Wednesday 19th June, 2013
When he’s not building the world’s most desirable Ducati road bikes, Walt Siegl likes to head for the racetrack on his 916 or 1098. But he’s a hard rider, and his two regular mounts are now looking a little battered. So Walt’s built himself this new racer, based on his successful Leggero series of road-going bikes.
The idea came over dinner with friend Bruce Meyers, who ran the legendary Ducati shop BCM Racing until five years ago. “Bruce said that there are folks in Ducati circles who’d like to see me at the track on a bike that doesn’t bear battle scars,” says Walt. Read more »
New Zealand has a remarkably strong motorcycle culture, as befits an island blessed with wonderful country roads and a strong do-it-yourself nature. But the focus is usually on classic rather than custom motorcycles: you’ll see a lot of old British iron at moto events, but few ‘modern’ customs.
So it’s good to stumble across this 1978 Suzuki GS550E, built by Alan Pritchard of Stray Dog Moto in Nelson. The bike was a basket case when Alan bought it, and he originally intended to simply clean it up and get it running. But when he got the project underway, it snowballed into a major operation. And nine months later, this is how ‘Stray Dog’ turned out. Read more »
