Italian exclusivity – 2002 Ducati 748

SEATTLE USED BIKES has this superbike up for sale
ZDM1SB3R52B010684
6245 miles
$12,500

PRESS on the SUB site
1997-2002 Ducati 748The hot-blooded Italian middleweight was a mirror image of the bigger 916 but with a smaller, higher-revving motor. Handling was legendary and performance numbers registered mid 11’s in the quarter-mile and 150 MPH on the big end. If you can ignore the idiosyncrasies it’s a small slice of heaven.  Ducati’s 916 deserves all its iconic status and then some. But for many people who were lucky enough to ride both, the smaller 748 was the better bike to ride. It’s a long-running Ducati trait – the 750SS was more enjoyable than the 900SS and the later 749 was almost the perfect early-noughties sports bike where the 999 was grumpy, difficult to ride, and needed to be going a lot faster than we actually went for it to work properly.  The 748 came out a year after the original 916. It’s easy to think of it as a sleeved-down 916, but the changes are much more than that. Bore and stroke are both different, the smaller capacity loses a bit of bottom-end power, but the lighter flywheels allow the 748 engine to rev much faster meaning the lack of bottom end doesn’t really matter.   It feels like a very different bike and, bizarrely, while the 916 feels like a massive, powerful engine has been stuffed into the chassis of a 250, the 748 feels like it has exactly the right engine for the chassis.

If true Italian exclusivity boils your blood and concessions to politeness don’t mean a thing, the Ducati 748 just might be your ticket to ride. After all, saying you ride a Ducati is simply priceless.

SUB description
It’s crazy how hard it’s getting to find a clean, proper running, maintained, minimal owners, Ducati Desmoquattro Superbike these days… We sold this 748 in 2022 to an Idaho buyer, sadly due to some life changes it saw very little use, less than 200 miles over the last year.  It was brought back to us to rehome.

The previous owner purchased the 748 in April 2018 from one of our former customers. Looking at our past records, we performed basic maintenance and tuning on this 748 starting in 2016.  It started life as a base “E” model, not an “S” model, but has a few of the “S” upgrades like quick disconnect dzus fasteners on the fairing, 5-spoke Marchesini magnesium wheels and a Termignoni 3/4 exhaust system with a proper FBF eprom and a nice carbon SP style heal guard on the exhaust.  The biggest upgrade is the early 5-spoke magnesium wheels front and rear.  These were some of the lightest wheels back in the day, with the rear weighing in at 8.7 lbs vs stock 5 spoke wheels at 12.4 lbs. Their condition looked perfect, no visible damage, no paint issues, the rear was indexed properly and there was no wheel damage in mount points.

A few other items like the Ducati Performace carbon clutch cover and gold EVR pressure plate and springs.  The chain and sprockets look in great condition.  Out back we spot a nice carbon rear fender and chain guard, up front there is a nice carbon fender that has been matched to the red paint, a smoke windscreen, and adjustable brake and clutch levers. This 748 was originally sold from Ducati as a Mono seat model, which can be verified from the matching VIN under the seat.  These did come with the steel biposto subframe so it could be converted to a 2-seater if needed.

Seattle Used Bikes asks $12,500 for this 748