Update 9.25.2018: This bike has SOLD! Congratulations to buyer and seller! -dc If you have the Desmodromic Flu, the guys over at Iconic Motorbikes have the cure! And it’s a very, very yellow pill to swallow! The whole range of Ducati’s Tamburini-designed superbikes are likely at a low-ebb in terms of values, so if you’ve…
By the time Ducati’s 916 was retired, they’d wrung just about everything out of the bike there was to wring, and the sportbike world had moved on. From a stylistic perspective, the 998 was far too familiar after ten years and, while the design was still considered a classic, it was decidedly… classic. Of course…
In the mid-1990s when Ducati was dominating World Superbike racing and the all-important bedroom-wall-fantasy-poster competition, it seemed like everybody wanted to get into the v-twin market and “beat Ducati at its own game.” It shouldn’t have been that hard, right? I mean, Ducati made fast bikes, but part of why they were so successful in…
7.28.2017: Sold to an RSBFS reader in Mexico! Congratulations to buyer and seller! -dc 6.6.2017: Price drop to $12,495! Good luck to buyers and seller! -dc It’s sometimes hard to get excited about the bike often referred to as “Tamburini’s Masterpiece” these days: the 916 and its derivatives have appeared in countless forms in popular…
This is the sort of bike that sets the offices of RSBFS buzzing. Feast your eyes on an actual *factory* race bike. Not an RS version of a street bike. An actual “we are the Ducati factory and we are going racing…” sort of race bike. And not just any factory bike, but one piloted…
Following Ducati’s street success with the WSBK look-alike 916, the 996 was a welcome displacement and torque increase, and the -S variant had 123 hp courtesy of higher compression cylinders, and some nice carbon components. The 996 cc V-twin was bumped up to 11.5:1 compression for the S, and brought 73 ft.-lbs. of torque to…
Hot on the heels of the 996 introduction, Ducati unveiled the Superbike homologation special SPS – Sport Production Special. The big gorilla at least until the -R was introduced two seasons later, they are quite rare with total production just in the hundreds. Often limited to the track or gallery, this SPS has Cali title and…
Perhaps the most iconic version of an already iconic bike, the Ducati 996 SPS wasn’t just a carbon-covered “limited edition” named after some famous person that may or may not have had a passing relationship with the brand. It was an homologation special, with just enough built to allow specific bits like adjustable steering heads…