Ducati 900SS modifications:
- Frame de-tabbed, cleaned up, rear of frame behind rider pegs was completely re-made, rear seat hoop, Nichols frame gusset kit, Neck modified to accommodate the 1” Ducati 999 stem, de-tabbed and cleaned up, painted gold flake
- Ducati Sport Classic wheels, anodized black, re-laced with stainless spokes
- Ducati 999 Ohlins forks and triples, anodized black and lowers painted black
- Hand made aluminum gas tank, seat and under seat cover
- Custom painted 3 stage paint with hand pin striping
- Custom black suede upholstery
- Hand made stainless steel exhaust with one off hand made muffler
- Carbon fiber belt covers, sprocket cover front fender and headlight, all custom painted and modified with cut outs and honeycomb mesh
- LED headlight with carbon fiber Headwinds bucket
- $1500 of titanium bolts and hardware everywhere
- Beringer custom brake rotors, calipers, brackets and hand controls custom fit and spaced
- Rizoma grips, lever guard and bar end
- Speedymoto top triple
- Woodcraft Rearsets
- LSL clip ons
- Ohlins rear shock and steering dampener
- Motogadget gauge and M-lock unit
- Antigravity 16 cell lithium battery, new regulator/ rectifier, starter solenoid
- Dyna coils and ignitors, custom wired from scratch
- Powder coated many parts and anodized everything black at one time so it all matches
- Re-zinc plated parts in black zinc
- Dunlop Q4 tires
- Vortex gas cap(bung cut out from stock tank and welded in to use Ducati/ Vortex cap), Pingle gas guzzler petcock
- Delorto 38mm carburators
- Malossi intakes with custom velocity stacks
- Rebuild motor with new high compression pistons, Nichols lightened flywheel, Barnett billet clutch basket and race clutch, ported and polished the heads with 1mm oversized valves, degreed the cam, APE heavy-duty cylinder studs, STM breather and slave cylinder and completely custom painted (cost over $8000)
- New sprockets and gold O ring chain
- Custom made oil lines and brake lines
- Over 500 hours of labor
History:
I bought this bike in 2009 from a guy who just powder coated the frame and wheels and couldn’t figure out the rear wheel spacers and a few other things. I scooped it up for dirt cheap! I brought it back and did all the maintenance and fixed the stuff he couldn’t and rocked it for about 300 miles till the motor said “bye bye”! At that time I pulled the motor and had Scott at Motorservicio (local Ducati guru) fully build my motor. We split the cases and I took everything back and prepped and painted the whole motor black before Scott re-assembled it.
The motor needed the cylinders re nikasiled and then we stuffed in new high compression pistons. While it was apart, Scott installed a Nichols lightened flywheel, Barnett billet clutch basket and race clutch, ported and polished the heads with 1mm oversized valves, degreed the cam, APE heavy-duty cylinder studs, STM breather and slave cylinder, Malossi intakes with
Delorto 38mm carbs to make this beast haul ass! The oil cooler was moved to the top valve cover to hide it and then I made custom oil lines to re-connect it.
At this point the motor sat out of the bike for about 3 years, I moved into my new shop and just stuffed it upstairs. I started to miss this bike, I have had a handful of Ducatis but I really loved this bike. I got invited to The One Show in Portland and was going to finish this bike for that show, but I decided to finish my Honda CL450 instead while I also just finished battling cancer for the second time. A few years later I decided to was time to build her into the proper high
performance beast. I knew it had to have a full Ohlins set up like any proper Ducati should. I scored a used Ducati 999 frontend and bought a new Ohlins rear reservoir shock and steering damper. The 999 frontend had a 1” stem and it was longer than the factory 900 stem so I made a jig and machined a new lower cup for the frame and tig welded it in with a new steering stop and sourced the proper tapered head bearings. These frames were also prone to cracking up front, so I welded in a Nichols frame gusset kit. Then I scored a set of Ducati
Sport Classic spoked wheels and mocked the bike up with them, the suspension and reinstalled the motor. And there she sat upstairs for another 3 years.
Fast forward to 2018 when Kevin Dunworth from Dunworth formally known as Loaded Gun Customs, called me to ask about borrowing our platforms from my show, The OG Moto show. He told me about this show he was creating, The Golden Bolt that was going to be at The House of Machines in Down Town Los Angeles arts district. It was a bike show winner takes all, 3 pro judges, judging different aspects of the bikes, 25 mile ride and the prize was $25,000 with only 25 entered bikes. I gave him the price me and my partners came up with to rent our stands and told him I think I want to enter the show for the chance to win $25,000! He said do it! Now I have only 2 months to finish the complete bike for the show! There were builders from all around the world entered in this show, some, I am good friends with. I decided to finish the bike with the best parts I can buy and no budget limit! I wanted to win this contest!!
