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ADV Custom: Venier restyles the Cagiva Gran Canyon

Venier restyles the Cagiva Gran Canyon
Everyone has a scrambler in their arsenal these days, from the biggest OEM to the custom shop on the corner. But there’s an emerging trend that we’re finding even more appealing: custom adventure bikes.

Take an 80s or 90s dual sport, spin it just right, and get ready to explore in style. Walt Siegl did it with his L’Avventura project, and now another heavy hitter has had a go. This is the ‘VX Traveller,’ built by Venier Customs and based on a 1999 Cagiva Gran Canyon.

Venier restyles the Cagiva Gran Canyon
The Gran Canyon was only made from 1997 until 2000, back when Cagiva and Ducati were still stablemates. Like its predecessor the Elefant, it was powered by a Ducati mill—more specifically, the one from the 900 SS.

This Gran Canyon has been customized for a very picky customer: shop boss Stefano Venier himself. He bought the Cagiva for two-up adventure touring with his wife, but since he’s known for his impeccable taste, this dual-sport was never going to stay stock.

Venier restyles the Cagiva Gran Canyon
In their HQ in Italy (they have one in Brooklyn too), the Venier team set to work. The Gran Canyon’s stock bodywork went straight to the bin—except for the original seat. “I used the bike with the original seat for a summer,” says Stefano, “and it was so comfortable that I couldn’t lose it.”

“I wanted to have a cool seat, but comfortable like the original and with the original mounts. We achieved this with an afternoon of shaping and modifying the original, which was then upholstered in leather from one of the best guys around my home town.”

Venier restyles the Cagiva Gran Canyon
The subframe was cleaned up and shortened—which meant relocating a bunch of electronic components. A pair of aluminum side covers was fabricated, along with a pair of fenders.

The fuel tank is custom too; it’s been shaped from aluminum, and holds 11.5 liters. “I know it’s not a lot,” says Stefano, “but I had to compromise with the style. The Cagiva Elefant had 14 liters, so we’re not far off.”

Venier restyles the Cagiva Gran Canyon
Since practicality was high on the list, there were a lot of things that Stefano didn’t want to change. The air box is still there, and the wiring loom’s been edited only where needed, rather than completely ripped out.

Most of the Cagiva’s running gear is still OEM as well. “The donor motorcycle has a Marzocchi 45 mm front fork, a Sachs rear shock and a very capable Nissin braking system,” he explains.

Venier restyles the Cagiva Gran Canyon
“The frame makes the Gran Canyon incredibly agile and fun to ride, but the best thing is the Ducati 900 SS fuel injected engine.”

Stefano kept the practical 19F/17R wheels, wrapping them in fresh Metzeler Tourance rubber. The exhaust headers are original too, but they’ve been modified to slip onto a pair of one-off mufflers from Mass Moto. The whole system’s been redone in a high-temp black finish.

Venier restyles the Cagiva Gran Canyon

Moving to the cockpit, Venier has installed new handlebars, along with Motogadget grips and bar-end turn signals. The speedo’s from Motogadget too, and is mounted on a hand-made bracket.

A custom-built headlight lights the way, and the tail light and rear turn signals have been built into the back of the frame.

Venier restyles the Cagiva Gran Canyon
Luggage experts Kappa came to the table too, and supplied a set of hard panniers and racks. The guys managed to adapt the Kappa brackets to the Cagiva with minimal fuss.

The VX Traveller is finished off with a typical Venier paint scheme—and it’s absolutely stunning. The warm gray comes from the Fiat 500 Abarth, and is punctuated by gold touches on the logos, brakes and rear shock.

Venier restyles the Cagiva Gran Canyon
Some fresh powder coated bits, and a set of carbon engine covers, help keep things tidy. And yes, that’s the original wheel color—Stefano liked it so much, he decided not to repaint the rims.

This Cagiva looks as good as everything else that’s rolled out of the Venier workshop. And it’s a decent ride too, according to Stefano. “This bike will give you a very refined no-electronics ride, with 75 hp—or maybe a little more now, with the exhaust. And we lost a lot of weight.”

Venier restyles the Cagiva Gran Canyon
“It’s a unique experience. You can smell the Paris-Dakar, but often you think you’re riding an old school supermoto.”

