Bought a tatty 748bip in the summer and got it right for our annual trip to a European track (Assen this time), and was amazed by how great it was. very similar to my old Tigcraft Rotax 640 single I used to race in British Supermono, just lovely. So what I really wanted was a yellow SP and after a long look just luckily bought one, 1996 with a genuine 3800 miles on and one owner, massive paperwork bundle, stands, cover, lovely. Hard to tell it's not new, never mind 19 years old!! Tyres from 2000 so fairly slow ride so far but obviously stronger engine, so far so good. I have questions but they can wait. Thought I'd drop in and say 'Hi'
Very low mileage for a desirable bike. I have a 1999 748 SPS UK model and both deliver a lot more excitement in my opinion compared to the base model, very nice and revvy.
Thanks for the good feedback Ok so here's one I took when I went for a look at it. It was really hard to tell much during the first pedestrian ride over to my partner's house where it sits in her garage. Although it definitely felt revvier. Quite frustrating hopefully get it home over the weekend! It had a belt service three years ago and had done about 5 miles since then! I've done another 50 but didn't want to rev it hard since unsure if belts need changing after three years sitting. What's the recommendation for this?
Always advisable to get them done if the bike has been standing. I have used a couple of my bikes for local journeys when the belts were over two years old and the bike had barely been used and I have not had a problem. The real answer is would you be willing to risk it with such a relatively rare bike mechanically. The cams for instance will be very rare and you have little chance of picking up a set without looking long and hard as I did over a number of years. There were only 20 of my model SPS imported into the UK in 1999 and at least some of those are now written off and I know of at least three of them as I have had the cams and pistons and heads\valves etc. out of two of them. Despite owning my bike for 6 years I have been able to get hold of very few unique parts for the SPS engine and although your SP was brought in in slightly greater numbers you do not really, I think, want to run the risk of having the engine fail. But it is your call ultimately.
Well clearly I'll have to follow the schedule and frankly such a rare find with low miles I need to maintain impeccable history. But it makes me laugh we don't look at manufacture date, could be on shelf for 10 years then the moment it's in an engine doing nothing the clock starts
