Post-Sale Update: This Ducati 500 GTL was pulled off eBay. Final sale price is unknown.
In the early 70’s, Ducati’s management felt that the future of their mid-sized bikes was going to be with parallel twin engines. Despite the fact that Ducati had previous unsuccessful experience with such an engine type, the Italians decided to go for it, their first new engine design in over a decade. The result was the Ducati 500 GTL, a bike known for lunching crankcases and being the textbook example of the word ‘unreliable’. I can’t in good faith recommend that any of you actually buy this bike, I just had to feature it as it’s a miracle that one of these bikes has lasted this long!
Ok, so I’m slightly exaggerating. But don’t take my word for it – check out this article from Ducati News Today which better explains why the 500 GTl went over so poorly. The 500cc engine pushed out just 35 horsepower, and it was not a light bike. Performance was meager, and so were sales – just 7,000 were produced over 8 years. Ducati fans typically try to ignore this bike in the firm’s history, and it might just be one of the worst bikes to ever have Ducati on the tank. One could argue that this was actually a good thing, as the awful sales led to the company developing the Pantah V-Twin engine which has become part of Ducati’s lore.
This specific Ducati 500 GTL is in fantastic cosmetic condition, thanks to a brand new coat of silver paint. It’s claimed to be garage kept, and while with most bikes I’d say it’s “only” covered 4,500 miles, in this case I’m just going to be impressed that it’s gone this far. I can’t stress it enough – don’t buy this bike. Just be amazed that someone has kept one in such good shape.
Find this Ducati 500 GTL for sale in Cocoa, Florida for $5,995
