TAGLIONI AND DUCATI
THIRTEEN CLASSIC YEARS
Left: Ralph Bryans on Honda’s 1965 RC115 twin-cylinder four-stroke
Right: Hugh Anderson laps Gerhard Thurow and his Kreidler in the Dutch TT
single, with a power output of
8.5hp@13,500rpm and a top speed of
137km/h. In 1967 Suzuki’s RK67 with a two-
stroke, water-cooled, parallel twin motor
had 14-gears producing 17.5hp@17,300rpm
The 1970 Derbi 50 came later at
15.5hp@15,000rpm with a top speed of
170km/h; a water-cooled, single cylinder
two-stroke engine that is said to have been
a ‘watchmaker’s delight’.
So, what happened to these engineering
masterpieces? Maybe no one wanted
50cc machines for the road, in which
case manufacturers had no incentive to
produce them for the race track either.
The World Championship statistics show
that European riders won twenty-five of
the twenty-eight 50cc and 80cc World
Championships, the remaining three
Ralph Bryans from Ireland with one, and
Hugh Anderson from New Zealand with
two were the exception. Hugh also won
the Isle of Man TT on the 50cc Suzuki.
Will we see the likes of these engineering
masterpieces again? Maybe at a special
Classic Meeting would be the best bet.
It is worth noting that Hugh Anderson’s
fastest lap in the 1964 50cc Isle of Man
TT was 81.3mph. In the 500cc race Mike
Hailwood on an MV Agusta set a fastest
lap of 102.51mph. So, riding a machine ten
times the cubic capacity of Hugh’s Suzuki,
Mike recorded a fastest lap at just over
20mph faster. Which brings me back to the
question… is bigger always better?
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