The Motoworks Ducati Md1

The passion for Bolognese bicylindrical finds to a greater extent than together with to a greater extent than admirers oftentimes far from the terra firma where they were born is thus that Sean Pelletier afterwards having worked for years on Japanese motorcycles roughshod inwards honey alongside these way alongside a potent character

Where are yous coming from?
Rochester NY USA
Who else worked alongside you?
One homo functioning alongside ii squad mates
How tin lav yous depict yourself (or your team)?
I started The Motoworks every bit a fabrication shop, specializing inwards vintage aluminum bodywork, but shortly incorporated machined racing components, every bit good every bit lightweight carbon fiber parts designed to ameliorate performance further. In 2015, I outfitted my store alongside terra firma of the fine art HAAS CNC milling together with turning tools, enabling my advanced together with lightweight designs to live on produced in-house. My friend Toby does about of the engine work, together with Mike, our Social Media / Photographer exactly came on board.

What inspired yous to start edifice the bike?
I've historically built Japanese vintage bikes, but when I started playing alongside Italian v-twins, I roughshod inwards honey alongside the way they brand ability together with the no frills design. This was an practice inwards reducing weight together with seeing what I could create in-house.

Where did it come upward from?
The donor was a 2001-model 900SS, alongside an older motor wedged in. The previous possessor liked wheelies together with hated routine maintenance thus it needed going-through.
What's the donor bike, make, model, year?
Ducati Model 900SS 2001

What was your vision/plan?
The vision was to create the lightest wheel I mayhap could.
What did yous do to the bike?
Team fellow member Toby stripped the 900's motor, inspected everything, together with replaced anything that wasn't inside spec. I got a lot of information from Bruce Meyers close those motors non inwards the store manuals. So I would consider it a semi-blueprinted engine built to live on ridden pretty hard. The cylinders were re-bored together with plated, together with fitted alongside 94mm Pistal Racing pistons—pushing the displacement out to 944 cc. We installed novel valves, re-cut the seats, thus installed a Barnett clutch assembly. We built covers for the clutch, belt together with sprocket out of carbon fiber, together with ditched the air box inwards favor of a yoke of pod filters. The frame was a a Walt Siegl Leggero frame. His store is close 5 miles from where I grew up, together with I went to high schoolhouse alongside his Pb fabricator. I visited, together with was actually impressed alongside how low-cal together with modest the Leggero was. All that was needed instantly was a redesigned subframe to concur the tail department I planned to build. I welded on ii side frame mounts together with brazed on about weld nuts together with that was it. Working alongside Walt's frame was thus much nicer than spending hours grinding pounds of steel tabs together with mounts off stock frames.
If you've upgraded parts, what brand did yous direct together with where from?
I hooked the chassis upward to a laid of Suzuki GSX-R750 forks, using custom triples CNC machined in-house. The forks were re-sprung together with fitted alongside Race Tech 'Gold' valves.

The 900SS's stock Öhlins daze felt neat out the box, thus it was left alone. And the donor wheel came alongside upgraded front end brakes, thus at that topographic point was no postulate to swap those out either. I but switched the master copy cylinders for Brembo units, to ameliorate braking feel.
Any interesting challenges, unconfident, or mistakes?
All the bodywork is my handiwork. I started alongside the carbon fiber fairing together with tail section. It's the get-go fourth dimension I had e'er shaped alongside carbon fiber, together with that meant a steep learning curve. I establish to brand nice, low-cal parts, yous postulate to create them inwards a flawless mold.

Step 1 was to mock upward the shapes alongside steel wire together with a MIG welder ("sort of sketching inwards 3D"). Then I took photos together with measurements, used 3D software to create the terminal design, together with CNC cutting molds from high-density urethane foam. Then I coated the molds inwards primer, polished them, together with shaped upward a terminal laid of molds from fiberglass. The carbon was thus vacuum infused. Aside from the designing time, edifice patterns this way is much faster than older techniques together with paw carving. Ironically though, weeks earlier going to the 2017 Handbuilt Show inwards Austin TX, I got an itch that the front end fairing wasn't shaped the way it should be. So I reworked the patterns alongside thickened Bondo, woods carving tools, together with sandpaper. I didn't desire to completely throw away what I already had done. So the wheel is all the same a mix of quondam together with novel techniques
Tell us close the finish/logos/design?
Its a modern wheel but I also wanted it to create got a vintage feel. More or less paying homage to the quondam Moto GP bikes.

Any unique features?
I machined upward a whole bunch of aluminum parts, including the gas cap, rear-set hangers, heel guards, muffler caps together with fairing mountain bracket. The exhaust has hand-made stainless steel headers, flowing into hand-made mufflers, wrapped inwards carbon fiber alongside a high rut resin. The custom clip-ons tin lav live on adjusted upward together with downwards exactly past times rotating them. And the pes controls were built alongside a locating pin, which tin lav live on moved to accommodate the angle inwards 12-degree increments. The handlebar switches are also custom, alongside the confine reel integrated into the correct side cluster. And there's an RFID keyless ignition from Motogadget integrated into the top triple clamp. If I tin lav abide by something on the marketplace that I actually like, I role it without fail. But when that doesn't happen, I air current upward spending (probably a combat likewise much) fourth dimension making my own.

For the Ducati's novel speedo I had a actually specific await inwards take away heed together with couldn't abide by something off-the-shelf to gibe it. So I built my ain housing, designed the circuitry, together with programmed an Arduino microcontroller kit to campaign an analog needle together with run the LCD display. I also tackled the upholstery together with pigment too. I acquire to role this cool quondam Singer 29-4 treadle machine I got from my grandfather. He used it to repair saddles together with it industrial plant similar a charm for thick vinyl together with leather. I also did the paint—there weren't whatsoever available wheel painters inwards town. My store is hardly create clean plenty to do A-plus work, but at a pinch, I tin lav do it. Then moisture sand together with smooth out whatsoever bugs that terra firma inwards the clear.

How would yous depict your bike?
Street Legal Track Bike
How does the wheel ride?
It's quite a nail on the track, I honey how good it handles, the low-cal weight helps proceed the speed upward through corners together with chicanes.
What volition yous do next? New projects?
I'm instantly planning on edifice a dedicated rail wheel based on this design, alongside a to a greater extent than developed engine together with lighter weight. I approximate I tin lav acquire the rail wheel downwards to less than 300 lbs. (136 Kilograms)

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