Although Ducati is now owned by Automobili Lamborghini, the Bologna company is regarded as the Ferrari of the motorcycle world. Since the 1950s, its sporting motorcycles have been a favorite target of racers, tweakers and customizers.
In the custom world, the SportClassic is regarded as the archetypal modern-day café racer. Designed by Pierre Terblanche and launched in 2003, the SportClassic was way ahead of its time and sold poorly until its demise in 2010. But nowadays, values of Ducati models are rising rapidly and the styling is uniquely pleasing to the eye.
The Pantah and Monster have always been popular Ducati bikes with builders, but we’re now seeing the purer sportbikes creeping into the scene—often with ‘retro fighter’ builds—and a huge number of Scrambler customs.
The motorcycle designer Pierre Terblanche is famous for his Ducatis, but not always in a good way. Most folks would give the SportClassics and Supermono a big tick, and there are a lot of folks who also like the Hypermotard too (this writer included). But for every hit from the South African designer, it feels…
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A jawdropping modified Ducati 1000SS, a very clever custom BMW R1100GS, a rare (and running) BMW R57 that could sell for $70,000, and a wild, multicolored Buell Thunderbolt built for the Greasy Dozen show.
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Even though the Ducati 900 SS is some three decades old, we still see a lot of customs based around the 90° V-twin Desmo engine. A little online digging reveals the reason: over 25,000 examples of this model rolled out of the factory in Borgo Panigale. That’s an impressive number, and around half of Ducati’s…
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Today’s ‘modern classic’ scramblers are more show than go. Stylistically, they hark back to the golden years of Californian desert racing—but you wouldn’t want to actually race one across the desert. There are only a couple of motorcycles that buck this trend, and the Ducati Scrambler Desert Sled is one of them. Even though it’s…
Read more »If there’s something missing from Ducati’s current lineup, it’s a modern cafe racer with strong ties to the past. Sure, there’s the…
Read more »A Ducati 900SS rebuilt in the style of the classic 900 Super Sport Desmo, a Moto Guzzi V7 Sport endurance racer converted…
Read more »If you’d asked me yesterday when Ducati got its first Isle of Man TT win, I’d have scratched my head and then…
Read more »A wild new Vyrus superbike from Italy, a Honda XR600 built for a Spanish Dakar racer, and a stylish collection of custom…
Read more »We’re always impressed when a custom motorcycle design is so cohesive, it could easily be a factory effort. Or, at the very…
Read more »Like any proper cult vehicle, the Ducati SportClassic was hugely under-appreciated when it was first released. That’s probably because it was ahead…
Read more »There’s an unspoken truth about building custom motorcycles: you don’t have to change everything. Sometimes it’s enough to just switch up a…
Read more »A Gucci-inspired Ducati Monster S2R from Estonia, a classic Triton from one of Britain’s best builders, plus a short appreciation of Colin…
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