These two Ducati 916 SPS Foggy Replicas examination is meant to inform, this article is not designed to criticise anyone. These two shiny examples came in to be examined and to ensure that they are both investment grade. They were bought from a highly respected car dealer who sells a lot of these motorcycles as a sturdy side line (contrary to what some people think it is NOT Moto Strada who offer a great service and motorcycles. I will not reveal the identity of the dealer as it is not down to them, read on to find out why). In 2016 the buyer paid £30,000 each for these machines and they looked pretty good. He has been waiting for the last eighteen months for us to have the time to go through the two machines. Finally, after clearing our backlog a fair bit, we collected them from the heated car showroom where they’d been stored since 2016 and got them back to our workshop. What we found is not the car dealer’s fault at all, he is supplying a market that don’t ride their bikes, he offers no due diligence, people think he’s at the top end of the market, but they want a deal. They want a nice shiny example which they’ll probably never ride and will certainly never undergo any kind of real scrutiny. Buyers want to have a deal with him and he just does not have enough margin to offer they type of service we offer. This is the responsibility of buyers who want a deal and something they believe will turn a profit over time without any investigation, it’s a very different market to the one we operate in. We are sharing this article with you to raise awareness about what an investment grade classic motorcycle is, not to criticise other dealers who have a completely different business model to us. They are servicing a market that demands price sensitive, shiny, classic motorcycles that look to be alright. We supply investment grade classic motorcycles and it’s much cheaper to buy them from us, than it is to try and make these type of machines investment grade. This is what we found in one of the two machines.

Two Foggys side by side — Both Foggy Replicas look like perfectly good low mileage examples, well preserved at first glance. Note the blueing on the exhausts on the machine in the background.

Foggy RHS next to SP3 — Even next to our completed SP3, the Foggy looks good, except for the blueing on the silencer.

Foggy Replica that’s been abused

We found a Foggy Replica that’s been abused and has been suffering from appalling corrosion from before the owner bought it six years ago. The first tell-tale is the blueing of the exhausts near the silencer, which is from excessive heat. Yes, these machines were built to be ridden hard and they take it well. However, the blueing is untreatable and the titanium system is unique to the Foggy Rep, so you won’t find another set. The front discs, at little over 5,000 miles, were beyond any service limit, indicating it had been raced. It was clear that the machine had been lock wired in many places so it could be used on a race circuit.

Two Ducati 916 SPS Foggy Replicas examination — Once stripped the blueing is more obvious, but doesn’t look too bad.

Corrosion

The corrosion present was everywhere and every nut and bolt would require re-plating. The frame would require removing and re-painting as the paint had completely failed. Some of these issues are becoming inherent with 916 SP and 996 SPS due to age, as you can see in this article I wrote in 2021 about an early 916 SP we did a light touch restoration on with just 4,000 miles from new. The corrosion on this Foggy, although mostly hidden away beneath the bodywork, was just shocking. The bikes both looked shiny enough, as did they without proper investigation in the show room adverts, but once scrutinised it told another story.

Fork legs — The forks cannot be re-anodised.

Fairing panels

Fairing panels had completely incorrect date stamps to have been original items. Each one was badly damaged, once removed and examined properly. One had been bodged with a fibreglass repair and another had one of the locating tangs taped to the inside of the panel for someone else to repair. The paintwork looked shiny and nice enough once all together and on the bike, but one half of the bike had been badly resprayed. The respray did not deal with the repair of any of the vibration damage to the panels, that present due to the plastics becoming more brittle due to age. The new paint was de-laminating from the original paint because it had not been taken back to the substrate, the original paint had been scotched and repainted. The other half of the bike had varying degrees of red on each mismatched panel, once it was properly examined. The first item we spotted was that the bike had been delivered with a chunk out of one of the mirrors, which was not a good sign.

Fairing lug snapped — The tang was taped to the inside of the fairing, however the date stamps are all incorrect for a Foggy Replica on every panel, so we have to find a complete fairing.

Ducati service history

The Ducati service history showed that it had a desmo valve service which the owner had paid for 500 miles prior to this customer buying the bike. The present owner had never ridden this motorcycle. Once we changed the belts and got it running, it was clear that the valve clearances had never been adjusted in the bike’s life. The rear Ohlins shock absorber was so corroded and leaking that it needed rebuilding. The headrace bearings were shot along with most bearings on the motorcycle.

Marchesini wheels

The Marchesini wheels had been powder coated over the original old paint and was splitting. The gold anodise on the fork legs had completely corroded and we have yet to find a remedy for this. The brake lines were shot and every nut and bolt on the brakes required replacing, which are all very expensive components. Getting the corroded calipers apart will be very challenging without causing them damage and will take a lot of time. The anodise on the calipers was failing in several places and they can’t be re-anodised. One of the upper fairing mounts was cracked, along with many other ally parts. The rear subframe Ceracote was also failing in many places and is costly to strip and re-apply.

Engine corrosion

The engine corrosion was appalling, as you can see from the photographs. Some of the SPs had painted engines and others were raw aluminium. This was a raw aluminium engine and would have required complete disassembly and vapour blasting each component to remedy. The engine would have required disassembly anyway to re-plate every nut and bolt to bring it up to spec. Even the injectors were severely corroded, which indicates that this motorcycle had lived outside at some point a long time ago.

Corroded engine left — Engine corrosion has bitten into the aluminium.

Injector corrosion — Even the injector bodies are corroded, indicating the bike has lived outside for some time. The frame paint is failing everywhere.

