Sorry about the dodgy link, now removed.. The link has been quoted so I can't remove it from the post where quoted. It was the best picture I could easily find of a 996r in the delivery crate with stand and cover.
Yep, The Factory WSBK superbikes were given an "F0" nomeclature the 2002 998r racebikes were sometimes named as 998 F02
The 996 SPS/F was a 1999 limited edition road bike - in some circles the F is said to stand for Factory Replica and in others it is said to stand for Foggy. (both of these claims have some validity as I found in recent research) In either case the model has no relation to the true Factory bikes beyond the sticker kit that shipped with them to make them look like a ‘replica’ of the race bikes. Race bikes that received the F nomenclature weren’t RS bikes - an F02 was the factory race bike of 2002 - an RS was the ‘over the counter’ race bike sold to race teams and didn’t include the truly cutting edge parts that the Factory race team bikes were given. Often the RS of the following year got parts developed on the previous year’s Factory bikes but were by no means identical.
I had simply thought the RS nomenclature was the predecessor to the F+YR nomenclature. For example, I know in 2001 Troy won on a factory-backed 996RS (that you could argue was a 998RS) and I do recall that the factory-backed RS bikes were exactly as you said, about a season ahead in development (at least) of the RS bikes sold by Ducati. I don't recall the F+YR nomenclature being used until 2005 or 2006.
I know there was an evolution in the way ‘off the shelf’ race bikes were referred to as Ducati moved through the 916/996/998 era - so for example an ‘R’ in 1997 would have been an ‘RS’ in 2000. But ‘Factory’ was always a different kettle of fish and the F+YR nomenclature was already used in the 90’s to distinguish these bikes. Rather than repeating everything here - this thread covers is really well: https://www.ducati.ms/threads/f-this-and-rs-that-a-916-era-race-bike-discussion.739770/ This site is interesting as they talk about the differences between the Factory bikes and the standard RS bikes - Ducati Corse tried so many bespoke things on the factory bikes that they never filtered down to the RS - especially during the 999 era it seems - the factory bikes were getting closer to MotoGP and costs were spiralling upwards. https://www.ducati-factory.com/deutsch/ducati-998rs/
I just got around to reading every bit of those links, a very good education! I now for sure feel like an idiot who didn't know anything before lol. I have been brought into the light lol, thanks for posting!
On another 996R topic, does anyone have a very clear picture of what the Ducati assembly line installed battery would have been for a 996R? I need to track down really nice condition one (in physical appearance, not functionally obviously). I think it's a Fiamm FT12B-BS and I know oftentimes the labels/print can look different on an assembly line battery vs. a dealer replacement. I'd like to confirm 100% what they looked like with a clear look at the label/print. Also, can anyone confirm if UK delivery numbered 996R bikes came with any of the usual Ducati clear w/print information decal on the fuel tank where you would normally put a tank protector that said in multiple languages "This vehicle is fitting with energy-saving CPU. Turn key to ON and press ignition button within 15 seconds"????? Lastly, does anyone have a picture of what the factory installed 996R oil filter looked like exactly? I'm sure the colour, print, and possibly even P/N revisions have occurred over the past 2 decades +. I'd like to find a couple of correct vintage NOS oil filters. I believe the P/N is 44440039a but I don't know what they looked like back in 2001. Thanks!
I found a picture of what I believe is the correct box and filter for being NOS to the year ~2000, note the old circular Ducati logo. If anyone has any of these old NOS filters, please let me now. I'm still searching for an image of the factory installed battery. I spoke to my 996R's original owner, he mentioned he purchased it on 1 Jan 2001 the very day it was released, from Pro Twins. So does that mean that Pro Twins purchased from the first "sold online" batch to resell, or were dealers able to obtain them factory direct prior to release like other models? Just wondering about the logistics since I always read these were sold directly to consumers online (the numbered bikes).....thoughts? Also, on what date in 20000 were the 996Rs even offered up for sale on the internet? Does anyone have screenshots of the web page? Or a URL for the internet time machine archives? Proof or it didn't happen haha!
