(assuming you havent already got it) Can I also recommend desmoquattro superbikes by Ian Falloon..about 40 pages of 851/888 stuff with some cracking photos..
I`ve had a look thru some of the other model threads(don`t want to upset anyone here,seriously)but is it me, or are we more crazy about our model than other members are theirs,or are we just plain crazy to start with?
sparkin, no we're not crazy mate. It's just that we appreciate the finer things in life, bikes with real class, with decent performance to. All the other dukes are cool, but having had a wide selection of them I really do prefer the851/888 bikes now.
Originally posted by Red SPS sparkin, no we're not crazy mate. It's just that we appreciate the finer things in life, bikes with real class, with decent performance to. All the other dukes are cool, but having had a wide selection of them I really do prefer the851/888 bikes now.
That`s excactly how I feel Robin Oh dear what have I started!
I'm 38,don't consider myself old,but started off in 90 with an 851,then 888,then SP4,then had to sell it to buy a house.Spent 8 years with the 748 trying to make it be something it couldn't be- an 888.So sold it and returned this year with the SP5.Absolute and utter bliss.They are SO special.Brutal and with a presence that the 748/916/996/998 range will never have.They refined it all away.I will prepare myself for the onslaught from the 748/9*6 group!!
Jasper hit the nail on the head. These bikes ARE special. I think we all feel the same way about them. Don't forget, they were built before Ducati became a household word. They weren't 'trendy' and thus were not sold to every flash harry with the cash to buy. In a way - and in my humble opinion - that's what has taken the shine from all of the later bikes, be they SP/SPS/R etc etc. None of them have the 'presence' of the 888 simply because there are so many of them out there. Riding through the narrow villages in and around Durham, my SP4 turns heads/ears like nothing I've ever known - whether in the company of rice-burners or other Ducatis - simply because it's a bike most bystanders (bikers included) have never before seen 'in the flesh'. Fast bikes, testing the SP4 in 1992 called it "the most conspicuous bike in the world". (...and even today, nothing's changed!!)