Stefano has since bought a brand new Honda Africa Twin, so the VX Traveller is for sale. Let’s just hope this isn’t the last time he lays his hands on a 90s ADV bike.

Venier Customs | Facebook | Instagram | Photos: Ikon Productions

Venier restyles the Cagiva Gran Canyon

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BikeExif Cagiva Ducati Ducati Pantah Other Motorcycle Blogs Racing Motorcycles

1980s Overload! The Moretti vintage race bike

1980s Overload: Paul Hewitt's Moretti vintage race bike
You’ve probably noticed the new breed of moto gear store springing up around the world. The products are curated, rather than piled high. And there’s usually a cool bike in the window, or in the middle of the shop floor.

In Toronto, Ontario there’s a fine example of type, called Town Moto. And yes, there’s always a cool display bike to stop the traffic. Right now, pride of place is taken by this incredible and very obscure Moretti, a vintage race bike based on the Cagiva Alazzurra.

1980s Overload: Paul Hewitt's Moretti vintage race bike
If you’ve never heard of Moretti before, don’t worry—it was a new name for us, too.

The bike was built by Canadian race enthusiast Paul Hewitt, and it’s one of just ten in the world. While toying with the idea of building a custom Ducati Pantah, Hewitt stumbled across the tale of Domenico Moretti, famous in Italy for building a gorgeous racer based on the Ducati TT2 in the 1980s.

1980s Overload: Paul Hewitt's Moretti vintage race bike
Replica kits are now available, so Hewitt placed his order. A package soon arrived from Europe, with a TIG welded Chrome-Moly frame, a swingarm, custom footpegs, and that delicious bodywork.

The hunt began for an engine. The TT2 was built around a Ducati Pantah engine, but those machines are becoming too valuable to chop up these days.

1980s Overload: Paul Hewitt's Moretti vintage race bike
So Hewitt found an engine from a 1985 Cagiva Alazzurra—which is is mechanically identical to the Pantah, because Ducati’s then-parent company built it.

He boosted the original 650 cc engine to 750 cc, and added a solid dose of headwork for even more power. The engine internals have been lightened and balanced, with performance upgrades including Carrillo connecting rods and 900SS camshafts.

1980s Overload: Paul Hewitt's Moretti vintage race bike
According to the guys at Town Moto, the new 41 mm Dell’Orto carburetors are “Big enough to suck a cat off the sidewalk.” They’ve been modified by the Italian company Malossi, with reshaped bellmouths for increased airflow.

1980s Overload: Paul Hewitt's Moretti vintage race bike
The Marvic magnesium wheels are replicas of 1980s Campagnolos, hooked up to forks from a Ducati 851. The rear end is suspended by an Öhlins TTX shock originally designed for a Honda CBR600RR.

Kits are supposed to be easy, but this build took six months—with a ton of brackets and machining to make it work. Ten kits have been made, but Hewitt completed his first.

1980s Overload: Paul Hewitt's Moretti vintage race bike
Being a bicycle nut, he decided to paint the Moretti a minty ‘Celeste Green’— the signature color of Bianchi. But his painter very wisely refuted the suggestion, given the Moretti’s slab-sided bodywork.

They ended up agreeing on a low-key, metallic white—not a million miles away from modern Ducati paintwork. And it looks sublime, doesn’t it?

1980s Overload: Paul Hewitt's Moretti vintage race bike
As soon as the Moretti was finished, it was time to hit the track. But on the first day out, the timing belt skipped a tooth. Valves met pistons, and the head of the exhaust valve was ejected from the muffler.

“Builder error,” Hewitt admits. “I squeezed it a little too tight. But I didn’t crash, I stayed upright.”

1980s Overload: Paul Hewitt's Moretti vintage race bike
He’s already rebuilt the engine, and as soon as the Moretti has finished its stint in the window, he’ll be back on the track again.

If you live within riding distance of Lake Ontario, zip over to Town Moto for a closer look at this incredible machine. The rest of us will have to make do with Cycle Canada’s great tech article on Mr Moretti’s magnificent motorcycle.

