Today’s Ducati 748R was the World Supersport homologation version of Ducati’s famed Tamburini-designed sportbike. Uprated engine internals included lightweight titanium valves and connecting rods, and the bike was fueled by shower-type injectors nestled in a larger two-part airbox, suspended in a lightweight version of the 996 World Superbike’s frame. The bike made 106hp and…
Much ink and other media has been spilled extolling the virtues of the mighty Ducati 916. It is, quite simply, one of the most beautiful and significant sportbikes of the modern era. It was also expensive, uncomfortable, and maintenance-intensive. Basically, the quintessential Italian sportbike. But a quirk of history led to the Ducati 916 “Varese”…
The Ducati 900SS/CR was a bread-and-butter model for Ducati throughout the 90s, a more affordable option for Ducatisti who didn’t really need the performance or maintenance headaches of the more exotic four-valve bikes like the 851, 888, and 916. Here in the US, we mostly got the 900cc version, but 750 and 600 examples do…
So-called “race replicas” have always been popular amongst the sportbike crowd, an expression of the “race on Sunday, sell on Monday” philosophy that drives the motorcycle economy. Most have just been paint and graphics packages designed to make the bikes in question more closely resemble their racing counterparts. A few were actual homologation specials, created…
Introduced in 1999, the Ducati 996 was the successor to the 916 and was obviously more evolutionary than revolutionary. But while Ducati didn’t want to mess with success in the looks department, the new bike featured a host of subtle but significant changes to the frame, fuel injection, and engine that led to improvements in…
Sharp-eyed readers might be thinking, “Hey, didn’t you guys feature this bike back in February?” For a moment I thought so too, but it turns out this is another, similar bike, in very similar poses, from the same seller. And this Ducati 888 SPO Limited is also a bit rarer than the last bike we…
Ducati’s air-cooled 750SS might seem like an unlikely candidate for a racebike build. By 1993, a two-valve Desmo twin was antiquated technology, a quirky, charming curio by the sportbike standards of the day. But although competition duties had been handed off to the liquid-cooled, four-valve superbikes by the early 90s, it’s important to remember that…
We’ve been a little Ducati-heavy this week, but there’s no way I was going to skip this one: an Eraldo Ferracci-prepped and tuned Ducati 916 SPS. Sure, this might look like yet another boring 916, but the SPS is one of Ducati’s fire-breathing homologation specials, and this example has been endowed with a highly-tuned stroker…