If you want to build yourself a decent cafe racer, you should definitely stay away from Ducati’s 1098. The single-sided swingarm, the shape of the exhaust and that beautiful fairing – how can one possibly make it look better? Having said that, there are always exceptions to the rule – look at this Demonico Veloce (Speed Demon in Italian) for instance, we think it’s one of the most beautiful cafe racers in today’s custom market. Conceived by professional AMA racer Robert Matola, and built by i3 Design, the bike has lost around 13.5 kilos of excess weight, and even gets a custom exhaust, rear cowling and front fairing.
The build was commissioned by the head of the Hong Kong Stunt Team design studio – and we’re sure that he’s going to thoroughly enjoy it. Who wouldn’t enjoy riding a 175kg cafe racer with 180hp?
Tags: 1098, custom, Demonico Veloce, Ducati, Hong Kong, i3, R.M.Designs, Robert Matola, Speed Demon, studio
I want one! The custom Instrument cluster/headlight housing is an amazing piece (nestles the stock electronic gauge perfectly), nice touch on the 1098 LED brake light built into the tail section which appears to be a shortened and reinforced stock sub-frame, 2-toned leather seat with thickened ferrari stitching is a nice touch. I noticed the stock fairing attachment truss clips were all shaved off and re-painted to look clean and that ceramic coated pitchfork exhaust is wicked! Must sound like a demon down the street. Gotta know who did the flat black paint, most guys really screw up flat black and that close up shot of the tank shows a nice job. The license plate “HUUZNXT” you got that right! I think the moral of the story here is you can spend 35K-40K for a Radical Ducati kit from Spain, or you can have a project like this for 5K here in the states and spin some heads. Besides, everyone and their mother has a stock 1098 with full fairing (Yawn). And who wants something that everyone else already has? Nice change.