Ducati launched their new website in September 2000 and as part of the launch event for the website made the 996R available for advance sales on 12th September 2000. The global press launch event where a select group of journalists were first allowed to ride the bike wasn’t until March 7th 2001. Now as Ducati said originally that they were only going to sell 350 via the internet but we know there were many more numbered bikes I would imagine that once all the fuss died down and they told the press that all 350 had sold out overnight - they made bikes available to order from dealers on 1st January 2001. A peak of 65 bikes were registered for the road in the uk and didn’t appear on the register until Q4 2001 - so it looks like customers didn’t take delivery until the very end of summer 2001. No idea what the battery looked like in 2001 but the part number 39540131A was used for a bunch of bikes of that era
Great info! Thanks! Yeah we of course know there were 500 numbered bikes made alone. Ok, that makes sense on the order of events. Wow, they really built these WAY out of sequence in terms of the ones ordered online and the ones offered to dealers - going by the order date and my bikes serial #. I had always thought the press date was April 2001 at Valencia - I stand corrected, again ha! Mine was registered in the UK on 1 June 2001 according to my paperwork. License plate issued the same date. MOT was 21 June 2001 at 7 miles. With the original owners written permission (since everything would have his personal info on it), I've reached out to his contact at Pro Twins for copies of everything they can possibly find in their records for the VIN, I even offered to pay for their time/effort in doing so. I'm hoping that will yield more info, like if recall work had been done prior to delivery, etc.
Valencia - but March 7th 2001 https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/new-bikes/2001/march/world-first-test-on-the-ducati-996r/ https://www.roadracingworld.com/news/ducati-to-introduce-996r-to-press-tomorrow/ Looks like the registration database isn’t 100%! Looking at it again I would guess that the database doesn’t have data broken down by Quarter until Q3 2008 - so it just lists Q4 as a tally for the whole year before then.
That 2nd link even says 500 bikes will be built. So it looks like the first 375 were sold online in Sep 2000, and then 125 were offered to dealers starting 1 Jan 2001. Starting to sound like the final 200 non-street bikes offered to the dealerships were the afterthought to build more bikes and milk more $$$ lol. Also to not upset the 996R owners who were told there would be only 500 bikes. - Of course I've also read those 200 were a tough sell and many were converted with lights to get sold. Some even decked out in ALL available catalog parts to make them more attractive and for marketing.
“MOT was 21 June 2001 at 7 miles.” Just saw this - New vehicles in the UK are exempt from MOT for 3 years! Sooo - that would indicate that this bike was unusual in some way - and I would guess from what we know that it may have originally not have been type approved because it was one of the ‘never intended for the road’ bikes. So that would indicate Ducati didn’t have the paperwork sorted for UK type approval.
Hmmm, very good point. Mine is a numbered street config bike though. Begs the question, are we absolutely positive that ALL numbered bikes were street config and all non-numbered were not for road use config? Or as you say, Ducati UK may not have had all their ducks in a row registration wise. The next record after its first MOT, is its 2nd on 14 Oct 2006 at 1,770 miles. So a big gap between the 2. All the rest are random between 2-4 years and even 5 years before its final one. I know it's also up to the owner when they get around to it, yes? Like they could have just decided to park it until they got around to doing the MOT?
I wonder if Ducati bothered to go through the type approval process at all! Maybe they just figured it was such a small number of bikes for each market that it wasn’t worth the cost. But also there’s another possibility- and that’s that you could order a numbered bike in road trim if you wished - and if the original batch was sold out they just put all of the bit’s and a numbered plaque on one of the track spec bikes. They stated there were 375 internet bikes - and a further 325 bikes allocated to the dealer network - Ducati were playing the details fast and loose - it was all marketing. So that 350 internet figure was BS right from the start. 56 x GB ‘internet’ bikes and 30 other GB bikes were allocated to the UK according to the figures in Falloon’s book. These are the total new registrations. So a few more bikes ended up in the UK than were specifically allocated by Ducati. On the random MOT dates Yep - we have the option to keep a vehicle off the road and let the MOT expire - it often happens with bikes - they get put away in the garage for one reason or another and can spend a few years off the road before the owner decides they want to take it out again - then it’s put through MOT and taxed before it can go back on the road - and often serviced.
I found a really great picture of the battery! A few weeks ago I had ordered literally every vintage magazine issue that had an article on the 996R (even French and Spanish too) that I could find on eBay and in one that I received today, there was a half-page-sized picture of the battery and what's around it, couldn't be more perfect.