Images by Town Moto | Facebook | Instagram | With thanks to Paulo Rosas of Pagnol Moto

1980s Overload: Paul Hewitt's Moretti vintage race bike

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BikeExif Cagiva Custom Motorcycles Ducati Monster Heiwa Honda motorcycles KTM Other Motorcycle Blogs Triumph Bonneville

Custom Bikes Of The Week—League Of Nations Edition

The best custom motorcycles and cafe racers of the week
This week we’ve got a Gold Wing from Sweden, a Cagiva from Portugal, a KTM from the USA, a Triumph from Japan, and a Ducati from Spain. How did we manage before Google Translate?

Custom Cagiva Alazzurra by Capêlos Garage
Cagiva Alazzurra by Capêlos Garage Impeccable is a word that gets tossed around quite a bit here: We’re constantly bombarded with bikes that up the stakes and redefine the term.

This week, impeccability comes in the form of a 1987 Cagiva Alazzurra from Capêlos Garage in Porto, Portugal. Because there isn’t a bolt on this bike that architect/designer Nuno Capêlo hasn’t pored over. The 350cc Ducati L-Twin engine has been completely stripped, vapor blasted and rebuilt to better-than-new. The front fairing was crafted by slicing, splicing and shaping an existing unit to match the flow of the cradle frame.

The tank too has been re-worked and you’ll note that the rear tail (an all-steel unit crafted using a 3-D printed prototype) is grafted directly to it, creating a monocoque design. The countless details of this build could fill a tome, so in the interest of saving time and space we’ll stick with that word ‘impeccable.’ [More]

Honda Gold Wing by Adam’s Custom Shop
Honda Gold Wing by Adam’s Custom Shop The words ‘Gold Wing’ and ‘cafe racer’ are not often used together. A Gold Wing is a hulking half-ton of motorcycle designed to ferry riders and gear over hundreds of miles. A café racer is an exercise in minimalism, in pursuit of speed.

The contradictions obviously didn’t faze Adam Nestor. The Swedis builder behind Adam’s Custom Shop has just created a cafe racer out of a 1976 Honda GL1000—and we like it. A lot.

Almost all of the bulky Wing’s original sheet metal has been swapped for lightweight aluminum components. Everything superfluous has been lopped off and binned — even the seat is a mere four pieces of foam. To flatten the Honda’s spine, the front end was lowered on the fork tubes and a set of clip-ons replace the wide bars. The fuel tank was scalloped and put on a diet before remounting. And a bespoke tail was grafted directly to the frame to echo the silhouette and hide electrics. [More]

Custom KTM RC8 by Deus
KTM RC8 by Deus Customs The RC8 isn’t the first KTM you’d think of when looking for a blank build canvas. The angular Austrian superbike is already a unique piece of design work. And its blistering ‘off-the-shelf’ performance commands both attention and respect. But those high-speed credentials are why it was the perfect choice for Michael ‘Woolie’ Woolaway’s latest creation.

The design director for Deus Ex Machina’s Venice location has made a name for himself (and arguably for Deus) by placing performance as well as aesthetics on the pedestal.

Case in point: check where the bespoke seat meets the sculpted, handmade aluminum tank. It sits high and flat to make sliding forward an easy affair—so supermoto riders can wring everything from that 151hp, 1150cc V-twin, on the track or in canyons.

Of course, this is only one of the many performance features on ‘Scrappier.’ Note also the hand formed carbon fiber fenders, the custom subframe, and the new tail section. The Marzocchi forks have been shortened and re-valved to work with an Adreani Group bladder setup, and the titanium-colored Brembo calipers have nickel coatings to allow the smallest ever machining tolerances. [More]

Heiwa's Triumph T100 Bonneville
Triumph T100 Bonneville by Heiwa You may have noticed we’re pretty big fans of Kengo Kimura’s Heiwa Motorcycles—we’ve even stopped by his place for a chat. Our adoration is for good reason. Heiwa’s characteristic ‘slammed and bobbed’ creations are visually fresh, clean and just the right amount of nasty to set our tongues wagging.

