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748, talk to me :)

Discussion in 'Ducati General Discussion' started by fred11, Dec 6, 2013.

  1. I was keeping an eye on that. £3400 you did well, they are always quicker in yellow!!!
     
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  2. Maybe it's just me but I can't believe how cheap these bikes are. Sure the 916 would've been more special, but I think the character of the 748 is me (if my understanding is correct that the have a much revvier attitude?)

    Now.. First I need to get it home, but then we need to tweak it.. Ideas?

    yes yellow is faster on a 748, no doubt :upyeah:
     
  3. To me; I would be trying to put it back to standard (in terms of tweaks). However I agree it's really clean.

    Personally I would also get the fairings off and test the charging system etc before any cosmetic spend, just to make sure it's all mint!
     
  4. More or less standard other then then wrappage and brake discs no...? (Must admit I know f all about it, last minute impulse buy). Cosmetically it will go back to standard it's engine/chassis I'm interested in tweaking

    Do these have slipper clutches?
     
  5. Personally i think the 748 is more fun to ride. You have to work it hard to keep pace but its worth the effort.
     
  6. Check it out thoroughly, 50 were not imported in 1998 only 40 were and the year after 20. You should also check whether he has the cover. stand and Carbon Termignoni's and chip or the stock ones, these all came with the bike as new. Depending on what month it was registered it should have been sold by Moto Cinelli as they were the official Ducati importers at the time.

    Obviously check it has a UK speedo but also a Fahrenheit temp gauge as all UK models had these and overseas models had centigrade. A number of SPs's have found their way over here but are not genuine UK models.

    Only 100 were imported into the UK during the 3 years of manufacture of this model. The handbook is for this model only and no others.

    I have a genuine 1999 SPS UK model so I do know exactly what these bikes are like and they are very rare and slightly appreciating in price. They were £12,250 new so they were very dear at the time.

    The bike itself should have 65mm calipers but early single phase electrics, the engine is the grey\green colour of early models.

    They are very nice bikes and easy enough to maintain
     
    #207 Red998, Jan 20, 2014
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2014
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  7. I was watching that too :) Pictures!!
     
  8. Cheers Red :) It seems to check out as per your post but I will have it thoroughly looked over at pick up. Anything else specific I should look out for?

    Pics will come when I get it home :)

    Cheers
     
  9. Even if it isn't an SPS, you paid a decent amount for a nice bike. Seems to come with all the expected extras? I think that guy is a victim of his own poor advert there, he could have got a bit more for it.
     
  10. Most obvious thing is that it should have an Ohlins rear shock and fully floating front discs, which should be checked for bobbin wear as they do rattle around quite a lot as standard. The Termignoni's do not have stickers on them and they are a brighter finish than the later aftermarket\kit ones sold. It only states 748SPS on the seat and nowhere else, all decals are dark but not black and did vary from early to later models. The last models had a grey\black metallic finish to them.

    The brake and clutch levers were darkish grey and not silver and despite having later brake calipers they used the early clutch and brake mastercylinders on these models right through the period of manufacture. Handlebar bar tubes would therefore have to be the early type bar and the fixings could be one or two bolt, 1999 models had two, 1998 could have had either but the date of manufacture is on the clamp.

    Looking around the bike you should see evidence of parts made in 1997\1998 as they were a bit of a factory bitza. My 1999 model had many parts made in 1998 for example but was sold new in December 1999.

    If you compare the SPS to an original 96/97 world superbike 748 you can see how close this model was to that. The attached photo is Paolo Casoli on 1997 SPS based bike.

    20111204230932-m1997MisanoCasoli01.jpg
     
    #211 Red998, Jan 20, 2014
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2014
  11. I would agree, he has undersold the bike and could have been a bit more dynamic in his sale. The price of this model is rising and it is genuinely a rare bike especially as a UK model and the fact that there are definitely less than 100 left as I know of a few that have been wrecked etc. makes them even harder to find.
     
    #212 Red998, Jan 20, 2014
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2014
  12. Cheers Red, great info :upyeah:
     
  13. Oops, guilty as charged!

    Most beautiful thing I've ever seen but it did have a rather unfortunate habit of crashing me.
     
  14. So it's home. Well not my home I haven't even seen it yet as my mate went to pick it up.

    Now people have different ideas about what the "best sps in the uk" (as described in the ad) and the original cover was missing despite being listed in the ad, and the 'FSH' meant the belts was last changed in 2010 (but it hasn't been used really to be fair).

    But it seemed straight enough, the fella who had it seemed allright and the history of the bike is fairly solid with the majority of the use coming from the previous owner who had it since -99. I couldn't really be arsed to argue so took it home. Gonna need a big service at least and I'm gonna have a look at the rockers I think.

    Where is the best place to get the bits I need for a service? Prefer buying from someone who is active on the forum.

    Only have this shitty pic from a mobile. :upyeah:

    748.jpg

    748.jpg
     
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  15. Hopefully it'll all be sweet when you get it home!
     
  16. Not coming 'home' for a while, I live in a flat in London and have no space really, so it has to live with my mate for a while. My mate is good at these things (better then me) so I'm 100% its a decent bike :smile: (Cheers Scott if you're reading this :upyeah:)

    I'm going to visit it at the weekend :smile:
     
    #217 fred11, Jan 22, 2014
    Last edited: Jan 22, 2014
  17. Judging by the photo it is not 100% original as the bottom fairing is black and they never were, the airbox is either black or carbon, again they never were. The wheels look very "gold" in the photo and should be frame coloured. Finally the Termi stickers were not fitted on this model.

    Apologies if this sounds a bit negative,it's not meant to be at all, but it's not an original bike. I don't know how the seller was portraying it but I would have said there were grounds for knocking him down on the price at the time, I don't know if you managed to do that or not.

    I think the seller didn't really know what he actually had!! does it have the original bill of sale out of interest.
     
  18. I don't mind mate, and I prefer to know what's what. When I get better pics I will put them up so I learn more about it.

    You are right on all of the above, and additionally some twat seems to have painted part of the engine cases, or it's flaking. Either way it doesn't look right.

    But the overall feeling of the bike is that it's not as bad as it sounds, the history of the bike makes sense with the mileage, numbers match up etc so I decided to take a flyer on it. He already said he won't take a penny less whatever I find on the bike so I paid (all)the money and left. I'm still not sure who did best out of the deal (me or the seller), I reckon it's about 50/50 at the moment :biggrin:

    Clearly I should've bought the 748R or 916sps mentioned earlier but since I didn't get my fingers out I'm stuck with this.. It will be right in the end, and I reckon this will actually be a better buy long term rather then an R
     
  19. Oh the black lower fairing is carbon WRAP :biggrin: Still don't know if it's to hide something or someone thought it looks cool... It is nasty imo
     
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