Well, there’s been a wide variety of motorcycles used as the basis for street tracker builds, some more successful than others, but I haven’t seen this one before, a Ducati Desmosedici. It seems Roland Sands has a friend who owns three of the pricey Italian street racers and thought at least one, a zero mile bike, should be transformed into a tracker.
It looks like the project is well under way, though far from complete. Spoked wheels, flat track tires, a new tail section, an aluminum tank, it should be pretty sweet. We’ll have to check back and see what this turns into.
Link: Roland Sands Design
Phoebe says
Must be nice to be able to start with a ridiculously expensive bike like the Desmosedici for a project!
oldtimer says
One of the most beautiful, (imho), as well as expensive! This should get interesting……really, really interesting.
Greybeard says
I’m one who believes nothing is sacred and “it takes a real man to cut it up” but I’m afraid this is going to come off like “OCC meets the Marx brothers”.
Zipper says
Can’t wait to see it.RSD and Ducati. ..Z
Bob says
Much respect to RS for his AMA 250 championship and being able to make a living in the bike biz. That said most everything RSD produces leaves me cold. Not as vapid as OCC but not a Ghezzi & Brian or a Britten. I’d take a Brat Style UJM or a Deus over anything I’ve seen from RSD.
todd says
+1
-todd
Truthscreamer says
Totally agree. His bikes seem to me to be the product of a Long Beach skateboard punk with no art school, no transportation design or mechanical design education, one who just lucked into unlimited access to anything in the motorcycle industry directly due to his father’s successful company. Someone who’s just winging it. Oh wait, that’s exactly what’s going on here…
JP says
I like the new attempts at production based tracker (the real ones that recently one a few races, not streeters) and would like to see a closer look at the one Hayden has ridden, the SV650 attempt a few years back, and the newer vertical twin bikes from BMW and Kawasaki.
Dawg says
Can’t wait to hear it too. Those Desmosedicis are LOUD!
fast eddie says
Hey, Wanna make a small fortune in the custom m/c business ? Start with a big one.
Roland is a one of a kind guy, with deep pockets. I hope that that the work he is doing inspires everyone to go out and add there own idea’s to our passion . I’d love to know
the worth of the whole deal . Then I would like to see some 15 yr old with angle grinder
mig welder and vice grips build some thing similar for less than a grand.
ride safe EDDIE
rohorn says
Craigslist is full of those “similar for less than a grand” customs. They look like – and are – crap.
Phoebe says
I agree. Most super budget builds I see don’t look that great. Every once in a while one will come along that’s surprising, but they’re few and far between.
rob says
I prayed the Duevel would have this engine when I first saw it. It also be would be lovely to see a V4 sports cruiser an Italian Vmax or MT01. Still waiting for Triumph to make my 1600 triple.
B50 Jim says
Start with a rare, insanely expensive motorcycle, cut it up to make an even more insanely expensive motorcycle, just because you can? Go for it!
Britt says
BadAss, really like this one…Can’t wait to see the finished product,
however someone needs to go to welding class…welds on the tank are Fugly…(and yes I can do better).
Jay Allen says
Hat off to B50 Jim – coudn’ta said it better
jeff from va says
Let’s put a mustache on the Mona Lisa……some things are better left alone.
Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" says
A Desmosedici is not the Mona Lisa. Though some like to toss out terms like “work of art” when referring to it, it’s a machine and there are many hundreds of them out there. Ducati designed and engineered it until they decided at some point it was in final production form. It is not something incapable of being redesigned, improved or repurposed to better suit the owner. If you’re a collector or investor, you want a completely original specimen, if you’re an owner and rider you might want to change it to your own taste. Just because something cost a lot to purchase, doesn’t make it untouchable.
Jimmy says
As long as they don’t touch anything original or modify it in any way that it can’t be returned to original then go ahead and have fun.
marvin says
Jimmy mate, its not your bike and that means THEY can do what THEY want.
SteveD says
I’m always a bit suspicious of these designer bike builders, but RSD always seems to produce cool versions of functional bikes that are still really functional. I’m looking forward to this one.
Thom says
I think I’d like it better if he’d kept it a secret until it was finished. I’m all for people doing their own thing, but I don’t want to watch it happen. And besides, I couldn’t scream “NOOOOOOO” if all I ever saw was the completed result. This is just sensationalism.
Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" says
Seeing the process takes some of the mystery out of it. Seeing the cutting, grinding, welding, painting and even the mistakes along the way makes someone watching realize there’s lots of skill and hard work involved, it doesn’t just magically happen overnight. It can also motivate others to learn and attempt projects of their own, they think, “Hey, maybe I could do that.”
