A motorcycle like the 1974 Ducati 750SS simply couldn’t be manufactured and sold today, and it’s a small miracle that it even passed in the 1970s. A barely homologated version of Ducati’s Desmo L-twin road racer, the 750SS was finicky, raw and probably illegal for road use in most places with its fiberglass fuel tank, Conti megaphones and unfiltered 40 mm Dell’Orto pumper carburetors. Just 401 examples were built from late 1973 into 1974, and these ‘green frame’ 750s are regarded as one of the most significant and desirable production Ducatis ever built.
The story has been told time and time again, about how Paul Smart and Bruno Spaggiari accomplished a legendary 1-2 finish at the inaugural Imola 200 in 1972, catapulting Ducati to new heights globally.…