Fancy A Taste Of The Exotic?

Spending a day razzing around on a pair of mega special Ducatis got us thinking about the investment bike market, so we caught up with Dave from The Bike Specialists in Sheffield to get his take on all things exotic.

- Boothy

A First World War army barracks in the heart of Sheffield city centre isn’t where you would expect to see a bike shop. But The Bike Specialists isn’t a normal bike shop. It’s a veritable treasure trove of performance and investment motorcycles, which would have any collector or bike enthusiast drooling from the moment they set foot in the spotless showroom.

The first thing that you notice is the smorgasbord of Ducatis parked line abreast along the length of the room. Dave told us why they are so popular: “We don’t have a particular penchant for Ducatis per se, but our customers like them, particularly the numbered ones, and they are valuable. Take the Desmo for example, it’s the jewel in the crown for any Ducati collector. There were only 1,500 made which gives it that air of exclusivity; like Enzo Ferrari once said: ‘If I have a car that 500 people are willing to buy, I will make 499 of them.’

“There will always be the demand for something with a numbered headstock, and it’s not just Ducatis, other models that have been put on a limited production run always seem to do well with the collectors. We always have at least 100 bikes on stock, we are at about 120 at the minute. Almost half of them are Ducatis because that’s what people know us for, we are the place to come if you want a Superleggera or a Desmosedici.