First I chopped off the whole back of the frame (from the gas tank back) to remake it slimmer and cleaner than factory. I mig welded all the new tubing to match the Ducati factory welds hopefully to impress Mark Prosser who was judging welding and fabrication. Then I called my good friend Ian Halcott from Twin Line Motorcycles, I flew him down to help make a one off aluminum tank and tail section. He came up with the gas tank and tail design to mimic the old
Ducati Imola race bikes. We grafted the stock 900ss gas cap ring into the top of the tank and sculpted it around the top triple mounted Ohlins steering stabilizer. He left after 3 days of long ass hard work beating the aluminum into submission! I hid the coils and electrics up under the gas tank and fabricated a under seat cover out of aluminum, anodized it black and held it on with dzus fasteners. The regulator/ rectifier pokes through the cover for proper cooling. I wanted the least bit of wiring on the bike and none of it visible. The bike had to mimic the old bass boat flake style of paint on the old Imola race bikes too. I usually paint all my bikes with super heavy flake on the bodywork, but this bike I wanted to
mute it a bit, so I decided to paint the frame the heavy gold flake. I entrusted Mike Clary form Clary’s Custom Colors to paint my vision. He nailed the frame color using Paint Huffer gold metal flake and tied in the Ducati logo with the same. I wanted this thing super straight and gloss black with the Italian flag colors down the middle. He also nailed that! I didn’t want in your face 1990’s carbon fiber either, so he painted the sides of all the carbon black and faded it
into the carbon before he cleared it all. Before he painted the carbon belt covers and sprocket cover I cut out a design and backed it with honeycomb mesh. I had to impress Chip Foose who was judging all the paint in the contest. Revs Custom Upholstery did up my seat with black suede. I had already collected all the Brembo brakes to fit the 999 frontend but since I now put Beringer Brakes on all my personal bikes, there was no other choice for me. Plus they just finished the parts for the new rear caliper and rotor. I chose the black Aerotec 6 piston calipers up front and a 4 out back with gold stainless rotors. Added the black Beringer brake and clutch master cylinders too before hand making all the brake and fluid lines. Since this bike is a mash up of different Ducati parts, I had to custom space all the wheels and calipers. While I was going over the top with this build, I decided I needed titanium bolts everywhere! Over $1500 later, every bolt I could get was the pretty sheen of titanium. The bike was also set up for track use, everything with fluid was safety wired, the calipers and axle bolts were also wired. Then I call upon Evan at Iron Cobra Fabrication to hand make the 2 into 1 exhaust with his design GP style muffler. I wanted all the black anodizing to match so everything that was already black was re-done. I didn’t want in your face gold Ohlins fork tubes, so they were disassembled and sent off to anodizing. The Sport Classic wheels were taken apart to anodize
the hoops, paint the hubs and re-laced with stainless spokes. The carbon fiber headwinds headlight I bought 8 years ago needed a update too. The headlight ring and mount was polished so it was also sent off to the anodizer to be black and when it came back I installed a new LED headlight bulb. The electrics consist of Dyna coils, aftermarket ignitors, Antigravity 16 cell battery, Motogadget gauge and M-lock unit with the complete harness made from
scratch. I finished all off with rizoma grips and GP lever guard, Woodcraft rearsets, LSL clip ons, Speedymoto top triple and clutch cover, Paulimoto clutch pressure plate, Vortex gas cap, Morimoto LED tail light, mini billet oil pressure gauge, STM frame hole covers, and a set of sticky Donlop Q4’s.
I made it to the show with only a few passes up and down my street for testing. I didn’t win but I met a bunch of good people and got to hang the whole weekend with some good friends. Miguel Galluzzi was the third judge and I believe the only one to really got what this bike was about.
Shows:
Debut at the Golden Bolt show in DTLA, Miguel Galluzzi dug it and got the whole build. Chip Foose was also a judge and dug it, I didn’t however win! Part of this inaugural show was your bike had to make it 20 miles through DTLA. well, 5 miles into the ride the Motogadget M-lock took a crap and killed power to the whole bike. I might have come in second or third, but there was no beating Max Hazan’s bike!!
Showed it at The One Show in Portland, OR
Showed it at the Long Beach IMS, came in second to a bike that won that should not have been in my class!!
Showed it at Roland Sands Moto Bay Classic and Moto Beach Classic
Showed it at 2019 Quail Gathering show
Rode it in 2019 Distinguished Gentlemen’s ride in DTLA.
Was shot for Cafe Racer Magazine and told was going to be on the cover, but Woolie took it with his MV, so the bike is on the inside of the August/ September 2020 issue of Cafe Racer magazine.
Featured on Bike Exif, see article here!
Since being finish, only about 50 miles have been put on the bike.