2002 Ducati ST4S – $10,500
2002 Ducati ST4S for sale
SELLER SAYS: 2002 (MY 2003) Ducati ST4S. 996cc. Approx 2919km. Fully serviced and in excellent condition. Registered to 27/12/2026. Panniers, sport mufflers, dry clutch. Kept in lock-up garage. Contact Eda on 0411 598 496 (Coolbinia, Perth WA).
EDITOR TERLICK SAYS: Motorcycle fashion can be a fickle beast, and sometimes manufacturers do odd things to follow the market. Take, for example, sports tourers. They were a great idea — a machine than can chew up hours on the highway, genuinely carry a pillion in reasonable comfort, and also go toe-to-toe with sports bikes in the hills or even on the track. Early ones (think BMW R90S) were more tourer than sports. As the years went by, the weight (mostly) shifted to more sport with only moderate concessions in the tour department. When Ducati joined the sports-tourer game in 1996 with it’s two-valve 944cc ST2, most commentators reckoned they were bang-on the money. Smooth, torquey, sporty, comfy — Ducati trotted out a sports-tourer, on its first try, that was every bit as competent as the class-leading Honda VFR750. But buyers grumbled. Hey, it’s a Ducati. It’s supposed to, you know, go fast. Proper fast. Even if it is a sports tourer. Fine, said Ducati, and out came the ST4 with nothing less than a slightly re-mapped four-valves-per-cylinder 916 engine, straight from their flagship superbike. The remapping ensured the ST4 still had enough midrange to be a highway bike, but the scales had tipped. Yep, the ST was a sports bike. Ready for the hills and the track. But it still had a proper seat for two. And panniers. And slightly higher bars. By 2002, Ducati’s flagship sportsbike was the 996, and the ST4S was blessed with not only the 996 motor but up-spec Ohlins suspension as well. I am a bit biased here, but I reckon the ST4S was the best of the sports-sports-tourers, right up till the moment that some numpty decided sports-tourers were all very yesterday, and started making adventure bikes instead. The ST line came to an end, and the Ducati Multistrada arrived. Don’t get me wrong, the Multi is a marvellous bike – but it isn’t a sports-tourer. What we have here is one of the best sports-tourers ever conceived, with a ridiculously low circa-3,000km on the clock, selling for a smidgen over $10k. If it weren’t for the fact that I’ve recently bought myself a red ST4, though not an S, this one might not have made it onto our for-sale page!
