DUCATI MH 900 E EVOLUZIONE BRAND NEW no 711/2000 Rare and Ready to Ride

OUTSTANDING BIKES FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION FOR SALE  

MH EVOLUZIONE (MIKE HAILWOOD REPLICA 2001)  no 0711 of 2000   First registered Dec 2002

Zero mileage bike ( probably . 3 Kilometre only )  Purchased new by me 12 years ago. nbsp;  Original bill of sale. commemorative plate etc  All handbooks .

The Ducati Mike Hailwood Ducati Evoluzione Year 2000 Model has finally come back from the workshop. where it was waiting for specialist fuel system parts from Ducati.  

New Cam belts are fitted and it now ready to go.  

A brand new delivery mileage bike with new batteries. new cam belts. and MOT and checked over.  

Complete with Ducati stand and all the books. Original owner from new with delivery invoice

In a world where harsh commercial realities override - or at least dilute - designers' whims. it is remarkable that Ducati's new MH900e exists.      It is even more surprising that the bike's production was given the go-ahead after a hard-headed American venture took control of Ducati from Italians whose passion for bikes was a factor in their reasons for having to sell.

But the subsequent success of the MHe has resoundingly justified the decision to produce it. Originally. only 1. 00 examples were to be built and sold exclusively on the internet. The bike went on sale at 00. 01am GMT on January 1 last year and by dawn all 1. 00 machines were sold - more than a third to Japan - in Italy's biggest internet sale to date. As a consequence. Ducati built another 1. 00 examples - maximum -as it has promised exclusivity as part of the bike's £13. 00 package. If you wanted one. logging on to the MH900e page at www. ducati. com was unlikely to help as the second batch was accounted for in a matter of hours. Your only hope was to join the queue for cancelled orders or wait for used examples to appear on the secondhand market. The manufacturing has only just started as it has taken Ducati a year to put together its team to build the bikes - there's no production line. just a dedicated assembly area.   The fuss was not about the riding experience. although that's not to say that there's anything wrong with the machine dynamically. Many of those Japanese owners might have a few problems. however. as the seat is unusually high. MHe is very much the personal creation of Ducati's design chief Pierre Terblanche. who is 6ft 4in. and it shares the generic Ducati stretched-out riding position with very low handlebars. so a good length of limb is an advantage.

The engine is the old-fashioned. two desmodromic valves per cylinder. air-cooled. 904cc V-twin. updated with fuel injection. Despite its gentle 74bhp output. it is surprisingly punchy. thanks to the MHe weighing less than the 900SS and having lower gearing than the Monster. both of which are similarly powered.   It pops up the front wheel at a twist of the throttle with almost indecent ease. There's little of the low rev snatching through the transmission for which these engines were once known. partly because of that lower gearing. but also because of the fuel injection which has breathed new life into the ageing motor.    Spin the engine hard and the power tails off too much to make revving worthwhile. but there is sufficient urge lower down and a slick gearchange to make the mid-range worth exploring and the pace exciting. The chassis is capable of handling whatever the motor deals out.

The handling has a typical Ducati feel. with slow steering matched to exceptional stability and what feels like very high cornering speeds. The relative lack of weight over the front wheel (compared with a fully faired 900SS) is evident because there is a slightly choppy motion from the forks on bumpy surfaces; the late December temperature in Bologna was cold enough to thicken the suspension's damping oil and add some harshness to the ride quality. Otherwise. it's all security and stability. Braking is looked after by standard Brembo calipers and discs - and there's nothing wrong with that as they're about as good as you can get at this level.

In all. it is effective if unremarkable. flawed only by that riding position (if you're not tall enough) and mirrors that don't display enough of the road behind. Instead. those lucky 2. 00 enthusiasts are buying into Terblanche's highly individual tribute to the most famous Ducati of all. the 1978 900SS on which Mike Hailwood made his historical comeback. to win the Senior event at the Isle of Man TT races 11 years after retiring from the sport.

The MHe. or Mike Hailwood evoluzione. is described by Terblanche as a neo-classic design. his way of explaining how he has borrowed cues and ideas and evolved the look of the original rather than simply copying and modernising it. as other retro motorcycles have. And the detailing is quite astonishing: the cross-section of the spokes on the cast-aluminium wheels matches that of the Campagnolo magnesium alloys fitted to the Hailwood machine. while what looks like a large. finned aluminium-alloy sump (in imitation of the old Ducati V-twins) is just a dummy housing various electrical components (which. in a break with tradition. work perfectly).

There are neat touches to delight and surprise. such as the machined aluminium housings for the hydraulic fluid master reservoirs. the pylons attaching the screen to the fairing and the cast-aluminium headlight surround.    The dashboard is a feast - the central. lonely-looking white-faced tachometer sitting above a panel on which the speed is displayed digitally. the two being separated by tiny warning lights.    The swingarm is unique. a modern 996-style single-sided item fabricated in tubular steel rather than the usual large aluminium box-section. while the high-rise exhausts dominate the rear. jutting out from beneath the single seat unit like a pair of rocket launchers. It's a shame modern emissions laws dictate that their sound is so anaesthetised. although Ducati will sell you some after-market alternatives with a more fitting volume. Not for road use. of course.

There's a welcome return to chrome on components such as indicators and engine covers. while the red and silver colour scheme reflects the livery of the works NCR Ducati team of the late Seventies. Hailwood's machine featured similar graphics in the red and green of contemporary sponsor Castrol. but Terblanche felt the bike needed to honour Ducati rather than its sponsors and also thought. justifiably. that red and silver looked better.    Conspiratorially. he also points out how he has confounded Ducati's corporate policy of exclusively using its latest logo by getting away with the Seventies badge on the fairing. as if like some naughty schoolboy he'd written "Massimo Bordi is smelly" on the underside of every MHe fuel tank.

Ducati appears to have gone out on a limb in indulging Terblanche. but as well as the risk proving worthwhile in the huge demand for this amazing motorcycle (there is. after all. nothing else like it). there was another important benefit from its genesis.    As reported in Telegraph Motoring last year. the MHe was used to help Terblanche set up a whole new design system at Ducati from his experience of accelerated design procedures with UK company AKA Design. where most of the work on the MHe was carried out.    The idea might have been in Terblanche's head for 14 years. but from official green light to show-ready concept machine took only 11 weeks - and this was a design that was more than 90 per cent ready for production.

Some of the concept bike's more off-the-wall ideas have been dropped for practical reasons. such as the rear-view camera. voice-activated ignition. selenium composite brake discs and rear indicators set into the exhausts. although Terblanche insists all could appear soon on production bikes. Otherwise the MHe you could have bought if only you'd been more alert on New Year's Day 2000 is remarkably faithful to the machine that wowed the crowds at the 1999 Milan motorcycle show.    And like the bike or not. that has to be the most refreshing vindication of the American tenureship of Italy's most evocative motorcycle manufacturer.

Ducati MH900eEngine/transmission: 904cc. four-stroke. 90-degree V-twin. air-cooled. fuel-injected. four valves with desmodromic operation. 74bhp at 8. 00rpm. 56lb ft of torque at 6. 50rpm. Six-speed gearbox. chain final drive.      Performance: estimated top speed 140mph. fuel economy n/a.

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