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  Ducati 996 SPS - you know you want one ...  

The SPS was the culmination of the development of the original 916 as a roadbike. Producing a lot more power than the billy-basic model and endowed with extra grunt over the SP, the S really is the one to get if you want the full-on Ducati experience. Bearing in mind you can pick up good secondhand ones now for under £8,000 it's not really worth buying a lower spec.

All 916s are a bit extreme with their riding position, but the wrist-heavy crouch does give you great feel for the front end. Steering is sedate rather than razor sharp, but once into a turn the bike is ultra stable, so you can just keep leaning over until you fall off.

The motor delivers huge amounts of grunt, and with the thumping drive of the V-twin giving the rear tyre a chance to grip, the throttle can be wound on early exiting bends, so the SPS is a difficult bugger to pass on a twisty road or track.

Marchesini magnesium wheels are worth fitting as they improve the steering greatly, helping the bike to turn in faster than the slightly leisurely standard machine.

The suspension is pretty harsh, but it's the stiff setup that gives the 916 such tremendous feel and corner speed. Soften things up and the handling suffers, which kinda misses the point of the thing.

It's also worth running the bike with the steeper head angle set, although the bar clearance to the fairing is a bit tight. But steering response is much improved and allows you to turn with those pesky 750s. Gets a bit flappy over the bumpy stuff but, hey, what are steering dampers for?

If you can live with the rattly dry clutch, unforgiving suspension and extreme riding position, the SPS will give you a pretty unique riding experience. Loadsa grunt, loadsa lean, loadsa style.

  Ducati 996 SPS - an unhappy tale.

Having brought the 916SP3 from a friend, it started the old hankering for the Ducati V twin thing all over again. You'd have of thought I would have learned my lesson when I had the 748SP, but no, I still had this thing in my mind. And you'd think I would be happy with the SP3 ....

Anyway, I saw a nice 996SPS for sale at Pro Twins over at Godstone, so they they took the '02 Blade, gave me £5200 for that which was the deposit for the SPS. I then sold the SP3 for £5000. The SPS was £9000 so I had change. The deal was done, or so I thought.

I picked it up on the Saturday, after having to wait 4 hours for it - they found it did not have an MOT. It was also serviced, new belts and all that. As I say, 4 hours later I left for home. It was the hottest day of the year, so I just stuck it in the garage and collapsed in the garden.

The next day was Sunday and I thought I would take it out for a test ride, so I met up with a few of the chaps and we set off. It was so hot we had to stop a few times to cool down, so we had chance to look at the new Duke. First off John noticed the front tyre was a 60 profile instead of a 70. Then we started to notice stone chips everywhere.

When I got home I decided to strip the fairing off and have a good look at the bike. The oil cooler was leaking quite badly, the panels had all been re-painted, the exhaust was covered in stone chips, as were the fork legs. There was minor damage to the fork top adjusters, the bar levers, the steering damper - even one of the mirrors. All in all this did not look like a mint 2000 mile bike ....

The next day, Monday, I called Pro Twins. I was not best pleased as you can imagine. They said they would come and pick the bike up that day. That turned into the next morning, but the chap turned up, had a quick look round and said that they would repair the damage. I asked had it been in an accident, and he said not as far as he knew, but he took it away and I phoned the head man. After some prompting he admitted it had been in an accident but had been repaired. If I had been told at the beginning the bike had been in an accident I would never have had bought it. Pro Twins promised they would put everything right to my satisfaction, but by then I'd had enough so asked for my money back.

So, my latest encounter with Ducati was a bit of a disaster. And the moral of this tale? Never believe what you are told, but have a good look at any secondhand bike and reject it if it doesn't look honest. I think I was a bit blinded by desire.

Never mind, onwards and upwards ... on Saturday I pick up my new bike, a brand new GSXR1000 - so back to Jap fours. Happy days.