At this level in his profession, Tough Crafts designer Winston Yeh is nearly dishonest. He has such an in depth catalog of top-tier builds, that he can decide and select the perfect options of every, and find yourself with one thing recent and fabulous. Which is strictly how he designed this diabolical Ducati Monster 821 café racer.
“It’s referred to as ‘modular design’,” Winston hits again. And he would possibly simply be onto one thing. Tough Crafts is a hitmaker that not often misses the mark—so why mess with a great factor?
On this challenge, Winston duplicated a subframe design that he’d used on a earlier Ducati Monster, and modeled the fairing after the one on his groundbreaking BMW R nineT construct. The scalloped bodywork, brooding livery, and considerate pin-striping are additionally typical Tough Crafts particulars, as is the bike’s kooky nickname; ‘Bologna Dogfight.’
“I needed it to have these traditional café racer traces,” Winston tells us. “A bit rounded and stylish—however nonetheless very recognizably Tough Crafts.”
The 2019-model Ducati Monster was chosen for the construct just because the consumer already owned it. However that suited Winston simply tremendous.
“I’ve at all times been a giant fan of the Monster, particularly the 1200 and 821 platform,” he tells us. “The minimal bolt-on tubular subframe makes it very straightforward to switch with a customized tail. And though there’s the extra highly effective V4 Streetfighter within the Ducati line-up, the simplicity of the L-twin engine nonetheless makes for a a lot better platform for a customized construct.”
To kick issues off, Winston pulled up the digital information for the aforementioned subframe design and had a brand new unit CNC milled. It’s much more compact than the inventory association, whereas nonetheless paying homage to the Monster’s love affair with trellised frames. Sitting up prime is a 3D-printed tail cowl that includes a surprising two-piece leather-based seat.
The scalloped aluminum gas tank is customized too. It’s adorned with a Tough Crafts gas cap and a pair of handmade tank badges.
Up entrance, a 3D-printed fairing hosts a trimmed windshield, and a pair of vertically stacked Koso headlights. The elements might need all come from totally different sources, however the general look is fluid and cohesive. That’s partly as a result of slick livery, which incorporates carbon fiber inlays on all of the elements, and double pin-stripes that hint the Monster’s new traces.
Peek behind the fairing, and also you’ll spot a CNC-machined prime yoke carrying built-in clip-on bars. Winston specced the Ducati with Motogadget grips and Beringer controls, however saved the OEM switches and dashboard, relocating the latter to mounting factors on the brand new prime yoke. A CNC Racing brake lever guard provides slightly racing aptitude.
Transferring to the suspension, Tough Crafts put in an Andreani cartridge package within the inventory entrance forks, and swapped out the underside yoke for one from CNC Racing. A blacked-out Öhlins shock props up the rear.
17” carbon fiber wheels from BST assist to save lots of weight, whereas Pirelli Diablo Rosso IV Corsa tires provide sporty grip. The braking setup makes use of Beringer calipers with MotoMaster discs at each ends. The Ducati Monster 821 goes, turns, and stops fairly rattling properly in inventory kind, so we will solely think about how a lot enjoyable it might be on this trim.
With the Monster virtually utterly murdered out, it’s unimaginable to disregard the elegant twin exhaust system that hangs off the right-hand aspect of it. At a look, it seems like a pair of headers following one another right into a pair of SC-Mission retro megaphone mufflers. However the precise circulate is two-into-one-into-two.
“I’ve at all times observed that Ducati does this two-into-one merge tremendous properly on each the Monster 821 and the Scrambler sequence,” he explains. “It’s blended so properly, that it seems like the twin headers simply circulate into one another. I made a decision to maintain that, after which copy it the place the collector splits into the dual mufflers.”
Different upgrades embody Sato Racing rear-sets, a Dash Filter air filter, and Koso LEDs to deal with flip sign and taillight duties. Winston additionally added a neat carbon ignition trim from CNC Racing.
As regular, Winston labored intently along with his coterie of native craftsmen to convey his imaginative and prescient to life. Rover Works Customized Paint dealt with the paint, Anodizing dealt with all of the laborious half finishes and Chirui Leather-based Customized tackled the upholstery. Artitek Ltd. was answerable for all of the CNC work, MS Professional was on fabrication, SFC Simon Fiber Craft did the carbon trim, and a couple of Irregular Sides created the tank badges, and CH Moto helped out with the ultimate meeting.
Does this practice Ducati Monster 821 tread acquainted floor for the Taiwanese customized builder? Completely. However that’s no unhealthy factor. So far as we’re involved, the Monster has by no means regarded this good.
If Tough Crafts provided this as a package, we’d be hard-pressed to say no.
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