888LTD

My first DesmoQuattro was a 1993 888 SP0. I promptly put staintune pipes on it and drove it as hard as I could. In doing so I also blew a belt on a cold day and had to completely rebuild the motor. I was 22 years old and was fairly fearless. While the bike was apart I decided to do some drop in performance upgrades. I called Earlnado and asked him about the 12.5:1 FBF units he had. He suggested them as the bike gets much nastier up top. So it began.

During this time, I was trying to get the Doc to stop buying american iron. He was on his second Harley powered machine and I was starting to fear for his and Woodman's lives. As many of my friends will tell you, I am a very bad influence. I am also very good at digging on the net. As per my normal fashion, I started sending Wally links to craigslist ads. As it was, 888s were getting more and more rare. This was around 2006 and I was only able to find one or two anywhere in the world for sale.

After a few months, the perfect machine popped up in Washington DC. Better yet, it was a 1994 LTD, the last of the last.

Doc and Woodman went to the back, then to Uhaul, then to DC. What they returned with was a very nice looking, completely stock 888LTD #84 with about 6000 ticks on the clock. This was around the time I started racing so when I got on the bike I was shocked with the lack of suspension and braking this thing had on the front end. Getting off a race setup bike and getting a street machine usually makes a bike seem like a Laz-ee-boy but in this case it was more like a wet noodle.

Right off the bat I suggested full floating rotors, woody clip ons and to rebuild the front end. The Doc decided to go a few steps past that. About a month later, I was handed and custom Ohlins R&T front end from a Suzuki 600 with 916 Lowers and radial mounts. Additionally he handed me a set of spanking Brembo Radial calipers, two Radial Masters and a set of woodies. Wholey $4k in one Pop but man how to do things right! The reason from the custom R&T was because the Doc wanted to keep the stock triples with the LTD name badge. This also forced me to custom machine reservoir mounts.

I don't have shots of the original machine when we pulled it from the truck but here is the bike after it's first run through.

[[ |link= |500px]]

[[ |link= |500px]]

[[ |link= |500px]]

[[ |link= |500px]]

[[ |link= |500px]]

[[ |link= |500px]]

[[ |link= |500px]]

[[ |link= |500px]]

[[ |link= |500px]]

[[ |link= |500px]]

[[ |link= |500px]]

[[ |link= |500px]]

[[ |link= |500px]]

[[ |link= |500px]] [[ |link= |500px]]