just for scientific scrutiny?. oh nicola, first i am gonna take of your. best leave it there. for now.
just go with it. i think you should be aiming lower any way. if i where you i would start with something that breathes then sort of work up from there :smile:
Ah yes. I'd have loved to get one when they first came out in 2008 - but no way could I afford it. Then in 2012 I had a bust-up with my business partner and I left the business selling him my share for quite a tidy sum. Secondhand D16s had come down to £40K or less so I started to think "Why not? You only live once, and I'll never have this kind of money again" However, when I started to look at it, I soon realised that being 4 years old they were all cheap because their free servicing and warranty period had run out. The dilemma was whether to go for a cheaper one with some miles on it and a full service history, or a more expensive one with nearly zero miles which had stood for a few years and may have unknown problems. I was pondering the dilemma on this forum Which Desmosedici? | Page 2 | Ducati Forum ... when Martin at Ducati Glasgow popped up and said he had one for sale. "£50,000 - 0 miles on the clock, never registered, never even started, kept under a cover for four years. My own personal Desmosedici. British Rosso spec with full GP exhaust system and all original parts. Full 3 yr manufacturers warranty and 3 yr servicing package. One of the last ones built with top yoke number 1467. Rear paddock stand and full graphics kit will be supplied with DDA, charger etc etc etc. As you would expect, it is as immaculate as the day it was built!" It was undoubtedly the last brand new unsold one in the world and too good an opportunity to miss so I went for it with barely a moment's hesitation. Martin sent it down to me via JHP who set-up the fuelling and the suspension. Then it went off to Louigi Moto to have fibre glass track fairings fitted and painted. I've ridden nothing else for the last two years and have fitted an enlarged fuel tank and carbon wheels (the standard 60 miles tank range and 16.5" rear wheel weren't vey practicable). I've had it on track at Misano, Portimao (two trips), Magny Cours, Mugello and Almeria. I've done the Prescott Hill climb on it, the Nurburgring, had two week-long trips up to Scotland on it and ridden through France and Belgium to Germany and back. This year I'll be doing Jerez, Aragon and Valencia, the Prescott Hill Climb and up to Scotland for a week again as well as taking it over to the IOM for the TT and to Assen for the Ducati Club Nederland Club Races. The way I look at it, it is my last year of free biking on it as the warranty and free servicing runs out in November. It is very easy to ride, with a more comfortable riding position and more tractable engine at low revs than my SPS, but it is much more difficult to ride fast. It is so stiff that it makes even the SPS feel like a comfy sofa and you have to be something of a riding god to push it hard enough to get much feedback from it. You also don't want to drop it, even with track fairings on (a new rearset is over £4K ) so I am a bit of a pussy on track with it (I lapped Portimao faster on my mate's 848) but of course it sounds and feels like nothing else ... the sense of occasion when you ride it is beyond compare. It might not be as fast or as expensive as a Superleggera, but it is the closest thing you can get to a Ducati MotoGP bike, and the last of the old-skool 1000's unburdened with electronic rider aids ... so in my mind it is still the Daddy of Ducatis and probably always will be. Every time I open the garage on it, she makes all the shit I went through with my business in 2012 worthwhile
Dave, that`s a seriously impressive insight into the mentality of making a purchase the cannot be justified with the head but is done anyway. A kind of extreme example of the process we all go through with Ducatis. After all a cheap Jap 600 from the nineties is probably just as fast on the road for most people. Fascinating indeed.
yip, think i was in there when someone was showing interest in it. started in the shop if i mind right.
Here's a great picture of it in Ducati Glasgow with Martin posing next to it with Debbie Evans - the stunt rider from the Matrix Reloaded
