AN extremely rare and interesting bike has cropped up on the Silverstone Auctions London Motorcycle Show Sale catalogue. It’s a Ducati, that, up until now, has been owned by ‘Rocket’ Ron Haslam.
The bike itself is a trick' bit of kit, a Ducati 851 S that was gifted to Ron by Cagiva after his exploits in Grand Prix motorcycle racing. Both he and 1990 Cagiva factory rider Randy Mamola are reported to have got one, and this is the ‘kit bike’ spec, meaning it was one of Ducati’s famous and early four-valve liquid-cooled engines. The bike is in original, unused condition, and as such will likely need some attention before it turns a wheel.
It even comes with a significant haul of original spares, including exhausts, gaskets, valves, spark plugs, a workshop manual, a parts list and a factory paddock stand. With the bike comes a portfolio of paperwork, including a customs form in Ron’s name detailing the VAT that needed to be paid on the machine.
The story behind the bike is equally SuperBike News reports that the machine was one of the ways Ron funded the early career of his son, former British Superbike Champion Leon Haslam. It’s not clear where Leon was racing at the time, or what the bike sold for originally, although, given the provenance of the machine (and the fact that timewarp bikes like this don’t come around very often), we expect it to smash whatever that number was.
This bike will be sold at the London Motorcycle Show Sale hosted by Silverstone Auctions. More details on the bike can be found on the link.
