Hear horror stories about these bikes, what’s the opinion? Worth buying one or not?
As long as it has service history it will be fine… get one with decent mileage that has been used rather than one that has just sat still for most of its life. If you can ‘gel’ with the appearance of the later 749 its a much better bike and prices are pretty much a giveway atm.
I have a Ducati 749 and have found a way to make it as or more reliable then any jap bike ,
True I have only had it 4 months but have only been on the road once ,
After 5 miles it’s proved to be as good as any honda
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Pin
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PS I will update after I have done 5 more miles
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Which bit of reliable are you referring to?
I guess if you are measuring reliability over 5 miles, then your bike never sees the rain 
Italian bikes are not unreliable these days: Aprilia have a very good track record, and if you look at the number of Agusta and Moto Guzzis and Benellis still on the roads.
How many Italian bikes have had manufacturer recalls for serious bits like Suzuki’s GSXR’s rectifiers?
woooooshhhhhh and it went over your head 
Best laugh, I’ve had in a long time!
Errr…yes…right over my head 
Hard to read these things on smartphone.
Maybe 5 miles for reliability is a record!
Reliability update
Point taken the Ducati does not go out in the rain , so I thought I would try seeing how good it would be in the wet.
It wasn’t raining so I put the garden spray on for half an hour
Not tried wet disks before but it did sort out my slight hesitation when starting to filtering in traffic
I only made 4 miles before I stopped , the bike did not miss a beat , but I decided to practice pushing it home for the last mile
It’s still proving as reliable as my Honda VTR I had to push that home 2 miles when the cam chain tensioner stopped working
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Pin
Baaahahahaha!!
How’s the Ducati’s hotel garage getting on? 
Not as good as I had hoped
Base in and garage has been delivered at last ( only 4 months )
To get it built was meant to be 3 to 5 days after delivery
But they can’t do it till the end of September so it looks like this bank holiday I will be building it
I had one and used to commute on it all weathers and did wet track days on it. Still miss it.
Things to be aware of:
-The rockers have a coating that is far from durable. They have to be replaced from time to time as a result, they are pricey and there are 16 of them.
-Expansion tanks can get brittle over time and may require replacing. its a 20quid part but alarming when you see coolant all over the floor (personal experience).
-Check the tanks for signs of fuel weapage near the hinge.
-In modern terms its not hugely powerful - they start with 90-95 bhp but will have prob lost a few horses over the years. Personally think that can make a bike more involving but worth bearing in mind.
-Seat depth is very very short so tricky to push back and tuck in (i’m 6’3"). Otherwise standard Ducati levels of super bike discomfort.
-Headlights aren’t exactly bright.
-Older ducatis have shorter servicing schedules and the belts etc do not make for cheap servicing.
only unreliable thing on the bike was the damn data tool alarm system which managed far less well with the wet than the ducati did. Post 2000 when they sorted the electrics out they are as reliable as the jap bikes, and in my personal experience the jap bikes i’ve owned were far less reliable.