Values?

So how come I am spending cash on my 900 when I could sell it and buy a 996 or 998 for another £1500, £2000?. I must be mad. Why do we do it? Is it a visceral thing is the bike a living breathing thing or is a w/c duke just plain wrong?

 

I think the Supersport is more likely to be a classic than some of the others.......It was the Ducati that persuaded more people to buy a Ducati , than had before.....IMO

 

Al have a beer on me . yep your probably right. For me it's old school cool. With just enough dose of speed and more importantly torque.

 

I have no problem with a ducati toilet.


going on what Al said, great stands by the way Al; I think the SS owner, like the 888 owner was a different breed of ducatista, we were willing to put up with so much and walked into a lions den of reliability issues and stigma in order to own one, and I suppose that's what set us apart, but unlike 888 owners we didn't have money to burn ( I bought my first SS for 7000, you got to think that an 888 at the time was 15), so nothing's really changed there.

I think also, the fact that the SS isn't perfect is part of its charm, but then it doesn't pretend to be. Now that 916 family bikes are becoming scarce prices are creeping up and blah blah, but I remember at the time you had a load of rich blokes who just had to have the blingest 916SPSPSPSPPPSS they're wallets could afford, through to blokes coming off inline 4's and ragging the tits off them and them saying they were shite because they'd bought them from a parallel importer who didn't know how to set one up right out of the crate. Either way the fecking things were everywhere.

I have to say my memory of 916's was down at box hill every sunday- a load of rich wankers in their regulation dainese foggy leathers and RX7 / alpinestar combo. It was the best bike with the best kit and with another ten grand poured on top at least. Trying to make conversation they'd just look at you like a piece of shit unless you were on something of comparable value or exotica, and for a bloke like me a TESI ef or NR750 was a bit hard to come by. All of them had their Ducati sporting club sticker, huddling together like some little clique that was too good for the rest of the car park.

For me the best times was when some veteran of those bends on a tatty 350LC would just tear one a new arsehole with just jeans and trainers, beating the cock with his riding talent on the inside while sporting club tool would be trying to hang off and imagine he was foggy.

That's why even now, I've still got a chip on my shoulder about those bikes and those people.

SS owners were a good crowd, talk to anyone, not pretentious and generally really enjoyed owning their bikes for no other reason it was what it was. And the upshot of it, was that it made you want to own one yourself because of it.

I think SS's will never be lumped under the overused 'iconic' cliché but will be desirable because they were overlooked the first time round, and so there are relatively fewer of the few sold still in good condition and around. And of those there are, owners struggle to let go of them, which is why even now, a really clean one comes up for sale very rarely - we just luv'em too much to be whimsically flogging them

I've spent way more than they're worth on mine trying to restore it back, and in truth as I get the cash to do so I probably will keep doing so. Because its not some uber exclusive rare one off limited spec whatever i don't feel guilty about doing stuff either. Pablo Pirate's is probably the most extreme example of this - where the only thing left of the SS is the frame and bodywork/swinger, or you could go for a Sim900sl restoration - my point being is that you won't lose sleep about did they have this, didn't they have that kind of stuff.

I'd say sod the four valver and stick with two... you're in better company

 

and the fact you can pick up a 4V for only 1500 quid more should tell you something

 

I v nearly bought an 851 in 1991, toss up between that and a zxr750j1, bought the kwak because roger winterburn at windy corner wouldn't give me any discount for cash (money from a serious rtc on a bike) not even £10 off I really wanted it but found him so pompous went the jap route instead. Now in hindsight wish I had bought the duke, wasted past 22 years riding inferior bikes .

 

I knew I had made the right decision when I rode it home 270 miles from Plymouth, then took the 'interesting route for the last 20 miles rather than the straight forward route. And yes the only other bikes that have made me grin like a feckin idiot are my old lc's and my T120 bonnie.

 

Just worked out it will have cost me nearly £2k with the seat, paintwork, forks, wp shock etc; doesn't include changing the pipes if I do it. At least I can always sell my micron cans on .