Ending Soon – 1965 Ducati Sebring 350 Roadracer

Post-Sale Update: After 4 bids on eBay, this Ducati racer sold for $6,256 on eBay.

The Sebring was introduced to the world as a 350 race bike, and it claimed a class victory at Sebring when piloted by Franco Farne. Based on this victory, Ducati went ahead and named the bike after the race. This example stands out as it was previously built and raced by Jon F. Thompson of Cycle World magazine in the mid 90s – he campaigned it in AHRMA Sportsman and also featured it in a Ducati book that he wrote along with Joe Bonnello, my favorite ‘noted photographer in the desert.’ The engine was built by Michael Green of West Coast British Racing (I’ve seen him comment on these pages before so I’m hoping he sees this and remembers this bike) and it was recently brought back to life and raced over the last few years. Now it needs a new owner!

I’m slightly confused about the stated year of this bike as the Sebring was introduced in 1966:

Photo from http://www.realclassic.co.uk/ducati_350_sebring.html

I’m guessing the seller is confused about the year of production, but I could easily be wrong myself. Either way, the 350 Sebring was the last ‘narrow case’ bike to be built in Italy (you may remember Ducati licensed some designs to Mototrans, who kept building this engine until 1974). For more on the Sebring, check out this review from RealClassic.

As shown in the featured photo, this bike (Engine #: DM350 WCBR7/95 1) has graced the pages of a book – specifically Ducati by Jon F. Thompson and Joe Bonnello. If you’re having trouble reading the caption, it says: “Time Warp: This 1965 Sebring 350, owned and raced by the author in AHRMA vintage events, is not that different from similar bikes that raced in the 1960s. One important difference is that modern tires are far superior to those raced upon when this bike was new. Characteristic of these solid little machines, all that’s required between races is clean oil and a valve adjustment.”

The build is full of great mods – beyond the obvious WCBR engine, you’ve got Ceriani GP forks that have Race Tech Gold Valve internals, Tomaselli clipons, Scitsu electronic tach, a 1/4 turn throttle from an early Yamaha TZ250, Boyer Brandsen ignition, Sun aluminum rims, Works Performance shocks…the list goes on and on. The seller says the bike is nice and it runs great but you should give it a once over before racing it (and you’ll need to weld a broken exhaust mount, too). Find this Sebring racer for sale in Bridgewater, Connecticut