Like all good manufacturing facility café racer, the Ducati SportClassic doesn’t beg to be custom-made. It’s gorgeous in inventory kind—and, with a 992 cc Desmo L-twin mounted in its trellis body, has greater than sufficient go to match the present. Little surprise then that it’s so wanted on the second hand market.
In case you do handle to get your arms on one, you possibly can fortunately go away it as is—or personalize it with a couple of choose mods. Or you possibly can observe Jeff Soucek’s instance. His SportClassic appears to be like virtually authentic at a look, but it surely’s truly packing extra mods than your backyard selection café racer.
All you could learn about Jeff is that he’s primarily based in California, loves Ducatis and has a background in aerospace engineering. He purchased his 2006-model SportClassic in 2010, and has been bettering it ever since—making refined visible tweaks and dialing the efficiency as much as eleven.
Jeff likens these tweaks to salt and pepper on an important steak. “One of the best steak I ever had was in Kobe, Japan,” he explains. “The chef was quiet and very deliberate in his presentation, and when the steaks got here out, he merely added a splash of salt and pepper, touched it to the new iron for 3 seconds, then served it.”
“It wasn’t lined in sauces, and garnish—simply an empty plate with the steak entrance and heart. It was in contrast to the rest I ever had.”
“That is how I’ve at all times seen the SportClassic—a stupendous masterpiece that solely wants slightly enhancement to deliver out the close to perfection. My route in constructing this bike was to maintain the traces, design and the flavour the way it got here, and convey that entrance and heart as a substitute of overshadowing it with aftermarket bolt-ons, loopy colours or stand out trophy components.”
Jeff’s SportClassic is a real sleeper, beginning with its motor. It’s been bored out to 1,080 cc courtesy of DucShop in Georgia, with ported heads by CR Axtell. Inside you’ll discover Carrillo rods, DP cams, an alloy flywheel, and a lightened stage three crank from Ben Fox. The consumption and exhaust valves are greater, the consumption runners have been ported, the throttle our bodies have been modified and the intakes are new.
Different upgrades embody alloy belt pulleys and an EVR slipper clutch. The bike’s additionally been tuned with a Microtec ECU and twin lambda controller. It now places out 104 hp and 97.6 Nm—13.3 and 6.4 greater than earlier than.
Up entrance are a set of blacked-out Öhlins forks, with the Öhlins rear shock sporting an identical black spring. Eager eyes will discover that the SportClassic’s spoked wheels are gone. Of their place are a set of solid hoops from a Ducati 999, with {custom} billet aluminum tensioners out again.
The braking system options Brembo calipers, discs and grasp cylinders, with 3D-printed fluid reservoirs and Spiegler hoses.
Up within the cockpit are an Öhlins Blackline steering damper, and raised clip-ons from a Ducati ST3, fitted with racing-style switches and a single Motogadget mirror. Additionally current are a carbon fiber headlight bucket, and a carbon fiber entrance fender.
The lighting setup is accomplished with stealthy Motogadget LED flip indicators, and a custom-made taillight that makes use of an 80s Bultaco lens. Decrease down are an NCR oil cooler, NCR rear units and a blacked-out exhaust system with a Spark muffler.
The entire beauty modifications are refined, however they’ve had a huge impact. If the SportClassic does have a weak spot, visually, it’s its slightly-too-chunky saddle. Jeff’s fastened that by becoming a slim tail part from Airtech Streamlining, and capping it off with a neoprene racing pad.
The true genius right here is within the bike’s new livery. Jeff’s saved it easy with a jet black physique and a sweet turquoise body. They’re colours that Ducati has beforehand bestowed on the SportClassic, however by no means collectively—and so they really feel simply that bit extra elegant than the manufacturing facility choices.
Past the paint, Jeff’s gone to painstaking lengths to make it possible for every end enhances the subsequent. He’s used both titanium or black re-plated fasteners all through, and a bunch of components have been handled to black Cerakote or powder-coated finishes, in numerous ranges of matte and gloss.
Each element is refined, and nothing screams for consideration. Jeff’s even touched on small particulars—like redoing the speedo housing in black, and treating the oil cooler to a matte end with contrasting gloss logos. Just a few bits of carbon fiber trim add simply the correct quantity of aptitude.
Jeff’s SportClassic may not be as visually radical on the surface as some {custom} examples we’ve seen, however we are able to’t cease observing it. Tasteful and restrained, it exemplifies the virtues of the trendy traditional.
And in case you’re questioning, sure: Jeff rides it recurrently, on the monitor and on the road.
Photos by Alexander Soria
