Like we said, forums are an excellent place to search for a new-to-you used motorcycle. Or car. Or whatever. Very generally speaking, people who care enough to join a forum care enough to take good care of their love object, and putting the thing up for sale on the forum may be a way of ensuring it goes to a good home. If you’re lucky. Some fora (that’s plural) even make you jump through a hoop or two to join. Ducati.MS, for instance, insists you’re a member for 15 days, and must make five posts before you can access its Marketplace. Like a cooling-off period I guess? Keeps out the riff-raff… but I kept after it and here we are.
It’s worth it if you’re in the market for a 2001 Ducati ST4, though. This one’s perfect for all y’all who loudly proclaim you don’t need no steenkin’ electronics, and who poopoo motorcycles with excessive horsepower.
If you want even less, you could track down an original ST2, with the 2-valve air-cooled Twin. That was Ducati’s very first sport tourer. This ST4 is almost that bike, but with the 916’s liquid-cooled Desmoquattro L-twin belowdecks. It’s housed in a nice sport-touring frame you could ride anywhere, even at your age – complete with color-matching side bags. What’s a good 916 going for these days, and would you grocery shop on one?
Note how those handlebar risers greet you in a loving embrace, allowing you to fire all of your guns at once and explode into space.
It’s always tough to tell from a few photos, but this Duc appears to have led a sheltered life in a large suburban garage, showing just 25,000 miles at the ripe age of 22 years, and still wearing its birthday exhausts.
Maintenance-wise, the old ST4 isn’t going to be the cheapest sport tourer to run, but keeping on top of belts and desmo valve adjustments and whatever should be a lot more doable when the cost of entry is only $4000 or thereabouts. Let the haggling begin. She’s in Tullahoma, Tennessee, semi Nashville-adjacent. You could have a nice ride home from there, wherever you are. Imagine the Ducatisti jaws that will drop when you pull up on this thing. The listing on Ducati.MS is here.
First Ride: 2000 Ducati ST4
Become a Motorcycle.com insider. Get the latest motorcycle news first by subscribing to our newsletter here.