The Ducati 916 is the arguably the most iconic motorcycle design of the twentieth century, a blend of function and beauty that only an Italian manufacturer can produce. It’s style broke the mould of motorcycle design and is still being emulated today. The combination of fabulous looks, a monstrous 900cc V twin engine and sublime handling made it a one of the most coveted collector bikes of the period and one of the most collectable Ducati’s today, some 32 years after its initial introduction in 1994.

The 916 SPS, or ‘Sport Production Special’ was introduced in the latter half of 1996 as a ’97 model and featured a 996cc engine with new stronger crankcases developed for WSB, as well as 36mm inlet valves, revised injector modules and upgraded camshafts giving a ( claimed ) mighty 134 bhp at the rear wheel. A lighter ‘Corsa’ frame with thinner tubing was used with Showa forks and an Öhlins rear shock. It is important to remember that Ducati’s constant race and road development program gave Carl Fogarty four World Championship wins from 1994 to 1998 on a 916 Superbike and made it possible for the SPS to be available to road customers.

This very original example UK dealer supplied example was registered 1st August 1997. Having changed hands in 2006 it has seen little use and has covered just 7,382 genuine miles with four former keepers. Recently returned to road use the bike has had a full service including cam belts, battery and new clutch master cylinder and is supplied with an MoT until July 2027. Invoices for this work are supplied along with a history file that contains the factory handbooks, service history and the spare EPROM chip.

This well presented and fine running SPS is no. 262 of only 404 examples built in 1997 and just 1,664 bikes produced in total ( including the 202 SPS Foggy Replicas ). With just not enough of these bikes to go round these original SPS examples are highly collectable and are not coming to the market that often, especially with this low milage.