Greetings folks, I am looking for a nice loved late model 748S and have some questions. One main one is that there is one advertised on a well known Auction site (and elsewhere), so I want to find out about any experiences members may have with one... Key points for me are the speedo / odometer (fixable I suggest) but also I wonder about the Certificate of Conformity (CofC) some people are finding on other marques if you try and go through a ULEZ zone and also servicing / spares at some main dealers. I also here that some bikes 'may' be down on power depending on the market it originally came from... A final small point is that I have noticed some 748S bikes do not have the '748S' logo on the rear seat cowl, is it due to being an early 748S or is there some other reason people may know about? Any experience on this and any advice would be welcome! Cheers
This link might help, https://www.ducatiforum.co.uk/threads/748-b-sp-sps-e-s-r-the-differences.21943/. This is the bike at Allenby’s ? Not sure if they mean the bike was imported from new or not but there should be some sort of history with 1 declared owner On first glance, for me, the wear on the rear sprocket looks more than 5600kms. Finding a suitable replacement speedo could be problematical, depends on the engine management. Andy
A parallel import you say, well they're actually all imports so about the only way a parallel would differ (other than speedo/headlight dip which are both easily changeable, if not already done) would be warranty which at 20 years old isn't an issue. I suppose a French model, limited to 100hp (if they were?) could be an issue on a 916/996/998 but not a 748 but then, again easily fixed. I bought my 916 new as a parallel import, it came from Italy (does anyone actually think the Italian model was somehow inferior to the UK model?) and I saved £2,250 over an official import for the same bike, I even got warranty/recall notices through Ducati with no issues. Slightly O/T and not strictly a parallel import, rather just an import (what's the difference?) but I also bought my old Guzzi from Italy, albeit at 35 years old and I don't think anyone is advocating that it's in any way inferior to a UK supplied model, if anything it's better as it's seen less crap weather/salt on the road etc. So, if the bike is right then buy it because, regardless of how it got here, it came from the same factory as all the others...
Though the "lower power" is worth checking. I seem to remember seeing Japanese version imports being marked as reduced bhp a few times? But if its easily resolved who cares, for example on my VFR400 NC30, an added dohicky to the cable changed the speedo readings from Kph to Mph and in doing so eliminated the speed restrictor.
My 900ss is a parallel import. The Speedo has a MPH sticker on the glass covering the KPH underneath. Thats it, everything else seems the same as a regular imported version.
