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A lot of the customized bikes rolling out of the Lord Drake Kustoms workshop have been Harley-Davidson-based. Regardless of this, the Spanish workshop welcomes tasks that buck that development. One such alternative offered itself when the proprietor of a 2003 Ducati 999 approached them within the hope of getting his bike reworked into a contemporary take of a restaurant racer.
“It is vitally unusual utilizing racing bikes like this to hold out motorbike customization work,” says Lord Drake Kustoms proprietor, Francisco Alí Manen. “Primarily as a result of such bikes include a fairing that hides loads of gear that can must be relocated.”
Regardless of some skepticism, Fran and his staff set to work on the Ducati, stripping away all of its manufacturing facility bodywork to evaluate how a lot work they’d forward of them.
Together with figuring out all of the wiring and parts that would want to discover a new residence, Fran determined that the Ducati’s inventory wheels weren’t going to chop it. His imaginative and prescient was to as a substitute have the bike rolling on extra classically styled spoked rims. The answer got here with the fitment of a set of 17-inch spoked rims from DID Japan. To suit them to the bike the Lord Drake staff put in specially-made hubs after which completed issues off with a set of Dunlop hypersport Sportsmart rubber.
Subsequent, they turned their consideration to the bike’s stance. Once more, in pursuit of a extra basic demeanor, the inventory suspension was tweaked to stage out the bone line. Some minor changes to the gas tank helped to finalize the brand new posture of the 999.
With the plastic tail gone the bike’s subframe was tweaked to scrub issues up a little bit, and a brand new tuck and roll-upholstered seat was added that leaves simply sufficient house for a pillion. Further bodywork modifications embody a slim line customized entrance fender and a specially-made housing to maintain the relocated lithium battery out of sight.
In inventory trim, the 999’s Desmodromic L Twin produces a knuckle-whitening 124 bhp. Seeing as this bike was now a tad lighter than earlier than and solely supposed for road use, Lord Drake restricted the engine work to the fitment of a customized exhaust. The revised system makes use of a modified 2-into-1 manifold that vents by way of a Supertrapp muffler. Just like Ducati’s unique design, the Supertrapp sits beneath the tail the place its unorthodox look and loud bark are certain to show various heads.
With the modifications to the tail got here the removing of the inventory lighting meeting. Now rear-end flip sign duties are managed by a discrete pair of frame-mounted LEDs and the brake gentle resides on a bespoke hugger-style license plate bracket.
On the pointy finish of this venture, there’s extra customized lighting within the type of an V-Rod fashion headlamp. The front-end flip alerts are bar-end items by Motogadget and so they’re accompanied by a set of retro bar finish mirrors. The handlebars are additionally sporting theme-matching crimson levers, crimson accent grips, and the triple bushes have been powder-coated to match. To maintain the cockpit wanting clear the Ducati dials are gone, of their place is a single Motogadget mini digital gauge mounted to the entrance of the gas tank.
To complete issues off the 999 acquired a timeless crimson and white coloration scheme. On the request of the proprietor, a 72 resides on the engine cowl which we assume pertains to his yr of start. Sporting a tasteful combine of recent and basic touches the Lord Drake staff fittingly coined this venture their NeoRacer.
Pictures by Álvaro Manén
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