Description
***This bike has been sold.*** This brand new 1988 Ducati 851 Tricolore Kit Bike is available for purchase from its owner and former Ducati champion Jeff Nash at AMS Ducati Dallas. This bike comes with its original crate along with full spares kit and additional OEM parts no longer available. This bike is absolutely perfect with zero miles.
History
It was the Ducati 851 which first served notice that high-performance sportbikes and World Superbike racing would no longer be Japanese-only affairs. Where before Ducatis made do with simple air-cooled motors, the 851 had liquid-cooling, four-valve desmodromic cylinder heads and electronic fuel-injection. In 1990 Raymond Roche rode a factory 851 to the World Superbike championship, the first of 13 titles to date for Ducati.World Superbike racers were required to be based on production streetbikes. One way to get the highest-specification base model possible was to build homologation specials – expensive, limited-edition versions that needed relatively minor modification to be track-ready. Ducati took this so-called "kit bike" approach with the 851 Superbike.
Differences from showroom stock include a braced swingarm, close-ratio gearbox, ventilated dry clutch and lightweight magnesium Marvic wheels. No speedometer, just a tachometer and temperature gauge. The motor was upgraded with race-grind camshafts, a hot-rodded electronic control unit, ram-air duct and free-breathing reverse-cone mufflers. It was good for about 120 horsepower.