Barn Find: 1991 Ducati 851 for Sale

1991 Ducati 851
Miles: 18,300
Clean California Title
Listed Price: $6,500

Massimo Tamburini’s 916 gets all the plaudits, but people often forget it was as much an evolutionary as revolutionary bike, built on the bones of today’s Ducati 851 and 888: a small company like Ducati naturally had to gradually develop and hone their formula over time. And when you clothe the “final” form in stunning bodywork, it’s easy to see why the earlier versions were overshadowed. But the 851 was the first Ducati superbike to be powered by the company’s fuel-injected, liquid-cooled, four-valve Desmoquattro v-twin engine, a significant step forward for the company that allowed them to compete against modern sportbikes being produced by the Japanese manufacturers on the road and in competition. The bike where Ducati’s modern history really began. It isn’t stated by the seller, but this particular 851 is likely the plain-jane model “Strada” version of the bike, rather than one of the more exotic homologation specials. First sold in 1987, very early bikes were fitted with 16″ wheels that caused some handling issues, but the company later switched to the 17″ items seen here and performance was much improved, although not usually this yellow…

Clean title in hand, tags on PNO

Beautiful 1991 Ducati 851 super Bike. Barn find been sitting for quite some time. It’s on some 25-year-old tires (Dunlop D207) . It’s 100% complete. I removed the gas tank and sprayed
Starting fluidinto the throttle bodies and fired up! The gas tank isn’t very bad. It’s got light rust. I have a new fuel pump and fuel filter for it.

I might have somebody replace all the fuel lines clean the tank, put the pump and filter in it and it should be running fine after that, (prob 2 new plugs too) – but I haven’t done that yet.!

Great candidate for a restore or just to display as is

Possible trade for a running motorcycle with like value, but cash IS king

Nooo! Don’t start a Ducati with old, worn cam belts! Okay, so it didn’t immediately grenade itself, but obviously, those should be replaced posthaste, along with all the other maintenance bits mentioned, before running this classic Ducati 851 Desmoquattro superbike. And maybe repaint those wheels a nice white to match the frame while you’re at it: I’m pretty sure they weren’t yellow originally and, while white would be just as hard to keep clean, it would look much more appropriate. The seller refers to it as a “barn find” and it’s probably not really that, but it’s better for not being one: it looks to be in pretty nice condition and in largely original spec, other than the wheels that have me strangely craving french fries for some reason… Given prices of classic Ducati superbikes these days, this example looks like a pretty sharp bargain if you’re willing to overlook those wheels and are prepared to give it a bit of a once-over before riding it. It’d definitely be a shame to just “display as-is.”

-tad