Reading Ian Falloons Catalog of Ducati 1946-2005.. Reading about the 916series and especially about the 748r.. He lists the production runs for each of the 748 series.. what's confused me is on the Yoke plaque on the 748r I believe the numbers go up to 1500 but I stand to be corrected, yet by adding the total amount of R's produced worldwide between 1999 and 2002 it adds up to 2510... that's UK Aus USA Jpn and Eur I believe .. I've also read that they allegedly made a so called anniversary model of the 2002 748r e.g. The last 500 produced? Can anyone clear this up? I know Ducati never make anything easy.. but..
I'm interested to see what comes from this. I'm pretty sure the earlier R's didn't have a plaque on the the yokes. I think when the Ohlins front fork models appeared so did the plaque. I've got a couple of Ducati books but they are pretty vague
Also According to Falloons book there appears to be a 748r a 748racing and a 748 racing special... adding to the confusion.. I always thought there was the R for road or track use and then the RS for racing purposes only.. so where this special comes from and the 748 anniversary I've no idea...
Yeah RS had no road going gear on it, as Cookster said, very special. Theres one on fleabay for 20K...and thats the price not the mileage. I remember reading something about a Neiman Marcus edition,
Poor pics but hopefully you can see how he's got a listing for an R a Racing and a Racing special eg 3 different specs? 748r specs amongst others below... Below again.. 748 Racing and 748 racing special specs..
The differences in valve timing ... Page 1... The R Page2... The Racing and then the racing special.. Note the valve spec differences between the R and the Racing special on page 2 completely different to the the R on page 1...
I Think its just the 2 748R (Racing) 748RS (Racing Special) These are listed as slightly older equipped R+RS (Showa front forks): Then 2001-2002 R is ohlins front fork model (facelift model) which is listed collectively with the 95-2002 models. I think this one has the overhead injector. Not sure if they were still making the RS My book mostly goes by changes per year and theres nothing about the RS in it. It is a Falloon book Just my interpretation
IIRC the 748 Racing refers to the race bikes between 97 and 98 which became the 748RS in 99/2000. It appears my password for the racing support web page no longer works so I can't check. The limited run of 100 748Ls sold through the Neiman Marcus catalogue were only available in the US and were 748BPs with silver paint, carbon mud guard and I think a carbon chain guard and none of the goodies in the SP and SPS. Not heard of an "anniversary" 748R. Ohlins forks were fitted to post internals upgrade models from 2001. At some stage in the production, the 2002MY 748Rs came with slab side fairings and colour coded mirrors as standard but not an Ohlins damper. That was available as an upgrade and in some cases was fitted by the dealer to help sell the last few UK bikes. Although some would have you believe that the upgraded internals Ohlins model only came in red, it also came in the much better colour scheme of yellow with white detail on the mono seat unit . Andy
http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=41391.0 This piece mentions a 2003 anniversary model, also interestingly this one had one RS head and another standard head.. so a bit of a bitsa.. So with the 2002 Slab type 748r with ohlins how many were built for Europe ? Does the number run to 1500 total? And is that European or worldwide numbers?
TMK, Ducati didn't make a 2003MY bike, certainly not for Europe. There were a small number of bikes still kicking around at dealers that got registered in 2003 plus the odd "collector's" bike that got registered some time after the original manufacturing date. In the UK, the late 748Rs didn't sell that well and dealers had to throw things like the Ohlins steering damper at it to move the bike out of the door. The only way to get accurate figures is to e-mail Ducati in Italy and even they will be hard pressed to tell which fairing set they got fitted with at the factory. I know that due to a particular shortage at the factory, some yellow fairing sets were resprayed red fairings. I had a scan through the posts you linked and to my mind, whilst the guy did a nice restoration, he's taken a lot of "what he was told" at face value which quite frankly was a load of bollocks. The US market is a law unto itself so anything is possible but an "anniversary" model run of 500 just for the US ? Andy
I know it goes as high as 848 but I'm afraid I don't know the actual number. The lady in Italy I understand is very nice and on most occasions is happy to provide information like this. Andy
The 2000MY 748R with Showa didn't have a plaque at all, though I have heard of people writing to Ducati Italy and being sent one. The Showa suspension was not just average stuff, it was the best Showa.
After much more researching (mainly overnight) I think I've found the answer to my own question regarding the R Racing and RS.. Between 1998 and 2000 the 748 had a R version which was purposely built for WSS much the same as a road going R but, it had a racing gearbox from the 916 and full carbon bodywork.. then in 2000 they produced the 748 RS ( Racing Special) with different injectors camshaft and a titanium 54mm exhaust system... so in short there were 3 versions... the Road going 748R the 748 Racing and the the 748RS or Racing Special..
Noods, from that book you can pull the data to make it more useable. However I believe there was MY02 production into 2002 which my copy does not include. AFAIK the plaque numbers are based on the number of each MY produced. Anyway here is a cut of the production up to CY2001, I think there is at least 6 months of MY02 built 2002 data missing to the end of 748 production although that may be incorrect. MY00 Yellow Eu spec 139 built 1999, 551 built 2000 total 690 UK spec 150 built 2000 total 150 USA spec 70 built 2000 total 70 Aus spec 12 built 2000 total 12 Jap spec 20 built 1999, 54 built 2000 total 74 MY00 Yellow overall total 996 Red No MY00 red bikes were produced Total MY00 production 996 MY01 Yellow Eu spec 106 built 2000, 67 built 2001 total 173 UK spec 1 built 2000, 20 built 2001 total 21 USA spec 100 built 2001 total 100 Aus spec 20 built 2001 total 20 Jap spec 14 built 2000, 131 built 2001 total 145 MY01 Yellow overall total 459 Red Eu spec 136 built 2000, 259 built 2001 total 395 UK spec 60 built 2001 total 60 USA spec 0 Aus spec 15 built 2001 total 15 Jap spec 12 built 2000, 71 built 2001 total 83 MY01 Red overall total 553 Total MY01 production 1012 MY02 Yellow Eu spec 89 built 2001 total 89 UK spec 15 built 2001 total 15 USA spec 15 built 2001 total 15 Aus spec 12 built 2001 total 12 Jap spec 170 built 2001 total 170 MY02 Yellow overall total 301 Red Eu spec 177 built 2001 total 177 UK spec 64 built 2001 total 64 USA spec 0 Aus spec 10 built 2001 total 10 Jap spec 50 built 2001 total 50 MY01 Red overall total 301 Total MY02 production to 2001 602 Total 748R production 1999 to 2001 2610 Total yellow 748R 1756 Total red 748R 854 748Racing and Racing Special MY98 Racing 20 built 1997 MY99 Racing 17 built 1998, 1 built 1999 Total Racing 38 MY00 Racing Special 37 Built 1999, 15 built 2000 MY01 Racing Special 42 built 2000 Total Racing Special 94 Total Racing and Racing Special 132
