Buying a 2008 Ducati 1098R...need some schooling

What are the pros and cons in owning a bike of this magnitude?? It is euro spec, about 6,600 km and is €14,500.

It would be for road use and hopefully a track day or several on some of the European GP tracks (like Assen).

Or should I consider 1199/1299 for similar money with newer bits?

Also, how hard to title/register in the states when I PCS....is euro spec a title nightmare??

 

I've been told valve adjustments are a nightmare since the entire motor has to be dropped. Beautiful and awesome sounding bike tho!

 

You can do the valve jobs in the bike. All of them. The 1199/1299 just needs the rear subframe completely removed from the bike to do the vertical cylinder and the horizontal cylinder requires radiator to be dropped.


1199 is a better bike. Substantially. And the 1299 is even better than that. I would buy one of those before any 84x/109x bikes. The 109X is still one of my favorite looking bikes of all time but I couldn't stand riding it.

 

I also figure parts for the 1098R will be painful on the wallet.

 

Get a panigale if you want to ride it. Or track it. Or race it.

If you just wanna look at it, flip a coin...

 

I was looking for a 998 FE at first....but they are kind of high in price. For a bit more i can have a 12 or 13 year newer bike with the XX99

 

Parts and maintenance are more expensive on the 1098R than the 1199/1299. Maintenance intervals are longer on the newer models.

 

I'd do some checking around on the title issue. It may be a nightmare to get it through US Customs/emissions EPA stuff. Do your due-diligence there for sure. The carbon tail section on the 1098R (the ducati part) is $5100 dealer cost, so when I had my 1098R and found that out, I was too scared to ride it on the street, so I sold it. Your mileage may vary. I just don't like riding a bike with the haunting fear in the back of my mind going, "Don't crash this thing!" That takes a lot of the fun out of riding, in my opinion.

 

Replacement anything is my main issue...dont need to have a loan for something breaking

 

As said earlier, maintenance intervals are now much longer on the newer models.

 

If you get a 1098 for racing, you will get plenty of schooling.

 

Ah, interesting. I was told that by the Ducati Milwaukee guys. They said the R model was different than the other 109X bikes and they steered me away from an R for that reason.

 

I had a 1098S. I unassed it after 2 weekends. I liked the motor and brakes, but the ergos sucked balls. The tank was so skinny that it was useless for stability while braking, and it felt really weird when trying to hang off because of the tank and shape of the tail section.

It pulled hard coming out of corners, but was just too uncomfortable and hard on my hands/wrists.

 

I would get owned by a Grom...

 

Likely.

 

I rode my friends 1098 back to back with my 1199 and couldn't wait to get off of his bike. The 1199 is so light, and some of the same issue that Broome mentioned above.

 

Looks like i will lean towards an 1199/1299...close to the same money and a better overall platform

 

I've got a pretty 1299 in stock

 

I can get you the exhaust sorted for about the price of a set of tires. Then there's more left for tires.

 

Get it from D&D. No matter where you live, it will be worth the drive. Seriously. I drove like 13-14hrs one-way to get mine from there.