A period of worthlessness

A period of worthlessness in comparative value meant that many of these, now highly prized, machines were abused and kept outside in the UK. I was exporting beautiful low mileage examples of Ducati 916 SP and 996 SPS between 2005 and 2009 for about £3,500 to a shop in Holland. The new machines were out and the 916 and 996 were seen as old motorcycles that no one wanted. The idea of them being collectible was inconceivable, but they made a great cheap track day bike and I walked away from so many like this example when I was exporting them at that time. The conversation would be had over the phone, prior to driving 200 miles to examine the machine. The owner would offer all the guarantees that the bike hadn’t been tracked and it was absolutely gorgeous. Once the bodywork was removed, all the guarantees turned out to be about as true as a politician’s promise. I would never look at a bike if the owner wouldn’t let me remove the bodywork. This period of worthlessness did a lot of damage to the majority of pristine examples of these machines at that time.

What happened to the two Foggy Replicas?

What happened to the two Foggy replicas? The one is this article was sold back to the dealer at what the client paid for it back in 2016. Once they returned it, the dealer complained about the corrosion but the owner sent them the original advert proving it was all there when he bought the bike. The dealer said he had it sold and it would only take a day’s work to remedy anyway, so now it’s someone else’s problem. The other one is pretty bad as well, but there was no blueing on the silencers so the owner is paying us to do a fixed price frame-off restoration. It would have been much cheaper to buy an investment grade Ducati 916 SPS Foggy Replica from us in the first place than to go through this process. The owner is now a committed customer and fully understands the value we add to every motorcycle that goes through our hands. We will show you what is involved in restoring the remaining machine with another in-depth article.

Corroded engine left and frame LHS — The corrosion is everywhere.

Finding Ducati 916 parts is seriously challenging

Finding Ducati 916 parts is seriously challenging as Ducati have stopped making many of them for this series of bikes. Those they do still make have different finishes to the original finish, so they need stripping and re-plating. Finding genuine Ducati 916 fairing panels with the correct date stamps is more than a challenge and very expensive. Even the bearings and seals required to facilitate repainting the outer engine covers come out at crazy money. The cost of plating has more than doubled in the last year and the cost of paint and materials has severely increased since January 2021, so this is now a very expensive process and the cost is only going to seriously increase.

Plating — Many of the new parts from Ducati require re-plating because they now have a different finish.

Now is the time to restore a Ducati 916 SP

Now is the time to restore a Ducati 916 SP because it is only going become more and more expensive to undertake this process as time passes and as values of the motorcycles themselves increase. The amount we have to pay our engineers and painter is only increasing, or the they will be lost to other industries who pay more. It takes us three years to retrain fully qualified experienced mechanics in our way of doing the job. We need to hold on to these people or they will end up fixing production line machinery and spraying Bentleys. The cost of restoration is increasing and the cost of finding motorcycles to restore and investment grade examples is also increasing daily. Now is the time to do the work.

Frame painted 1 — Frame has been blasted and repainted with a perfectly matched paint and finish.

All classic motorcycles require the work doing

All classic motorcycles require the work doing now, due to age. One of the biggest challenges we come across is chasing out the dreadful, poor quality work and bodges of the past. Finding such faults is only achieved by lots of test riding, unless it makes itself known during the restoration process. When most motorcycles come to us, they are producing half the power compared to when they leave us. Once the power is restored, they need to be test ridden so that all the weak, old components start to fail and reveal themselves. Fortunately, this only takes one or two hundred miles of test riding up and down the steep hills of Dartmoor. The shakedown can take as long as the restoration in many cases, but it’s just as important as the restoration itself.

Ducati 916 SPS engine cases painted — Engine cases are stripped, blasted, cleaned and painted.

Don’t blame the supplier when you want to have a deal

Don’t blame the supplier when you want to have a deal, as an investment grade classic motorcycle costs what it costs and there are no deals to be had. Demanding a deal means demanding a lowering of standards. Things cost what they cost and an investment grade classic motorcycle will always deliver value. The correct example will always demand a much higher value than auction fodder, internet bargains and high turnover motorcycle outlets delivering classics. The classic motorcycle market has divided, as I wrote about in this article in 2020. This division has been going on for many years and the difference in values is becoming more and more acute. Owners of investment grade examples know what they have and they’re in strong hands. Keep seeking to pay the minimum for an investment grade example will only become a very costly practise in the long run. Bargains are bargains for a reason and the cost of clearing up mistakes is becoming more and more expensive by the day.

Foggy rep prior to resto — This is the machine we are restoring for the customer and the other, worse example, is returned rot the supplying dealer.

Investment grade classic motorcycles

Investment grade classic motorcycles are tough to find and they usually still require work to bring them up to a rideable specification. Once this is done, the maintenance costs are much less than leaving the machine idle and then trying to recommission it for sale. There’s also the joyous prospect of pleasurable miles in the saddle. Machines from the 1970s, except British ones, are great for high mileages and don’t depreciate with use if they’re properly maintained. If you want to source and investment grade classic motorcycle or an award winning classic motorcycle restoration, call The Motorcycle Broker.

About
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Paul Jayson

I have worked in the motorcycle industry at the highest level for over twenty-five years, as you will see below. I am a regular writer for the magazine Classic Motorcycle Mechanics, with my monthly column about the classic motorcycle investment market and a freelance classic motorcycle road tester. I also have an internet TV series out with On Yer Bike about the classic motorcycle market and test riding various classic motorcycles.

Two Ducati 916 SPS Foggy Replicas examination