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Final Ducati Ultramotard

Hyper, Ultra, Ducati

Ducati has been puzzled for more than 30 years: How will custom cruisers gain a foothold in the American market? Designer Roland Sands took a Hypermotard and built the answer for the Italians.

Roland Sands is a dog. Turn a Ducati into a hot rod bike and turn the Hyper into an Ultramotard. And nobody can buy them. Because there is only one. Only the one where an 1100 Desmo twin can transfer its power to a 240 mm rubber skin. Just the one Duc, which was replaced by two stainless steel bags from ex-racing driver Kenny Roberts ?? exhale from a former V5 machine. Only she looks so damn cool and drives like that.

Custom master Sands manages the balancing act between a casual custom bike and an active driving machine. Somehow that is to be expected from someone who has successfully competed in 250cc road races for years. The 33-year-old is now the head of Roland Sands Design, or RSD for short. The company is located in La Palma, California, right next to the father’s company, Performance Machine, which mainly produces cool custom wheels and brakes for motorcycles. RSD looks like a beach hut. It is hard to imagine that the craziest and sportiest customs on the planet are created here, with which Sands regularly stirs up the scene.

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This exhaust roars every alarm system!

Sand’s fame began with the birth of the KR V5 tracker. The charm and the maximum unusualness of knitting the V5 engine from Kenny Roberts GP machine into a flattracker could not be avoided. Like the V5 tracker, the Ultramotard cannot be pigeonholed either. Originally a supermoto, now a cruiser at the back and a trial bike in the middle. As strong the external transformation, so subtle the internal one. Sands has of course worked on the chassis, brakes and tires. The motor, however, remained untouched, only an STM dry clutch and covers for the rollers of the now open toothed belt had to be. In Italian red, of course. And the exhaust! "The pots have seen MotoGP circuits before," says Roland Sands. There is no other way, because the GP pipes are more hollow than hollow and would roar up any car alarm system on public roads. For free. The soundscape sets up each body hair individually, unmistakably a Ducati. She is angry, wants to be let off the leash after all the grooming and teasing. And show that it drives as well as it looks.

Irresistible unique piece

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A bit of hanging off is always possible – but the one-off is definitely too good to throw away.

Fortunately, Sands has its own test track: perfectly arranged asphalt loops wind their way through suburban wasteland, with buildings belonging to the ConEd power station delimiting the site on all sides. There are only three miles on the clock. The US-Italian surely collected two of them during the delivery check by Ducati, the last mile in the parking lot of Roland Sands Design. When sitting on, the Ultramotard appears smaller than it really is. The reason for this is the relatively upright and forward-facing sitting position. You almost want to introduce your chin to the sexy headlight when you position yourself behind the original Ducati dashboard. The trimmed 43 mm upside-down fork of a Suzuki GSX-R 1000 replaces the mighty 50-millimeter Marzocchi tubes of the standard Hypermotard, makes the front look even narrower and makes the Ultramotard, including the padded seat, even deeper. So that Sands doesn’t just stand with tiptoe, but with both feet firmly on the ground. The rear of the Ultra-Duc brings the original brake system to a standstill. In order to capture the 120 mm front tire on the 19-inch rim, a single 330-millimeter steel disc with four-piston pliers from Performance Machine screwed on radially must suffice.

The delicacy that Duc exudes translates one to one into handling? despite the ultra-fat rear tire, which, if it were mounted on other motorcycles, you would have to write an email to announce an imminent change of direction. Logically, the wide Renthal handlebar requires a good jolt to tilt the box, but that’s never annoying. Especially since the motorcycle, unlike other custom bikes, seems immune to tipping over in curves because of the thick rear wheel rubber. The higher RSD footrests enable sporty sitting, the custom Duc can be driven around the course in a nimble and bustling manner. Thanks to the open GP bags, it certainly pushes more than the 90 hp of the original Hypermotard; the rear tire has no trouble getting them onto the road.

Showgirl

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The attraction of the ultramotard is obviously also transferred to the driver.

And she’s happy that a beauty like the Ultramotard is riding her. Roland Sands has opened his make-up box wide to create a hybrid between diva and bitch with targeted make-up dosing. RSD cover for brake and clutch fluid reservoir, redesigned tank with bright red covers and a black painted Ohlins spring at the rear ?? because of the understatement. Just like the distinctive bronze of the frame. In contrast to this are the work of art of the tubular space frame and the seven-spoke rims from the RSD collection. Even an application from the handbag industry, which from a distance looks more like greasy fingerprints, made it to Sand’s litter: In a kind of Louis Vuitton brown there are tiny pictures of the desmodromic valve control on the lamp housing, tank flanks and behind the driver’s seat.

What is hard to believe: Ducati North America himself chose Roland Sands as the only one capable of building such a machine. For Ducati, this could mean the opportunity to gain a foothold in the American custom cruiser scene. Sands would be happy: "I didn‘t want to be too radical because the Ducati people should see the part and say: Yes! We could actually build something like that one day." The rush to the Ducati stand at the Long Beach International Motorcycle Show speaks in favor of mass production. Onlookers gathered around the ultramotard like a pack of wolves around a freshly torn lamb. And as if on drugs, quite a few took out their checkbooks to enter numbers with several zeros. But the tasty piece of motorcycle is and remains a one-off. Roland Sands is a dog, albeit a cool one.

Technical data: Ducati Ultramotard

engine
air / oil-cooled two-cylinder four-stroke 90 degree V-engine, anti-hopping dry clutch from STM, six-speed gearbox, chain drive. Displacement 1078 cubic centimeters, rated power 66kW (90 PS) at 7750 rpm, max. Torque 103 Nm at 4750 rpm.

landing gear
Steel tubular frame, upside-down fork, diameter 43 millimeters, fully adjustable, tubular single-sided swing arm, Ohlins central spring strut with lever system, fully adjustable, single-disc brake at the front, diameter 330 millimeters, four-piston fixed caliper from Performance-Machine, radially screwed, disc brake at the rear, Diameter 245 millimeters, CNC-milled aluminum wheels from RSD, 3.0 x 19.8.5 x 18; Tires 120/70 ZR 19, 240/40 R 19.

Dimensions + weights
Wheelbase 1480 millimeters, steering head angle 66.0 degrees, dry weight 179 kilograms.

Price: Not specified

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