Ducati Sporting Club UK > Model Specific - Discussion, Technical Problems and Help > 998 / 996 / 916 / 748 > Help with buying a 748R

[Garry Smith]

Re 748R - a couple of things to be aware of: buy the latest model you can, primarily because Ducati changed the design of the Conrods in the later bikes as it was not uncommon for the original Ti Rods to fail - I know, mine exited the crankcase at approx 11,000 RPM, not at all pretty - but at least I've now got a very interesting paper weight for my desk! 01 model year onwards have Ohlins front and rear and carbon airbox (00 had Showas and plastic airbox) 02 on had the 998 style solid fairings and a slightly revised seat unit paint job.

I bought one new in 2000 and yes, initially I had all the running problems described above. However, once I took the bike to JHP (Ducati Coventry) it was transformed - if you buy one take it there and get it appropriately chipped and set up, better still the PC3 works really well on this bike and JHP will map it on the dyno for you.

The bike has a unique character and combines the reviness of a 600 four with the grunt of a twin - its sort of in between the two. I loved mine.

As per the above posting if you need to know anything specific drop me a u2u because I carried out various mods to mine over time - different pipes, chips, gas flowing, porting, etc.

Happy hunting!