This is not to be underestimated. Also ideally have some mates in the same group. Imho that makes it so much more fun. I started being the only one in my group on fast and tbh it was pretty boring quite often as you don’t have those ‘shared’ experiences on track (ie bragging rights )
A good 748r 02 model (which that looks like) won’t be much short of a mark 1 749r price. It’s a cracking looking bike but I would question the decals. Mine was a red one with black lacquered decals. A quick look online suggests the yellow 02’s were also black decals? Small point but worth checking. Also. On closer examination the decals could be black on that bike. Might be my eyes or glare/camera angle etc. lovely regardless
@Expat Jack, it is absolutely correct for a 2001 delivered, 02MY Ohlins 748R, which it is, despite the 2003 registration mentioned. The colour coded mirrors were from the catalogue as was the Ohlins steering damper, neither being standard at that time. I have one partially reassembled in my dining room. Andy
I’ve always seen black decals on red bikes, but on yellow ones I’ve never seen black decals, always silver. It’s on a 53 plate so I imagine one of the very last bikes. I know the also sold 749’s starting in 2003 as there was an overlap
Good intel Phil. I have asked a mate with a yellow 02 to confirm prior to reading this. Will let you know what he says but I’m sure you are right. Sorry if I put the cat amongst the pigeons. Edit. On the yellow bikes 02 model the decals are silver/grey. My bad, apologies once again.
If it is a UK bike, not an import and it’s not been resprayed by a previous owner, it will be an ‘02MY built and delivered in 2nd half of 2001. Very likely to have been bought and stuck in an office or at home before being registered for resale. It had the redesigned Pankl con rods and everything apart from the slab sided fairing which only the very last red 748R’s delivered in the 1st half of 2002 had. Colour coded mirrors and an Öhlins steering damper could be specified at the time of order and I know a few dealers fitted them to help shift the last few bikes but they were not standard fit. Sorry, I just can’t help it, I’m an anorak Andy
There definitely were yellow slab sides. IIRC there were about 250 red and 50 yellow in the uk. I researched it before buying mine. Oh. And @RC1 has one.
Another consideration for R1's is they're probably the easiest bike to ride fast for the masses as the Motor configuation finds drive really well, so your mid corner speed doesn't need to be mental, and you can just get it stopped, turned, stand it up and fire it out The electronics on the >15 bike are as good as most of us will ever need to keep us out of trouble, and they're generally pretty reliable, plus parts are easily available and cheap For reference, I let my 15 year old son out on mine at Jerez back in Nov with NL. He'd not ridden a 1000 before, obviously being 15, but I was more than happy to let him do a couple of sessions on mine with the electronics turned up to a sensible level For reference, he did a 1:49.10 on his second session on it
Did he now? Well for additional reference I'll be sprinkling a good dollop of laxatives on his cornflakes before we head to track if I'm there....
Good info, thanks for this, I'm still sort of considering it. I'm just a bit worried it's winter bordem making me find fault with the MV and wanting to change.
Don't see many MV's at track days. Last time I looked at them the fueling was shite by all accounts. Mind you, that was a good few years back so I'm sure they've sorted it. Priddy things for sure...
oh mate they are in a totally different league now, since the euro 4 changes they really are so so much better. I use mine in sport mode (so equiv to race throttle on my Ducati) and I can hold constant throttles at 2k revs, it’s really really good. it’s a noisy engine though, takes a little self confidence to ignore the noises but it’s really the only downside.
Mikey and Casey are good friends I think Casey did a 48.7 on his cbr600 there. He’s a mega talent and a good kid too Mikey’s a bit more brutal than Casey on a bike, especially on the throttle and downshifts
I went for it in the end… got a good price on my MV, checked the r1 over and it has all the service history from new at the same dealer, all receipts and gearbox recall done. It looks honest for the mileage, Wear on all the right places etc.
it's good to know, I'm honestly REALLY quite anxious about being just another one of those blokes on a litre bike who can't ride the thing. I'm 37 and I've spent all my riding time on supersport bikes, even 250 two strokes etc but I've made big steps in my riding since I started doing the euro trips, I just don't want to go backwards. Honestly, I know it's silly but I actually feel like people will be looking at me going "look at that w*nker on the R1" which is just something I need to man up and get over... I was doing 2:05's around Jerez on a Daytona, we had a warped disc and I was nervous on the brakes so perhaps I could have got to a 2:04, but I took a mates 959 out and did the same laptime with literally no pushing in the corners, so on the R1, I'm going to ignore all the laptimes, and try to follow fast 600 riders still for a bit rather than follow the inters litre guys who are painful in the corners
