BRITDUC

The 1997 Ducati 916SPS is a unicorn

Every bike has a story...

As some might know, the 916SPS was the first 916 with an 996 motor and was homogenized for the SBK race series of the day. Ducati sold most of these bikes to race teams but few were sold to private entities, this bike was one of said few. When I was getting into Ducati's there was a fellow in my town that was racing Ducati's at LRRS in NH (the series I later ran in) and he would have his bike serviced at a friends shop which I would frequent. On a few occasions I would see his 1996 916 and later his 1997 916SPS and would essentially sit and start at the bike.

Much like the 851Special, this gent became a friend and the bike later came to my shop for a possible rebuild that I never had the time to do. Over the years I figured this fellow had these bikes still stashed somewhere and that old itch came back and would not leave me alone. Much of this was that it was fun to build the 851special because it was owned by a friend, this bike carried that same story and they both were in my shop together 15 years before but both were neglected by me as my priorities changed.

One day I was at my Mother's home and was chatting with another old friend who was there looking over some house project's he had been hired to tackle. In passing I asked if he had any new projects, knowing this gent is always playing with old cars and bikes and he said: "no much really, I do have a few old Ducati's I am playing with". I looked at him and told him whos they were and what they were and he was struck by my connecting the dots. He had bartered contracting work with the original owner (my old friend) for the bikes toward contracting work. After a few minutes of laughing, I told him he should sell me the SPS, because no one else in their right mind would ever want it.

Like the 851, a year passed of me pestering him on selling me the SPS and finally he gave in, knowing I was the only dumbass in the world that would want such a neglected old racebike. I paid him more than the bike was worth in parts and we moved it over to my shop, where once in private I said: "what the hell is wrong with me"

Here are the 916s when I first went to see them:

This pic makes these bikes look a LOT better than they were. Once home, My son Ledger didn't waste a second to hop on her and give a big smile, at least someone was happy!!

Teardown

The teardown process is fun, you never know what you are going to find from Ducati on these pre 2000 bikes (as mentioned on the 851Special). You also see all the bad news!! This bike had a lot of it.

A short list of issues found:

• Dented frame from clipons hitting
• Scraped swingarm from racetrack crash
• Failed metal in the tank
• Exhaust mid pipe dented from rearset tabs bending from a race crash.
• A shit ton more.

As you can see, the motor was covered in fuel from the tank failing.

This motor has about 300 miles on it, sure does not look it!!

Here the engine is outside getting degreased, man it was a mess!