Ducati Panigale V4SP #876

I couldn’t resist it any longer!
I was finally in the position where I was able to spend some money on a new bike, and the V4SP was the one bike that I really, really liked. It’s the background on my desktop, it’s the screensaver on my phone. The only problem was that they were all sold out and it was quite a stretch in the finances to buy one anyway.
Then one came up at my local dealer and was advertised on ebay. I went down to look at it and it really was amazing. It was £500 more than list price, but whatever, it looked worth every penny! I talked numbers with the salesman and they were all within budget. I just needed to check insurance, so I took a card, they emailed me a quote and I left feeling excited.
A few days later I was having real trouble with the insurance: my current insurer couldn’t quote online, and when I called they couldn’t quote over the phone and said they would get back to me… but they never did. I tried again the next day and got the same response.
While looking on ebay I noticed that the V4SP at the dealer was now sold. Bugger.
A week later another one came up for sale in Coventry, but it was wearing an extra set of fairing painted red – who wants a red SP?!? – although it came with all the original fairing, but was £5k over list price. I called to see if I could do a deal, but it was already sold.
Now feeling a bit dejected, I left resigned to face the facts that I wouldn’t get one. I even sent an email to DUK in the hope they might be able to help, but unfortunately not.
A week later on a friday lunchtime and I was looking on ebay and noticed another SP was up for sale at Chris Walker Motorcycles in Grantham, and it was at list price. This time I pounced and called them straight away. Sod it. I got put through to Chris himself and it turns out that he had ordered this for himself, but it had taken so long to arrive that the season was now over (it was November after all!) and he didn’t want it sitting around in the showroom gathering dust. I stuck down a £500 deposit to secure the bike, and the rest was arranged by the wonderful Mark who saw to my every need.
A BikeTrac was fitted, the DataTag applied, a paddock stand thrown in for free and even free delivery all the way from Grantham to sunny Essex!
The bike came with Zero miles, and looked so beautiful in the sun as it was rolled out of the van.
I’ve managed to put around 100 miles on it before the cold and wet weather see it tucked away now for winter. There’s a couple of bits of carbon that I want to add, as well as some mods like removing the reflectors off the front forks (which double as a brake caliper spacer, so you can’t just take them off!) but I have already applied my own and some club stickers!
She’s a joy to ride, even though I’m running it in, and feels so light and easy. It really makes the 748S feel agricultural in comparison.
Once the weather improves I can finish running it in, get the first service done and then we can go play on some trackdays…