[greglepore]

How much are you looking to spend? The market is pretty soft. Not everyone likes the later **9 styling, but the bikes are much more comfy (by orders of magnitude, I can tour on my 749, but the earlier supes left me in severe agony after 45 minutes of anything but pure twisties)and composed than the 748. However, if you are in love with the singlesided swingarm, then, well, your stuck.

The flaking rocker issues are for real, but were licked by the later **9.

Yes, the Sport Classic tanks have an issue. Not sure if its actually Ducati's fault, it may be mostly related to the crap in our fuel.

How are you going to use the bike? If its only 3-6k a year, then no biggie, if you're going to rail on it as your only bike, then, well, I'd look elsewhere. These are not cheap bikes. If you are hardcore diy, then ok, but my comments in the Titanium 748 thread were not really tongue in cheek, if you defer stuff or let the dealer do things like brake pads and fluids, then 2k annually is not out of the question. I figure about 500 annually at the dealer for me (I don't do 4v valves or some other stuff) and maybe another 300 in parts for stuff I do myself (consumables, belts, fluids etc.)

Personally, I'd buy a $3500 900ss before a 748, not as pretty but fun to ride. I just couldn't get the ergos to work for me like the **9's, and I actually like the later bikes style.