Classic Ducati SL 500 Pantah from 1979

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Classic Ducati SL 500 Pantah from 1979
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Classic Ducati SL 500 Pantah from 1979

Cult bike Ducati SL 500 Pantah from 1979
Ducati Pantah

In the Ducati SL 500 Pantah from 1979, it was not Fabio Taglioni’s most famous engine that made its debut, but it was definitely his most successful. At the same time, the visionary engineer introduced the tubular space frame.

Fred Siemer

04/24/2014

A lot of men’s dream? Nine bevel gears, one king shaft and one camshaft each, as well as desmodromic valves. Every manufacturer’s nightmare? Nine bevel gears, one each … When “Ingegnere” Fabio Taglioni was supposed to come up with a mid-range Ducati in the 1970s, he had to save time and money. It was enough that the glorious great V2 of the Bolgnesians did not bring in any money. Too complicated to manufacture, very complicated to maintain. At first the company management even forced him to construct sober 350 and 500 parallel twins, but the dottore was proved right: the customers demanded from Ducati a transversely installed 90-degree V-twin.

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So for a new one: Taglioni replaced the loud-grinding vertical shafts with two toothed belts driven by an intermediate shaft. It was similar to blasphemy from God personally, but followed technical logic, because rubber bands had long since proven their durability right up to racing. Desmodromic, on the other hand, was allowed to remain, in which the closing of the valves is done by levers controlled by the camshafts and not by springs. 

Bevel shaft? Nobody needs any more

Advantage: At high speeds, the inertia forces of the valves cannot cause them to lift off the cam and flutter. Thanks to desmodromics, Taglionis Kleiner breathes through really large valves, tight 36 mm Dell’Orto carburettors with accelerator pumps prepare his mixture. And if he is allowed to carry open intake funnels and loud Conti bags, he can easily pass over 50 hp to the five-speed gearbox. Not bad at that time, and the rest of the festival called the Pantah also had an appetizing effect. The short-stroke hangs namely – somewhat concealed by the generously sized tank and the characteristic half-shell – as a load-bearing element in the first series tubular space frame of the house. The swing arm is located in the engine housing. Nevertheless, the wheelbase was rather long at 1450 millimeters, and so stability is one of the great virtues of this chassis. On the other hand, the Pantah demands a lot of effort in tight alternating bends, and Brembo’s three-disc brake system, which was grandiose at the time, also required a little effort.

The focus of the experience is of course the engine: from 3000 rpm the low-vibration V2 delivers notable performance, just under 5000 it switches, happily onomatopoeic, into sport mode, fires energetically towards the rated speed and easily beyond it. No wonder that Pantahs competed in rows in the four-stroke sports classes that were emerging everywhere around 1980.

In normal life, however, Ducati’s middle class, who also existed mainly for Italy as 350s, led a shadowy existence. Japanese were more practical, cheaper, and just as powerful. In 1982 it was increased to 600, later even to 650 cm³ – in vain. No, Taglioni’s last major construction did not collect her greatest merits at the customer counter, but in the Ducati development department: Until recently, the successors of the technician who died in 2001 liked to fall back on the solid and expandable engine, it moved tourers and cruisers Cagiva even enduros, and the air-cooled monsters are still closely related to this day. Even the water-cooled Ducati units cannot deny their Pantah genes, and the tubular space frame runs through most of the exciting range. Bevel shaft? Nobody needs any more.

Technical specifications

Data: air-cooled two-cylinder four-stroke 90-degree V-engine, 499 cm³, 34 kW (46 hp) at 8500 rpm, 40 Nm at 6300 rpm, five-speed gearbox, tubular steel frame, weight with a full tank of 202 kg, front tires 3.25 x 18 , rear 3.50 x 18, tank capacity 18 liters, top speed lying down 185 km / h, 0-100 km / h in 5.7 seconds.

Specialists: Not every Ducati dealer is familiar with the characteristics of the Pantah, but specialists use a few tricks to improve their suitability for everyday use considerably. Better pickups for the electronic ignition, steel rollers for the timing belt and much more. Good addresses are Nics Garage in Mutterstadt, www.nics-garage.info, or Italomotos in Dorsten, www.italomotos.de

Scene: Just because the greedy 750 F1 emerged from the Pantah in 1985, it also counts among tough fans
to the Ducati family. Their historical merit is undisputed – and that is why prices are rising too. With luck, passable specimens start at 3500 euros, with a total of only 7000 units built (excluding the 350 series), the trend is likely to increase sharply.

Internet: The very active scene is gathering around the Pantah interest group (www.pantah-ig.de), Rudi Wasner is also very committed with his informative website www.pantah.eu

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