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.
Bad Winners wowed us last year with a sharp, purpose-built flat tracker based on the Ducati Scrambler. Now the Parisian shop’s raised the bar with a fresh take on the concept—a bolt-on kit for the Scrambler that looks just as rad, but doesn’t require major surgery. “We agree now that stock is the new custom,…
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The Ducati Monster is one of the best-selling motorcycles in Europe. It’s been around for over a quarter of a century, and some 300,000 have been sold worldwide since 1993. So why don’t we see more custom Monsters? Probably because the bike is so good straight out of the box, and almost everyone loves the…
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Pierre Terblanche designed some of Italy’s most unforgettable motorcycles—but none of them left a mark quite like the Ducati MH900e. Produced for just two years between 2001 and 2002, the MH900e displayed the quirky beauty that Terblanche’s work was known for. It was a homage to Mike Hailwood’s 1978 Isle of Man TT race bike;…
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Ducati and BMW raid their archives to create special editions of their most legendary bikes. Plus a Freddie Spencer tribute Honda, and a Harley-Davidson Fat Boy Lego kit (yes, really).
Read more »The Pikes Peak race is just two weeks away now, and the competition is getting red hot. We’ve already profiled the Zero…
Read more »This week, we’ve got Ducati’s new Pikes Peak contender, an electric land speeder from the 70s, and a Harley-Davidson XR1000 from Mule.…
Read more »The bevel era is part of Ducati folklore. The engineering prowess of Fabio Taglioni made the British bikes of the 1970s look…
Read more »A lot of folks who work at American motorcycle manufacturers are compulsive tinkerers. Indian’s design head, Ola Stenegärd, has been building choppers…
Read more »We reckon the Scrambler Ducati is one of the best-looking factory bikes around. And the healthy sales figures bear that out. That…
Read more »Most custom shops have a bike or two quietly lurking in the corner. They’re usually personal projects that only get attention during…
Read more »If race bikes are motorcycling in its purest form, speedway machines must be akin to holy water. They have no brakes, just…
Read more »We don’t see many customs from Russia. But Moscow-based Birdie Customs and their founder Ilya are doing their best to remedy that,…
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