Find or Sell Motorcycles & Scooters in USA

Rare as rocking horse sh..

Mon, 26 Mar 2012

So last season I spent all but the last round racing on a buckled wheel. How didn't I spot it, you ask. Well, I should have done and when I asked other riders about the weave at high speed the usual reply was 'They all do that, sir'. So I just got on with it.

It was only at the last round at Silverstone where the Pirelli tyre man screwed his face up in disgust, got all his work mates to come and have a look and generally made me feel about this --> me <-- big, that I realised I had a problem.

So I begged Ducati to let me whip the wheel out from their Monster 796 and put my shonky one on their showbike. Then I highsided in race one. Whoops.

You realise that when a bike gets raced, spare parts dry up and the ones that are around are wanting too much money. Just ask anyone with a road-going SV650 how much spare parts prices are compared to other similar bikes. Well it's the same for the 848, especially with 35 bikes on the grid this year, that's 70 sets of wheels, at least..

Luckily for me, I found www.ducatiparts-online.com, a bunch of guys based in The Netherlands but they ship all around the world. They sell hundreds of different parts, new and used. They supplied me with a brand new 848 wheel for less than a lot of people wanted for a second-hand who-knows-if-it's-straight wheel from eBay.

Result = one 848 that rolls in a straight line. I can rule out the high-speed wobbles but I unfortunately cant rule out the highsides...


By Ben Cope


See also: AMA Sportbike: 2012 Daytona 200 Results, Ducati Desmosedici GP12 Officially Unveiled – Video, The Making of the Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – Video.