I’ve owned a handful of bikes over the years but certainly one breed stands out. The Ducati Sport Classic is a bike that was misunderstood for its time and blamed for its harsh riding position and warping plastic tanks. Its faults were overshadowed however by their unique look and style. A vintage looking bike that you could have sworn rolled out of Ace Cafe yet modern reliability and rideability set itself apart. Now,  after more than 10 years since the first sport classic was released they are selling for double and sometimes triple what they sold for as new. 

During this time the sport classics went without much competition. Triumph and Norton’s certainly have recently come out with new cafe inspired bikes but the sport classic with a fresh pair of tubeless wheels and newer tires outpace even the new thruxton R. But it was never about outright speed with these bikes. 

Riding a Sport 1000, you feel nostalgic of Ducati’s past bikes. The sound of a dry clutch, although may sound like a can of nuts and bolts, harks back to the 80’s and 90’s when Ducati was dominating the superbike tracks. 

As I mentioned before, the bike is certainly not built out of rainbows and sunshine. The riding position leaves those that are shorter than 5’11” with aching wrists and lower back pain. The plastic gas tank is known to swell due to ethanol unless you coat the inner tank. Cheap chrome on the top of the forks are known to chip and flake. The powder coated engine block tends to fade and chip as well over time. The tubed wheels although very period correct are heavy heavy heavy.  And then there is of course the cost of these appreciated bikes. Like the 930/964/993 porsche’s these niche bikes have gained a huge following. And the prices reflect that. 

When I picked N*5 up