Hi fellow passionistas! I've been on here for at least 10 years in the vain hope that one day I may actually be able to buy my dream bike - a yellow 748R. Ever since the mid 90s when the 748 first arrived the decision had been made, and I knew one day in the future I would own my dream bike. Well that time is only a matter of months away now and the excitement is absolutely killing me! I've had in the past a few 400s, ZXR, RVF etc and also a ZX6R until about 20 yrs ago. As it's been a while since riding and I'm not a nutter I will be doing a refresher course to get me back in the swing of things and get that confidence back up. Mid life crisis or not I definitely will not be killing myself. So my question is what are the downsides of an import, obvs they are less money (upside), poss not as much history and maybe an insurance issue? Or maybe those issues with Grey imports don't mean as much these days? IDK Any info or guidance would be very helpful esp around replacement parts issues and whether certain countries had performance restrictions or odd issues compared with UK bikes. Your help would be much appreciated and I look forward to meeting some of you soon I hope Cheers Phil
Only downside I can suggest is that you will struggle to get a Certificate of Conformity from DUCATI if you ever need one, UNLESS the bike has gone through UK Homologation and been registered at a Ducati dealer... e.g. Lights, exhaust etc. My Import did not go this route, so Ducati Italy, technically consider it a bit of a ghost in the wind... This is an issue if you are trying to get ULEZ compliance etc (without a test). That's the only downside as I can see it. Clocks are different... but even the UK ones were all bloody different.. so that's not a deal breaker
Thx Serjames Wont be going anywhere near a ULEZ hopefully!! Clocks is easy change anyway and a re-cal.
Well... I have a horrible feeling they will be coming to you... Hence my interest in getting it done in advance. But I appreciate this might be some time in the future. Yeah Clocks that read funny... that's part of the fun right ?
Like everything, the answer is not black or white, there are many shades of grey. Are you willing to provide a little more information about your upcoming purchase ? As for ownership costs, many of the service items are still readily available from your local Ducati dealer, including the 22mm wide belts. Although Ducati recently extended the belt life for the 848/1098/1198 to 5 years, the 748R belt life is still 1 year or 7500 miles, whichever comes first. I see the potential for a Km speedometer has been mentioned which, depending on the year of manufacture of the bike you are looking at, finding a correct UK miles speedo, can be be a bit hit or miss. eBay and a few small Italian retailers will be your best options. Low emission zones are the future and having all the correct information is essential, especially as the Bristol low emission zone is now live. Andy
Thx Andy great help Looking at an R poss from dealer, cost isn’t the issue really it’s the right bike that’s more important! Which is why I am question the import route. Any mods or service issues and I will take it to Rich at Luigi. Yea appreciate the CAZ in Bristol but I’m moving to Portishead anyway and have no intention of any city riding, this is going to be a well looked after bike that will enjoy the roads of Somerset and wales when the weather is favourable. See your point about clock, did have kms on my ZXR as that was an import (mid 90s) If I find a uk one then great - if not doesn’t matter tbh. Cheers
I'm going to be really cheeky at this point, my yellow 2001 UK Ohlins 748R is still for sale (in the for sale section) and I'm just up the M4 near Newbury. Recently be recommissioned by Moto Rapido, new belts and MoT If you are happily sorted, just ignore me. Andy
Hence me tagging you. At £9k that’s good value for a very nice bike. How do I know? Because I viewed it before it went on the market but we couldn’t quite agree on price. If I hadn’t smashed myself up so badly on track a couple of months back I’d be seriously re considering buying this bike.
Thank you for the referral. Your incident at Silverstone made awful reading, I never know what to say but I’m really pleased that you are recovering. It’ll be long and slow I know but hope you make the best recovery possible with the injuries you sustained. Andy
They're all imported (unless you live in Italy) but, surely any question over resale value has long gone now that the bike's 20 years old, similarly service history etc. As for low emissions zones, I have no idea, there isn't one anywhere near me and certainly not anywhere I'm thinking of riding my bike - besides I have a 44 year old Guzzi, along with a 60 year old Landrover, both exempt should I want a bit of ULEZ action...
Well if probate had been granted I would have been up there with a deposit tomorrow Andy! Gonna be a good few months yet before I am enabled though. Was just putting feelers out to judge whether its a good decision or not, but think I will go UK "import" not overseas. But thx for the heads up - ill keep my eye out if its not sold over winter.....
