John Pellew of Taimoshan Cycle Works has built another nicely modified motorcycle and this time, subtle is the word. When we last saw the work of John Pellew, it was the Taimoshan Super Cafe Racer, an Aprilia engine in a featherbed frame. This time, he’s built what he calls the Llandough Flyer, a Ducati 860 GTS, with all of the “ugly bits” removed and redone in a more subtle and tasteful style.
According to John, the 860 GTS was a styling letdown for the Ducati faithful after the 750 and 900SS. Mechanically sound but simply done wrong with too much plastic and a boring look. John took a rather undistinguished 860 and decided to clean it up for daily riding duties, giving it a little head down stance, single seat, clean frame and a black and polished metal scheme. The result is a nice example of what many owners could do with a bit of time and effort.
John took the Duc down to the basics, stripped the frame and swingarm and painted or polished as needed. He chopped the rear grab rail and subframe for the old seat and rewelded the necessary pieces for the new single seat.
He detabbed the frame, cleaned up the factory welds and added tabs with Dzus fasteners for the new seat.
He found a set of Akront alloy flanged rims with stainless steel spokes and polished up the rear brake hub. He polished and swapped the left and right fork legs to move the calipers to the rear. John tossed the rubber gaiters and installed new dust caps.
He cut off the handlebar top mounting brackets, TIG welded the bolt holes, sanded and polished the yokes and cleaned up left over casting marks. He installed Tarozzi adjustable clipons to get the right stance. He made a new mounting bracket for the gauges from 2mm aluminum. New alloy headlight brackets lowered the light.
The 860 had plastic handlebar controls, so John put those in the trash, finding some nice alloy British bits on eBay which polished up nicely.
He was going to replace the tank but found the original actually looked better than some replacements he considered so that piece survived the restyle.
He rewired the somewhat ratty and less than totally stock harness. The starter had already been removed by a previous owner and since it was known to be a trouble spot, he kept it kick start only and finds it to be easy and trouble free. The battery is a heavy duty unit from a Buell XB12S, it’s all black, fits great and has lots of grunt should someone ever decide to reinstall an electric starter.
A light engine clean up, some Ducati green fuel hose and a good tune up were the sum total done in the engine area. Nothing more was needed since it runs great.
Tarozzi adjustable folding footpegs were installed to give John a little more room.
When you look at the finished build, unless someone runs down the list of what John did, you might miss a lot of it, it’s very subtle but very well done. The end result is one of those bikes that catches your eye because everything seems to fit together. Nice work, John!
Link: Taimoshan Cycle Works
B*A*M*F says
What a beautiful bike! It’s especially so considering the starting point. What I love most about the restyle is that it looks as though this was the original design prototype for the bike and the plastic add ons were the boss’s idea to try to be trendy.
todd says
Is it just me? Am I the only one to think that the original 860 GTS was a fine looking bike? Don’t get me wrong, I think this bike looks great too. At the time, the GTS competed with the BMW /6 sport-touring bikes (the reason it didn’t sell well). Ducati also had the GT and the SS if you wanted progressive steps of sportiness. They also had 125 2-stroke dirt bikes and a full range of 4-stroke singles.
Now the only Ducatis that needed styling help were the 350 and 500 GTL parallel twins.
-todd
warren mangan says
Having owned 900GTS from new in 1979 (almost the same bike) it’s delightful to see what could have been done with it. I enjoyed mine and used it as daily transportation for 2 years. it was a great bike. I remember that it would go around any corner at almost any speed! I had to leave mine in the UK when I moved to the US. I left it with friends in case I came back. After a while i had them sell it . The story i heard was that they were 2 -up in a small group on the motorway. I was told they passed another bike with them a BMW boxer (900/1000) doing 125mph as if it was standing still! The bloke on the back bought it on the spot! In cafe’ racer form that will be a real sleeper. That bike was later sold and a few years later somebody called from Scotland looking for parts he had just bought it in a box of bits! Let hope it got the Taimoshan Cycle Works treatment!
Scotduke says
It looks nice – and yes the original 860 did look like a bag of spanners. I wonder if he’s made the brakes more progressive or the suspension a bit more give? My experience of riding an 860 is that they’re a lot harsher than my 90s Ducati.
NHstever says
From ugly duckling to swan! Always a great story. Great job, John!
Simon says
Have to agree with Todd, I also like the styling of the original 860GTS.
I wish John Pellew had oploaded a video, like he did with the Aprilia Cafe Racer, just to hear the engine roar again.
Even so, this is a very nice makeover. Wish Ducati stopped making Monsters and went back to stuff like this.
JustJoe says
@ Simon the Ducati 1000 Sport or GT are an homage to this era of bike.
Very nicely done, taking the dated, gimmicky bits away while retaining the essential qualities.
Ramadancer says
Yes! That fuel tank looks fantastic when those 860 side covers cannot be seen.
Now, if I can just find one of these with 2200 miles unmolested for about $2,500 US, I would have no more regrets about selling that ’73 750 GT to the Frenchman at auction. Values have increased so very much since ’95!
Looks like these models, may be increasing in collectability and value now.
Kachunk says
This is an improvement, but there I see more potential here. The problem is that once you start modifying things, where do you stop? To me, the front fender and tail light look out of place and ned to be smaller. Then the battery, then something else – where do you stop once you’ve already done clipons, rearsets, etc…? This is a very nice bike though – and I love the tank and seat combo.
John Pellew says
Thanks to everyone for their great comments, glad you like the bike.
I see people want some youtube, I will have some up on the website by Monday morning so you can look and listen to those conti’s and i will post the link here as soon as it is done.
The bike is on ebay in the UK finishing this evening at about 8pm GMT , so some lucky ebayer will own a very lovely bike very soon.
Cheers
John
tim says
That is really nice.
The single coolest thing (IMO) is swapping the forks over to get the calipers behind the legs. I could have looked at that for a YEAR and never thought to do it.
Kudos!
John Pellew says
Thanks to everyone for their great comments, glad you like the bike.
I see people want some youtube, so here are 2 links, i will have them up on my site in the next days or so as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVY6TWgMwN8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0NWfLOXGzU
Also look out for my next creation, the Art Deco BSA A65 Oil In Frame retro racer, I will add some pics to my site as soon. The BSA is available as a commissioned work or if not commissioned then I will be building it the way I like it and will be for sale at a later date. Feel free to drop me a line at john@taimoshancycleworks.com
Cheers
John
Scotduke says
Never noticed that about the brake caliper until it was pointed out. Does it make the braking better? My experience of riding a stock 860 was that the braking was pretty marginal given the performance – and this is a bike that’s used regularly and has stainless hoses.
Scotduke says
Just a thought but it might be even nicer if the taillight was incorporated into the seat hump, allowing the number plate to be raised slightly. The unit on the original Z1 looked pretty good and would be right period wise at least. I hope those exhausts are nice and loud – good thing about a pre 81 bike is that it doesn’t have any restriction on noise so race cans are quite legal. Repeat after me, “Loud pipes save lives.”