Ducati 1098S - Shed X ‘Malizia’

Written by Phil Guy.

The genesis for the latest to roll out of Sydney’s Shed-X came almost a year ago, when their first build, a wicked café/street hybrid dubbed ‘Bastardo’, caught the eye of a potential buyer. The buyer had a problem, though. To free up some cash for ‘Bastardo’ he needed first to sell his mint 1098S, but in a flooded market he was getting little joy. At about this juncture we can assume the term ‘trade-in’ was uttered. And thus ‘Malizia’ was born. "As soon as I test rode the 1098S," Neil from Shed-X explains, "I knew we could do something with it to make it more enjoyable around the streets".

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Ducati Monster - Rive Gauche Kustoms

Written by Phil Guy.

Not all builds need be the equivalent of a heart transplant. Some are constrained by time, others by budget, and then there are those bikes that simply don’t need a complete overhaul to begin with. The team at Rive Gauche Kustoms faced a combination of the latter two recently when their web designer, Marco, handed them the keys to his perfectly serviceable Ducati Monster 600, and not a whole lot of cash. 

The Parisian crew have a fine record of street trackers, but this time the remit called for something different, a skate-influenced, pure streeter. So, with modest mechanical work and a slew of custom touches, a motorcycle facelift if you will, they turned out this ‘street trasher’. 

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BCR Ducati 'Monster Tracker'

Cops and donuts. Politicians and corruption. Musicians and drugs. Benjie Flipprboi and café racers. Some things are just synonymous with each other. So when Benjie from Benjie's Café Racers (BCR) sent us his latest project, we presumed it would be another top class cafe racer from his garage in New Jersey. To our surprise, it wasn't a café racer at all, it was this Ducati he has named the 'Monster Tracker'. The bike was used by Benjie as a commuter for about a year until he got bored of its stock looks. "The bike started off as a 07 Ducati Monster S2R 800 with a little over 8K miles on it." says Benjie. "First we were going to make it into a café racer, but we wanted to do something different for a change. We decided to take the bike apart, and turn it into a tracker/urban scrambler with a little steam punk flare." 

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J.L. Mekaniikka's ‘996 Compressore’

History is a wonderful thing. But don't believe what the scholars tell you, the most interesting parts aren't "the lessons from the ages that we must all keep in mind as mankind progresses." And it's not the politics or the relationships or the romances either. No way. It's the really cool big shit. The catapults, the pyramids, the zepplins, the battleships with a thousand guns the guns that can throw planet-sized projectiles over the horizon. It's the rockets that have 38 million horse powers to carry a car to the moon so that the guys inside can do low-G burnouts on another world. That's the stuff that really matters - the stuff that they will remember in a thousand years. Janne Leiman knows this. That's why his bikes are amongst our favourites. He's not the sort of guy that fluffs about with clever colour schemes and faux-aged finishes; he's the sort of guy who looks at a bike and thinks "what's the biggest, coolest, most insane mod I could possibly do? I know - how about an enormous, face-melting supercharger to give it enough giddy-up to melt diamonds on a distant planet and make all the Pharaohs simultaneously rise from their graves and give us a very dusty, skeletal ‘sign of the horns’ with both hands." Love your work, Janne. Love. Your. Work.

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1978 Ducati 900 GTS

The motorcycle industry needs more people like Rene Waters. Not in it for the money, but simply for the love of motorcycles. Rene runs the very impressive Ducati Meccanica, which is a website for Ducati enthusiasts. The site has one of the greatest collections of Ducati workshop and owners manuals, photographs and pretty much anything else that will help inspire you to build, buy or restore a Duc. The best thing is, he gives it all away for free, "no money is made, no ads are sold, nothing is for sale... just enjoy it" Rene says.

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Mooneyes Swap Meet

These stunning photographs were recently captured at the 2010 Mooneyes motorcycle swap meet in Odaiba,Tokyo. Taken by the 'Shimoyama Brothers' from Japan who have an amazing collection of photos on their Flickr page. I particularly love the Ducati shot with that beautiful fairing – would be keen to see more pictures of this exquisite café racer.

Joe's V Cycle Café Racers

Joe from Joe's V Cycle was employed in the airline industry for most of his career as a Lead Aircraft Technician. After numerous years maintaining and rebuilding Boeing and Airbus engines, Joe now spends his time building and restoring classic motorcycles. These beautiful bikes are just a taste of his recent handy work. The stunning blue Ducati is a 1966 Monza 250 and the green Honda is a 1972 cb750. "The Ducati and the CB750 were built this winter over about a 6 month period. Both were total overhauls with both engine and frame suspension plus all the custom work and parts. All the work was done in house except for powder coating and cad plating" says Joe. It's definitely worth checking out Joe's custom and restoration galleries. 

Union Ducati 900ss

Union Motorcycle Classics work out of a remodeled 100 year old dairy barn in Idaho which they describe as "no longer home to lowing bovines, we now attend to the gentle rumblings of a slightly more untamed beast". Formed by a group of guys who all had different skills but one passion... classic motorcycles. Luke is professionally trained motorcycle mechanic, Bret is the owner of Glass From The Past (GFTP) which manufacture killer looking cafe racer fairings, race seats, fenders and tanks. Mike, Jeff and Andy are all graphic designers who love nothing more than getting their hands greasy on a vintage classic.

The pictured Ducati 900ss is one of their proud creations and we will let them describe this Cinderella story: "Boy meets bike, Boy likes bike, Boy crashes bike. Keep reading. It gets better. From the ashes of its damaged frame, all parts were removed. A one of a kind fiberglass tail section was crafted to work with a sectioned stock frame that was rebuilt from the rear motor mounts back. The proportions of this bike puts one in mind of the Scuderia Spaggiari Ducati and Tony Rutter's TT2. Once again, a GFTP piece was created just for this rising phoenix from the ashes: a modified 900SS front fairing to accept the headlights and turn signals. The tank is a collaboration of a 900SS tank and a late 80's 750 Sport. Custom brackets and period race parts complete the package". In my humble opinion this bike has been transformed from a chunky and dated Italian sports bike into a stylish modern cafe racer. For more images of this bike and others, including a fine Yamaha RD60, visit the well designed Union website.

Ducati Desmo 1975

This bike is a beautiful piece of history. Not only did it offer spectacular performance, it offered a set of features rarely seen on a sport bike. The four-stroke engine was able to satisfy the needs of any biker, including those interested in racing, without special customization (sadly to some like myself). This was the result of italian design and superior craftmanship, combining the potential of the twin-cylinder engine with the unrivalled mechanics of the legendary 750 Imola. BMWcycles just sold one with only 125 miles on it. Fresh out of the crate. Their site is worth checking out for other classic bikes for sale.