What rock have you guys been sleeping under? :-) Ducati has been continually
using desmodromic valvetrain for years. Some kinda linkage?? How about two
rocker arms, one opens, one closes, both running on the same camshaft, so
they can't possibly get out of sync. And they still use this today, works
great. BTW, the bevel-gear shaft? Gone, MANY years ago, like the early
'80's, replaced by a wonderfully reliable two-belt system. Something about
Italian metallurgy, but my 1992 907ie has always had the valves spot-on
every time I've checked them in the past 30,000 miles. In fact, the bike has
not needed anything other than oil changes, tires, and a chain, in addition
to the regular tune-ups and belts.

On Tue, 26 Jun 2007 14:01:11 +1200, Andrew Grebneff
<andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ> wrote:

>>   Ducatti had a desmodromic valve train..One tower shaft driven gear
>> between the cylinders with some kinda linkage to both open and close
>> each valve...no springs..
>
>Yep. Imagine what happens ig the open & close cam settings interfere with
>one another... no wonder Ducatis are normally buggered before the warranty
>period runs out (a local used-bike importer refiuses to touch 'em for this
>reason). I wonder why Ducati dropped desmos...