Super rare Ducati 400SS is heading to auction
The Ducati 400SS was built for the Italian and Japanese markets, where restrictions for learner riders were holding back sales.
One of the rarest 1990s-era Ducati sports bikes is heading to auction soon, after Bonhams lists a very tidy-looking 400SS as a future lot.
The 400 SS (with 'SS' standing for 'SuperSport') is a bit of an oddity, in that it was a model built purely to plug a hole in the new rider market. In Japan and Italy, restrictions were in place on learner riders, meaning they were restricted to less powerful bikes. To combat this, Ducati took its 600 and 750SS platform and basically shrunk it.
They were only built for a five-year period between 1991 and 1996, and were only imported to the UK for a single year. That, coupled with the fact we didn’t have the same restrictions on learners and new riders, makes the 400SS, also called the ‘SS Junior’ (which is unfortunate, to say the least!), a very rare bike in the UK.
This example seems to be in extremely good condition, and fitted with its Superlight-esque bikini fairing, looks like a proper Italian roadster. While it looks nice, the price is what really caught my eye, with Bonhams placing a £800 to £1,200 estimate on the dinky machine. That makes it one of the rarest and cheapest Ducatis in the UK right now, as long as you don’t mind not going very fast!
Ducati has played with 400 V-twins in some of its other bikes too, in the form of the Monster 400, which used basically the same engine as the 400SS in a naked chassis. More recently, the Italian brand dropped a 400cc powerplant in its Scrambler and brought the world the Sixty2 (above), built to appease the A2 licence requirements.
You can check out the listing for this bike over on the official website.
Find the latest motorcycle news on Visordown.com
Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
