2000 DUCATI 748 R

Ducati’s ‘middleweight’ superbike is now a chunky 898cc beastie. But it wasn’t always that way. We take a look back at the nippy little 748 that started it all off.

It’s funny how little snippets stay with you over the years. It helps if they’re memories of awesome times of course. And the 2000 launch of Ducati’s 748R was just such a gig. I was working at RiDE magazine in Peterborough at the time, and the chances of getting an invite to the chi-chi Ducati ride seemed remote. But someone dropped out, and a final last minute spot went to the glove-testing guys from the novice rider’s magazine. Hurray!One consequence of this was a last-minute flight booking, and sadly there was only a business class seat left from London to Bologna. So as I settled down in the grey leather BA seat with a pre-9/11 set of proper steel cutlery and china crockery, things were looking pretty good.

They got better of course. I’d been to Italy, and even Misano a few times before, but this was my first time on a Ducati launch. The 748R was the best that Ducati could offer in terms of handling. It was wearing Pirelli Dragon Evo rubber. We were riding at Misano circuit, 80 miles from the Ducati factory, and the bikes had been set up by Ducati test riders. So, the best-handling Italian sports bike, on the best Italian track tyres, at a legendary Italian track. What could be better?

Not much in fact. The bike was predictably incredible, the Pirellis let me lean and lean…and lean. The Brembo brakes were at a different level to the run-of-the-mill road bike brakes common in the late 1990s. And while the suspension was worthy-but-not-yellow-springed Showa rather than Ohlins, it was top-notch kit, and had been set up to perfection (the 748R eventually got the Ohlins treatment in 2001).

“The bike was predictably incredible, letting me lean... and lean... and lean.”

And the engine… Ducati’s never been shy about sticking race pipes on its test machinery, and the 748R was no exception. So the launch bikes were tweaked to the nines, with Termignoni pipes and race ECUs. Okay, it was still only about 112bhp claimed, but the noise, and the screaming power delivery made the 748R feel like a full-bore superbike. The engine internals had been upgraded with World Supersport racing in mind, meaning titanium rods, different heads and larger valves. The fuel injection was also aimed at the WSS paddock, with ‘shower’-type injectors and a larger airbox.