Alright ladies and gentleman, a friend of mine has a nice "looking" 851 he will let go for a fair price. he admitted it had electrical/ starting issues. I have heard it run and it sound healthy. So learn me owning an old ducati or talk me out of it
Alright ladies and gentleman, a friend of mine has a nice "looking" 851 he will let go for a fair price. he admitted it had electrical/ starting issues. I have heard it run and it sound healthy. So learn me owning an old ducati or talk me out of it
Well, if you don't mind doing maintence on your own or reasonably often, I can see no reason to knock an old Duc. 
http://www.ducati.ms/forums/
Love the old superbikes. A 888 with the #1 on the tail is on my bucket list.
I have ridden a friends street 851, but never got to ride his track 851 because it was always busted.
I am a ducati fanboy and apologist, I have a S4Rs monster and the wife has a 1098. But the Ducks from that era are the reason Ducati has the crap stigma today.
Electrical problems are on the order of the worst British cars. Electrical parts are not cheap and I would check to see how many are still available.
Rectifiers, regulators and stators were trouble spots along with all the wiring connections in between.
Having said all that, if it was a good price - I would buy it. 
The electrics are really not that bad. Most of the problems stem from improper / anal cleaning people who pay lots of money tend to do. They use a hose and soak the crap out of it and water gets in to the connectors and makes them weak so then people load connectors up with dielectric grease....this dose nothing to help the connections and seals in moisture and prevents good connections. They should use Deox-it or similar cleaners to prevent corrosion in the 1st place. The reason most race bike don't have electronic failures is they never stop to wash just ride the f'in thing.
you can convert earlier single phase stators to later 3 phase easly
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