God, I've missed this

The Ducati 750SS.

For those of a forgetful nature... I bought some superb condition OE
silencers on Ebay, and 24 hours after collecting them from the UR, one
of the scabby cans on the bike blew.

But it was welded onto the header pipe by a decade of corrosion, and
after I'd expended hours of swearing, I handed it to my dealer who swore
just as loud and long, and in the end, the only way to remove it
involved destroying the header pipes....

....which cost £230 and no, 900SS ones *are not the fucking same*...

But I located a set on Fleabay for £45, and my dealer fitted them and
the cans, and also new exhaust collets which had corroded away to the
thickness of lace, while I was in Foreign.

And I picked up the bike today and my, it looks five or six years
younger with the new smart cans, and the snarl as I gave it rhubarb down
the dual carriageway reminded me of why I'd bought it in the first
place, ten years ago.

Ducatis rock. Mightily, utterly.

 

<high five>

916's excepted obviously

 

(The Older Gentleman) had a
sudden rush of blood to the head and wrote in

And your point is?

 

AOL

 

message

I've never owned one, in fact I've only owned two bikes ever and they've
both been Hondas (XLR 125, and now a 05 Hornet 600). But, a neighbour has
just bought himself one of these...

<http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2007-Ducati-1098-S-670-miles_W0QQitemZ120172858159>

Now I know I need to own a Ducati... Purely based on the sound and the
looks heh. Is it actually likely to be anygood compared to say, a ZX-10R or
a Gixxer Thou or something? Forgive my lack of knowledge heh. I realise
compared to my awesome stable of bike ownership it will be considerably
better heh.

Next summer basically it's a big Ducati or an Aprillia RSV Mille-R.

 

Not that I've ridden one, but in essence, yes. What it won't be is
day-to-day usable like (say) a Gixxer Thou, which even a novice could
ride around all day at 3k revs.

It will be more expensive to run, although Ducati have lengthened their
service intervals now. And there will be times when it will infuriate
you beyond measure. Those occasions are more than outweighed by the
times you will swear by, rather than at, it.

You might be better off getting one of the 'gentler' Ducatis to start
with. A 600SS or Monster would be a good start, although they'll feel
slow after a Hornet 600 which will be faster than my 750SS, in a
straight line.

Something like an ST2 or ST3 would be good - proven mechanicals, comfy,
well-equipped, especially if you get one with panniers, and amazingly
cheap used, especially the ST2.

Hog will be along in a minute to sell you his ST4S.

 

I wonder why the first owner punted it out with 287 miles on it and
now the second owner wants to sell it with 670 miles on it?

As TOG has already said, the gixxer thou will be an easier bike to
ride given your experience. They're very forgiving and pull from
anywhere in the rev range but once they get going it takes something
(and someone) very good to keep them in sight. The 10R is a different
kettle of fish: they're fast, handle well and just *feel* as if you're
on a race bike. I'd imagine the 1098 will be more similar to this than
the Suzuki.

For the money you'd pay for a 1098 I'd buy a C1 or C2 model (1) 10R,
put some more bits on it to make it even more silly and leave the rest
of my money in the bank.

(1) The 10R for the more discerning rider. Who wants something that's
been made easier to ride?

 

Probably because they didn't read the roadtests before buying one &
quickly realised what a huge mistake they'd made.

--
Krusty
www.MuddyStuff.co.uk
Off-Road Classifieds

'02 MV Senna '03 Tiger 955i '96 Tiger '79 Fantic Hiro 250

 

Just yesterday in my mirrors I saw an oversized lad (big he was) full
of leathers riding a nice red thing I did not recognise.

I noticed it had some weird lights, one above the other at the front,
and wondered if they were actually any good at night, they seemed
fairly small in relation to others, but I know little about lights...

waited for him to pass me by and saw it was an 998 and it still looked
like a toy bike he was so big on it.

Andrew j

 

No he wouldn't appreciate it enough.

 

Just to clarify, I wasn't interested in that one, it was just a convenient
link

I'm not a riding god, and do sod all miles per year on the bike to be
honest. I'm also probably not gonna track it ever heh, and I'd probably
never get anymore than 60% of what the bike can do in the corners if I'm
honest.

I wouldn't be looking to spend the kinda coin that 1098 was up for. That's
just too much for a bike that will only be used as a toy IMHO...

 

message

Those downsides are all ok given my frankly shameful annual bike mileage.

Hmmm, again, as I only really use it as a plaything, I don't really want to
go any slower on the straight bits

I'm gonna have to Google now to see what all those things are...

 

ITYF that a Ducati, despite its lack of nominal horsepower, is actually
a bloody hard thing to chase.

My 750SS produces something like 65bhp (claimed) and there are a fair
few ukrm-ers who will testify to having to work hard to keep it in sight
on several French Runs.

On really fast open roads, of course, it gets left behind....

What's nicest about it is the way it teaches you to ride without using
the brakes. One reason is that just shutting the throttle instantly
sheds mph. Another is that you can go round corners faster than you'd
believe - on the right roads, anyway.

My Duke is now just over 10 years old and coming up to 29k miles. It's
still on the original brake pads, believe it or not.

As a plaything, in terms of the sheer sensory feedback and fun it
delivers, it's sublime.

 

Don't bother, the 2 and 3 and even the 4 (non S) all use Dog engines. It
took until 1998 (from the demise of the bevel drives) and the 996 for Ducati
to figure out how to make good bikes.
TBF they have excelled somewhat since although nobody wanted to buy the 999.