(05-06-2015, 05:59 PM)Westers Wrote: Reliability? I know, and cheap, low dig at the bike, but are they as reliable as a modern Japanes/European 4? They've come on a lot, however I think they still require a bit more fetlling than the others.

On another note, I've never understood why someone hasn't run the Aprilia RSV's (V4's) around the TT. Or maybe their geometry is too track biased, rather than road focused (but the again that hasn't stopped Honda NS500's or YZR 500's being raced at the island).

I'm a bit of a junkyward buyer and I have bought a lot of salvage title Ducatis from USA, where a salvage bike is usually less damaged than a UK bike, and I've never had a problem.

In my life I've had a 916, a 996, a M900 monster, a 748, a first year 1098, and now I'm settled into a Sport Classic 1000 as my final bike. Only one of them ever had any major reliability issues, and that was the M900 monster and was a result of the fact that it had a bore kit. Just from my personal experience, I'm not sure that the bum rap they get for reliability is really true any more. I still have my 748 and I use it for tracks and she's going strong on 55,000 miles with no major issues.