Location: Canada
Mileage: 1,561 Km (roughly 969 miles)
Price: Auction, starting at $18,793.06
Okay Ducati fans, time to pay attention. There are many Ducati’s in the superbike, limited-edition, race-bike world. And they are all cool in their own right. But I think this deserves a little more attention because this is where the current era of Ducati superbike got started. The 851 was a bit of a revolution for Ducati with the development of a four valve per cylinder L-twin, electronic fuel injection, liquid cooled engine cranking out 93bhp. And from that effort, it was an 851 that won the first ever World Superbike race. That’s some history right there.
Another interesting note about the 851 SP is that they were not 851 cc engines (like the Strada), but 888 cc’s. This is similar to the 996 cc engine on the 916SPS. Go figure.
Here’s some more photos. The auction has a link to additional hi-res photos.
Here’s what the seller has to say-
Don’t mind the low feedback – I trade commercially as loudbikesteve on eBay and enjoy an excellent reputation. I set this account up to keep my personal stuff separate from my business stuff..
I’m listing this 1989 Ducati 851 SP1 for a very good friend who’s not very computer savvy. The listing photos for this machine were taken a few years ago, but the machine has resided in a climate-controlled facility since then and is essentially unchanged. Famed Ducati tuner Reno Leoni brought this bike (one of 100 made) in from the factory and took it directly from LaGuardia airport to the World Superbike event at the Mosport circuit in Ontario, Canada where noted Canadian journalist and motorcycle enthusiast, George Jonas and a friend talked him into selling it to them. The current owner was able to acquire the machine about 10 years ago. This machine is a gorgeous and rare (possibly the only one in North America) unmolested or modified example of Ducati’s first limited edition 851 ‘Sport Production’ bike. Very low (1,561km) use with most of its life spent on display in a climate controlled facility, this machine comes with the original brochure, a stack of reference material and the original exhaust silencers Detailed hi-resolution pics are HERE.
Please check out my other listings for more vintage machines for sale!
If you have zero feedback, please contact me before submitting a bid. Any questions, feel free to email me (I’ll gladly give you my phone number if you need to chat).
USA Shipping:
We’ve sent quite a few machines south of the border. For shipment to the USA, there are two companies I know of:
HAULBIKES
4600 N. 124th Street
Milwaukee, WI 53225
Phone: (414) 464-7576
haulbikes dot com andTFX International
Specialized Vehicle Transport,
11 City View Drive, Etobicoke, ON.
Canada. M9W 5A5
Phone: 416.243.8531
www.tfxinternational.comInternational Shipping & Crating:
Inter-Par Logistics Inc.
3845 Nashua Drive
Mississauga, ON L4V 1R3
Tel.: 905-678-1288
Fax: 905-678-1289
www.inter-par.comGood luck with your bid!
Looking at the seller’s post, this particular bike seems to have in interesting story behind it. Not being super familiar with Canadian writers and racing, this may be more interesting to Canadians than people in the US. But a cool story is a cool story. Information on shipping outside Canada is also included, which may be handy if you’re new to this type of purchase.
This bike certainly has to be one of the more important bikes in the Ducati lineage. Throw in the history about WSB and the impact it had on Ducati’s that came afterwords and there is no doubt it’s a winner. It also happens to be one gorgeous bike in my opinion. If you agree with all of this, then make the jump!
-RN
Slight correction.. the’89 851SP (and it was released as 851 SP, not SP1) was indeed 851cc. It wasn’t until the 851SP2 was released in ’90 that they increased capacity to 888cc.
Thanks Mike. I apologize for that. Appreciate your correction.
This bike cannot be licenced in Ontario because its too old to be legally imported into Canada.
[…] heads, liquid cooled engine, and electronic fuel injection. Check out this recent post of an 851SP1 that was featured here on RSBFS for an idea of the original. The SP3 featured all of the same goodies and housed an 888cc engine […]