Sure do , Dorset Desmo. Martin o - my budget would be sort of more a "Sainsbury" price I think. About 4500 euros.
Hello & welcome to the Forum. I too am a Brit who is currently living & working in France. I used to have a Guzzi G5 years ago and went through the common mid-life crisis longing for a V-twin again. My budget was also limited. I picked up my ST4 916 in the UK for 3K and rode it back to France - 600 mile trip. I love the bike & so far have not had any major issues. Check for a good service history & keep on top of general maintenance & you should be fine. I'm an Engineer anyhow so as you can see from my posts do most of the maintenance myself & post everything on here. The 916 is a thoroughbred race engine and runs great as a tourer, fuel consumption is pretty good to and when you want to it goes like a missile. Hope this helps
Thanks for the advice and info. There is an ST4 for sale privately near me but I wasn't too sure about the longevity of the engine. You have gone a long way to alleviate those fears. How did you find re-registering your bike ? Or perhaps I shouldn't ask !! I find the French love their "dossiers" and are pretty immoveable when it comes to regulations etc. I'm thinking lights ; speedo ; cert. of confirmation et al .
Hi - I still have a UK residence so the bike is UK registered. I got unlimited European insurance through Carole Nash which also includes breakdown cover. So no forms LOL - only problem is I have a 600 mle MOT run to do once a year. I would recomment you get a test ride if you havent riden one before. They are very high geared which can be a pain in town traffic. Fine on the open road. Im thinking of re-gearing my sprockets to solve this issue. Hope this helps
Ahh! the best of both worlds! Good on ya. Thanks for the tip about re-gearing. This would be to go up a few teeth on the back sprocket, I suppose which I have been reading about on this site?(or perhaps down on the front one?) Or perhaps BOTH !
Yeah - Up on the back about 3 teeth is easier on the transmission than going down to 14 teeth on the front. However the rear sprockets dont seem to be easy to find ( standard gearing is 15t front , 43t rear ). I've noticed there are plenty of 14t front sprockets on Ebay, so this might be the easy way to go.
I reckon that in terms of Ducati bang for the buck, the old-style Multistradas and the ST3/4 ranges are the probably the most interesting. I don't think that all the 916 et al bikes were plagued by flaking rockers - mine weren't. On the other hand, you can't guarantee that it won't be, unless it's already had the problem and been fixed, which might well be the case. 999s are undervalued too, as are probably 749s. Got to be a fair amount of things to choose from.
Glid......which language/s do you speak on a daily basis? Italian? French? German? Romansh? Or all of them?
Hi Conkers, if you are near LeMans John Baines has set up a workshop. If you get a pre 2000 Duke he could be your man. He also does Guzzis.
Only French on a daily basis (like most of the day). German occasionally at work (although I throw the odd bit of German into every day conversation as it amuses me - very funny language). Italian not at all (just read wine labels or simple stuff). Romansch only if I am studying banknotes (seeing as it's written on them) but it's a completely superfluous language (although I am happy it exists and that some people converse in it. But they only do that in Graubünden - Les Grisons in French).
Hi Greg I'd be interested to know if your Dukes are restricted , seems an awful shame to have a D16 and have to strangle it..
Bonjour,I too live and work in sw France for the last 4 yrs, anyone live near Dordogne region? always looking for more people to ride out with. It does seem here Ducati's are very popular with the French, various French friends of mine have them.
Hello Peter Theoretically the bikes should be restricted I don't know anybody that has a bike restricted here in France. The Ducatis, from 999 to D16, had a mechanical restrictor. It is basically a small plate that stops you opening the throttle completely and to liberate those ponies either you take it off as I did with the D16 (+ 94 bhp....) or bend it as I did with the street fighter. I don't know about the Pani or new Multi range but seeing as they have power maps it could be more complicated. My 996s was also a bit of a pain as I had the change the ecu. Cheers Greg
916epa I am not far from you. I am based in Cahors in the LOT. Lived here since 2001 give or take 4 years in India. Butchersdog also has a house here and we meet up when possible. Yes there are lots of Ducati fans here in France. Do you do track days?
Interesting I would have thought that the 999 on would have been ECU restricted , and I thought earlier bikes of differing makes were restricted with different heads .
