DEVIANT DESMO

The radical story behind a Ducati custom cruiser …

WORDS ALAN CATHCART

Until 2011 the thought of Ducati building a custom cruiser, let alone a chopper, would have been like Ferrari building a minivan. As in, don’t go there, amici. But that year the Italian bike firm unveiled its Diavel in disguise, a desmo V-Max with half as many cylinders complete with styling that Roland Sands or Jesse James would be proud of. That made it finally OK to think of Ducati as a custom bike company — at last. Except, their oldest South African dealer, the firm that introduced Ducati to the Dark Continent exactly 60 years ago, had already gone and done it for them — and, arguably, more authentically. For the MFR Ducati Mutant powerchopper was an improbable blend of several Ducati trademark design elements, including a trellis frame…

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Retrobike (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 48

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