When the end result is all you see you often can’t appreciate what it took to get there, and that applies to building motorcycles, businesses, careers or anything else. When the preliminary work is on display, an observer might not be so quick to criticize, especially when what was done is so far over his own abilities and someone might respond to his critique by asking him for an example of his own work to compare.
jeff from va says
Paul Crowe: A Desmosedici is not the Mona Lisa.
That would be a matter of opinion. Some of us think otherwise.
I would also have a similar response if someone hacked up several other bikes that I regard as classic, having timeless lines, etc.
You ask us what we think and then you negate the opinion. It’s not about the cost of the bike or how many produced, necessarily, it’s about the context.
todd says
But they’re fun to build and fun to ride. I’d like to think that the stuff I put together isn’t crap but it likely is, especially when compared to RSD. But who gives a flying fart? I’m not trying to impress anyone but apparently there are those out there that need to do just that to feel good about what they do. If it makes them happy then good for them. I think there’s enough room for everyone.
-todd
todd says
this was posted in response to “15 yr old with angle grinder”…
-todd
pabs says
wow some bitchy comments
i dont care where he came from who his dad is or anything else, sometimes i like his work and sometimes i don’t but i judge is simply on the work
guy has talent
Mule says
If it was me, I’d take a saw to a Ducati, ANY Ducati in a milli-second and probably wouldn’t be able to get the cutting tools out of the box fast enough!
He’s definitely got it made resource-wise, and yes I’m jealous. We’ll just see what it looks like when it’s finished.
Jason says
I’ve always wanted to cut the front cylinder off an 1198 and shorten the frame to bring the front tire (and definitely the clip ons) back some. Would love to know what a 600cc desmo single with less weight, a somewhat shorter wheelbase, and different weight bias would ride like. That’s probably my dream bike.
Bob says
Nah, nah, nah. Cut off the top cylinder… maybe do the supermono link on the conrod thing to take the edge off the shakes. It would be a hyper-tech Aermacchi. Cafe or streettracker, it would be sweet either way.
fast eddie says
spot on todd In my mind Roland and a 15yr old with a angle grinder are one in the same. He had to start somewhere . Just like all of us. The worth of it all was the ? I had asked. remember, \ An intellect say’s a simple thing in a hard way . An artist says a hard thing in a simple way \ Thankfully there \ is\ room for all of us Eddie
Tom Lyons says
It all depends on how it comes out, doesn’t it?
For all we know, he might make the coolest bike that ever roamed the planet.
Or maybe it might not be.
Too early to tell right now.
People have to try things, if there is innovation to be made.
The other wild card is personal taste Some might think it’s the greatest, and some might hate it.
That’s the way these things go.
I will say that it is pretty ambitious to be doing this to an iconic $60k motorcycle, but if the customer wants that, then RS can make it for him.
I’m personally not a fan of the “street tracker” or “flat tracker” style, but alot of other people are.
So, it comes down to what the person that is going to be the owner wants it to be.
I liked the RS Bonneville Buell that was in another article in the Kneeslider.
So, I’ll be interested to see what he does with this.
..
marvin says
I’m with the cutters on this one, its either his bike or one that someone wants changed, if you own it you can hack it, in fact it annoys me when bike companies try to stop us with reverse threaded bolts and not releasing the codes for EFI units and such like. I don’t know who this Roland guy is but I know 377 pounds is 171kg and I would love to have a go at getting it down to 150. Now if I had a Ducati Demosedici I would almost certainly sell it to fund 5 other projects but its just metal and can be altered. To lots of us it doesn’t look like the mona lisa it looks like a kipper with a wheel at each end. Anyone brave enough (and rich enough) to chop one up to try and get his or her perfect bike is perfectly entitled to do so and you guys in the US should be very thankful that you have the freedoms to do that, in the UK we would have to start with a pre 1984 bike to avoid all sorts of officialdom. In short this stands a change of being a 150KW 150Kg bike and I can see nothing wrong with that, 1KW per Kg to me is a dream ratio.
marvin says
one more thing I have just had a little bimble around this guys website, some of his bikes I like most I don’t but if you read the comments on the blog he explains to people how he did things and seems to generally be encouraging home builders. As I said I don’t know who he is but a snap shot from today says he seems like an OK guy.
Dodgy says
Couldn’t he find a crash damaged one?
Carl says
I have mixed feelings about this, the Desmo is a lovely machine the way it is, I personally wouldn’t have the ice cold heart to cut it, but I don’t even have the money to buy one of them, so my opinion doesn’t count for much. But I myself am a cutter, I ride a ’98 bandit 600, in which I’ve transplanted a 750 gsxr engine, hayabusa front end, spondon swingarm, and I chopped the sub frame off and put on ducati monster sub frame/seat, so I can’t really blame him for wanting to chop…but still, the desmo is such a nice machine already.