Defying First Impression

‘Not only did the Pantah itself revive Ducati’s middleweight fortunes, but its air-cooled, beltcam-drive desmo engine layout formed the basis of the firm’s V-twin range for decades’

- ROLAND BROWN

SOMETIMES bikes just do not turn out as you expect. My first chance to ride a Ducati Pantah should have been one of the experiences of my life. Back in 1982, I was young and crazy about Italian motorcycles in general and Ducatis in particular. The new 600-cc version of the Pantah was as glamorous and exotic as just about any bike on the road.

But for me, riding it was a disappointment. For years I had been reading about big, roaring, bevel-drive Ducati V-twins. Then I finally got to ride a Pantah, shortly after starting my first job on a bike magazine. And this Ducati, with its belt-drive 583-cc engine, efficient silencers, and mediocre straight-line performance (it was slower than the pair of 550-cc Japanese fours on test at the same time), had seemed small, quiet, not particularly fast, and distinctly underwhelming.

Thus, when the opportunity arose to ride an identical Pantah, years later, I was not expecting too much. Bikes have improved so much since those days and an ageing, clean but less than immaculate 600-cc V-twin would surely seem horribly slow, unwieldy, and dull compared to a modern middleweight, let alone a new Ducati.

That, however, was not how it turned out at all. This Pantah fired up with a loud rumble from its standard-looking but distinctly free-breathing pipes. It had plenty of performance for the twisty country roads on which I was riding. Helped by a set of modern tyres, the Ducati's handling, normally the weak point of old bikes, was excellent, too. Far from being even more disappointed this time around, I enjoyed the Pantah far more than I had when it was new.

Luckily for Ducati, plenty of other people were much more enthusiastic about the Pantah following its launch in 1979. For this belt-cam drive middleweight, V-twin was one of the most important that the Bologna firm had ever built.