Truly a GP bike for the street, the 2008 Ducati Desmosedici RR made it possible to rock Casey Stoner’s ride to the grocery store long before Honda tried the same trick with the highly-de-tuned Honda RC-213VS.
2008 Ducati Desmosedici RR for sale on eBay
Ducati charged less than half of what Honda asks for the RC, with the Desmo slotting in just under $80,000 brand new. They also came with a stableful more horses than the Honda, and that included the special tune to wake them up.
According to the seller, this one put 186 horsepower to the wheel on Fast by Ferracci’s dyno, apparently with some sort of catalytic converter eliminator fitted and the standard street silencer. That’s massive in a bike that weighs just 425 pounds gassed up.
The listing says it comes with the race pipe and ECU, which gave these bikes their full complement of go, but details stop there.
From the eBay listing:
This is serial #164 of the original production run of 300 moto GP bikes. Ducati made 1200 more for a worldwide total of 1500, but the second production had slightly different pistons for a lower state of tune. It is a street legal version of the bike they won the championship with a slightly detuned engine as compared to the racebike. The frame, Wheels, brakes and suspension is exactly the racing specification. This one made 186 rear wheel HP on Ferracci’s Dyno on pump gas without the race pipe. He made a special cat eliminator for me that got rid of the heat but kept the quiet muffler in place. There were some minor recalls and mods including the rocker springs which were all done by Eraldo Ferracci himself. The race pipe and computer come with the bike. It is terrifyingly fast but easy to ride if you have throttle discipline. It has been run monthly since I bought it new and has always been in a heated garage. It is in collectible condition without a single scratch.
Serial #164
Type: Liquid-cooled, 90-deg., 4-stroke V-four, DOHC desmodromic, 4 valves/cyl.
Displacement: 989cc
Bore x stroke: 86.0 x 42.56mmCompression ratio: 13.5:1
Induction: Magnetti Marelli EFI with 50mm throttle bodies, single injector/cyl.
Transmission: 6-speedChassis
Front suspension: 43mm Öhlins FG353P gas-pressurized cartridge inverted fork, 4.7 in. travel; adjustable for spring preload, rebound and high/low-speed compression damping
Rear suspension: Single Öhlins PRXB shock absorber, 4.7 in. travel; adjustable for spring preload, rebound and high/low-speed compression damping
Front brake: 2, radial-mount/four-piston monobloc calipers, 330mm stainless steel discs
Rear brake: Single twin-piston caliper, 240mm disc
Front wheel: 3.50 x 17 in.; forged magnesium alloy
Rear wheel: 6.25 x 16 in.; forged magnesium alloy
Front tire: 120/70ZR-17 Bridgestone BT-01F Uno
Rear tire: 200/55ZR-16 Bridgestone BT-01R UnoRake/trail: 23.5/24.5 deg. (adjustable)/3.8 in. (97mm)
Wheelbase: 56.3 in. (1430mm)
Seat height: 32.7 in. (831mm)
Fuel capacity: 4.0 gal. (15L)
Weight: 425 lb. (193 kg) wet; 401 lb. (182 kg) all fluids except gas
Instruments: LCD panel for digital speedometer, bar graph tachometer, clock, coolant temperature, odometer/dual tripmeters, ambient air temperature, battery level, lap time, scheduled maintenance, average speed/fuel consumption, fuel reserve, DDA, EOBD diagnostics; warning lights for neutral, high beam, turn signals, low oil pressure, low fuel levelIf you should need any clarification or suggestions ask me six one zero five two four six nine zero zero
Aside from the scant pictures and the brief description, the seller provides little in the way of details. With more than two weeks left in the listing, the seller is asking a quite reasonable $49,800. As always, let’s hear your reactions in the comments.
I’ve wanted one of these for so long. I remember the dealer that I bought a couple of my Ducati’s back in the day from trying to talk me into buying one of their “allocated bikes”. Kept telling me that they would be over 100K one day and I think at the time they were 80K or so.. (been a while, may be off). Under $50K now, happy I didn’t go for one back then. Anyone know someone that has one and how expensive they are to keep maintained? I do my own repairs but don’t dig into motors other then carb work and an occasional valve adjustment. Are they a nightmare or pretty reliable?
As I understood it from a guy who did service on them most maintenance items start out:
– Step 1 drop motor from chassis.
But I have zero first hand experience with them.
Is that a serious question?
I would love to own one of these, I really would. the sound they make is pure music. Unfortunately I think I’d need a full shed upgrade to a small one bed apartment if my wife found out how much it cost as I’d be living alone. I doubt they’ll ever reach the proposed value people thought they would when originally sold either.
If you can afford one then you should be able to afford maintaining it too, which is not cheap. If I remember well, the first owners had three year factory warranty and in some countries free maintenance was included in it too. The bike is made for racing but there are reports of these that were ridden for over 40,000 miles all over Europe. Small gas tank and high fuel consumption makes it a silly choice for conventional riding, they are known to drink a lot of oil, very hard springs, etc, etc, etc… The list goes on. But then again, there was nothing quite like it available to people outside race paddock. As close as you could get to a Moto GP bike.