"The Ducati SportClassic line was ahead of its time for the Retro-classic café racer craze. Going from “hard to sell” to coveted. The most covid of the series was the first year (2006) that had a lot of one-year-only features like the single shock (allowing for the custom Zard exhaust) and the cherished Ducati dry clutch with that classic sound.
Tim Turbett, the leader of the Zanik Design crew, had this concept kicking around his head for years and when an amazing base bike came available the floodgates opened. The overall concept was to blend the Paul Smart with a “Eleanor” Mustang…while keeping all the great aspects of the original. In addition to upgrading the look and performance of the bike for real-world use.
The low mileage engine remains mostly stock but upgraded with the sexy Zard exhaust driven by a custom ECU tune by Raxxer ECU Tuning…developing an intoxicating sound. Then the focus was turned on the performance and aesthetics to make it an amazing piece of mechanical art!
The overall color palette silver, with black and red details. The base paint is a deep mini-flake silver, with a black SS stripe that features a subtle rainbow flake (from a Dodge Magnum) highlighted with a metal-looking red stripe to tie into all the red anodized details…that ends with a subtle nod to the Italian flag.
A ton of work went into the electrical and lighting with the goal of making things as clean and stealth as possible while increasing the visibility for real world use. The lighting is highlighted by a Corse Dynamics LED headlight (in a Monster metal bucket), Motogadget bar-end signals, paint matched Watson Design high-output LED signals and culminating with the Corse Dynamics “Tron” LED break/turn signal kit that’s enhanced with a Custom Dynamics break light frame with “back-off” break flashing.
In addition, there is a ton of work to complete the look and that may be overlooked unless you know all the details of the SportClassic line…Some of the detail work includes:
- The battery has been relocated with a kit by Motoectric into the tail which really lightens up the center of the bike.
- The “bug eye” horns have been removed and replaced by a super loud horn on custom mounts behind the oil cooler.
- On the rear wheel a new Brembo brake caliper has be relocated under the swingarm to clean up and open up the wheel to highlight the custom Kineo wheels in gloss black and anodized red details.
- The mini flyscreen was made possible by swapping out for the metal headlight bucket from a Monster…and also allowed for a more modern headlight options.
- A custom designed and built flip-top gas cap reinforces the race aesthetic…and is literally the cherry on top.
- The seat was recovered to replicate the Mustang race seats with a blend of leather and Alcatera finished off with large grommets.
- The open dry clutch and drive belts are highlighted in black and anodized red with parts from Speedymoto and EVR.
- Break/Cultch are upgraded with matching parts from Brembo, Rizoma and Oberon.
- Front Suspension was upgraded with Andreani cartridges and finished with polished (no chrome) fork tubes, black powder coated trees and lower parts.
- A ton of other parts were either polished, powder coated black, or anodized red to tie it all together".
Zanik Design Inc. - Kustom Motorcycle Konsulting
Thanks, Inazuma Cafe for the feature! Tim
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