Oscar Egg 1948 Ducati Cucciolo T2

The first prototype Cucciolo, the T1, is a wonderful collectors item but the design was flawed and it 's not very usable. The T2, the 1948 model used here by Oscar Egg, was the revised version manufactured by Ducati themselves and is a machine that can be ridden to
its full potential. To quote the Ducati Museum:

In the middle of WWII a designer named Aldo Farinelli developed the prototype of an auxiliary motor to be mounted on a bicycle. Farinelli's design had a number of major advantages over the competition, above all its four-stroke cycle and two-speed
gearing, which used the engine's power to its fullest potential. [This was later known as the T1]. Ducati, which up until that time had produced radios and electrical components, partnered with another Italian firm, SIATA, to produce the Cucciolo, or
"Puppy." By 1946, the rights to Cucciolo production had become exclusively Ducati's.


In 1948 Ducati came up with its first original design, the T2. It was heavily influenced by the T1 design, but made improvements in the engine's efficiency, robustness, and, above all, logic of construction. The cylinder, for example, was redesigned and
made removable and the drive mechanism made more accessible, the cylinder head was modified, and the rating was raised.

~ducati.com

The Ducati Cucciolo is the Rolls Royce of cycle-attachment engines. And as Ducati only started making their own motorcycles in 1948, this rare example is one of the first.

The engine and pedal crank bear the Siata-Ducati insignia

Image and description kindly supplied by buyvintage.com