Having departments allocated under the same roof, the company has a siloed feel to it, enticing the idea of secrecy. Ducati operates only with top graduates. People who recognize themselves as a brotherhood, sharing an intense passion for motorcycle history and design. The company incorporates three main principles in which are believed to be fundamental and crucial for the continuous progression and succession of the brand. These being “a data-driven approach to problem-solving, a clear priority in solving problems, and frequent face-to-face communication”. The value of face-to-face interaction cannot be overlooked, and being a small organization, it can very well take advantage of having a small floor plan, more direct personal connections, and close geography to enable more productive operations.

Where does the manufacturing process begin? No manufacturing is initiated before data has been correctly analyzed. The quality of street bikes was positively influenced by the achievements on the circuit, which were loosely intertwined with sales. The two played well together as Ducati knew that they boosted off-track revenue while they continued to win in races. Ducati’s accomplishments were a result of the enthusiasm of Ducati technicians for their work, their meticulous commitment to the design process, and a well-defined, developed method known as the “Ducati method”. The “Ducati method” has continued to contribute to a modular design by systematic use of CAD and modeling software to refine the model prior to the physical development of the parts, accompanied by rigorous testing to verify the overall layout. Processing, understanding, and using real-time data is a complex task which Ducati technicians have engaged in, with the support of other administrations. Employing feedback from racers, video recordings of each race, track assessments, competition performance data, and practical information from on-bike sensors. Monitoring the data from the track, technicians were capable of identifying issues that would deem impossible to find in simulations. This type of data is exceptional for evaluating relative performance, determining structural stress loads, drive train torque, and temperatures within specific internal components. This data could however be strongly influenced by varied drivers, driver skills, and environmental conditions.

Due to the high value of mechanical components or even uncovered motors in motorcycle fashion, designers will almost always be more prone to and conscious of technology than typical car designers would be. In OEM (original equipment manufacture) cases, large teams of professional engineers and experts work together to create each product, allowing the designer to concentrate on the more abstract or personal aspects of design, such as fashion, and human-machine interaction dynamics, and customer and cultural connections.