Kimura-san’s latest build is based off of a first generation Hinckley Bonneville and it exudes Japanese style in the finest Heiwa tradition. To deliver the slammed stance, the rear frame was completely remodeled with new mounts for the shortened rear shocks. From there a one-off seat was squeezed into the wedge, and a custom fender was mounted and topped off with a Heiwa taillight. Up front, the wheel sits 70mm closer to top yoke and and a 4.5-inch Betsuraito headlight lies in between.

The Trumpet’s tank is a one-off unit as well, sitting leaner and lower than the OE unit. The only thing that escapes me on this bike is why the passenger peg mounts weren’t binned with the airbox. [More]

Ducati Monster by XTR Pepo
Ducati Monster by XTR Pepo Pepo Rosell made his name at Radical Ducati—an aptly named company. Since leaving to set up XTR Pepo he certainly hasn’t lost his creative touch, but the latest Duc to emerge from his garage is remarkable not for its extremes, but for its subtleties.

‘Siluro’ is a commission from Ducati España, and many of the components can be plucked from the Ducati Performance parts bin. The carbon fiber mudguards and swingarm covers, as well as the CNC bits adorning the water pump and sprocket, are all catalog items. And even that Termi silencer was co-opted from a Multistrada, before being modified and mounted.

In true Pepo fashion though, this is far from a bolt-on affair. That gorgeous perch of a rear subframe is an XTR original. The headlight, footrests, seat and exhaust are custom too. The tank is stock, but it’s been modified to deliver a better view of the beastly 1200cc L-Twin below.

It’s a well-balanced build that doesn’t detract from the Ducati’s original form. Up close or from a distance, Siluro is obviously a Monster—it’s just an angrier one. [More]

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Aprilia BMW Cagiva Ducati Faster and Faster Honda Kawasaki Motorcycle News MV Agusta Suzuki Triumph Yamaha

The Top 10 bikes we'd like to see at EICMA this year


Motorcycling flights of fancy…

During an idle weekend, with no real motorcycles to ride (yeah, well, such is life…), fantasising about various 'dream bikes' is sometimes the only recourse. Of course, most motorcycle manufacturers already have a huge assortment of some magnificent high-performance machines in their line-up, but that doesn't stop us from letting our imagination run wild. So, here's a list of the Top 10 motorcycles that we'd love to see at the EICMA this year.


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Sometimes, 200bhp just isn't enough, right? So bring on the supercharged 290bhp ZX-14R in 2017

1. Supercharged Kawasaki ZX-14R
Sure, the Kawasaki ZX-14R already packs a 200bhp punch and isn't exactly slow. Still, a supercharged version with about 280-290bhp from its boosted inline-four should be even more fun to ride. We already love the 14R's all-around practicality, plush seat and all-day riding comfort (which the H2/H2R doesn't have), and a supercharger will just make it that much more exotic, fast and desirable. That, and a single-sided swingarm, matt-black paint, and the world's first laser headlamps on a production motorcycle should make it perfect!

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Time for a lighter, sharper, turbocharged Suzuki GSX-R1100 Hayabusa

2. Turbocharged Suzuki Hayabusa GSX-R1100 Turbo
Time for a major revamp for the Hayabusa, and we'd like the new one to be powered by an all-new 1100cc turbocharged inline six-cylinder engine. With modern electronics and a turbo, an 1100cc turbocharged inline-six should easily be able to produce more than 250bhp, which should be enough for most people. Plus, we'd like the current Hayabusa's bulbous, Zeppelin-type styling to be replaced with slim, sharp, modern lines. Keep it as light as possible (180kg or thereabouts would be perfect), give it fully adjustable active suspension and make it sound really, really good. Bring the dark side of Japan.
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Cagiva Classics Faster and Faster Motorcycle News Two-stroke

Cagiva C594 race-replica streetbike: What might have been…

1994 Cagiva C594
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Even after two decades, the 1994 Cagiva C594 still looks utterly beautiful!

Two decades ago, back in 1994, American rider John Kocinski was winning races and getting podium finishes on one of the most beautiful 500cc GP bikes of all time – the glorious, gorgeous Cagiva C594. Powered by a two-stroke 498cc V4 that produced 177bhp at 12,600rpm, the C594 was fitted with a hybrid carbonfibre/aluminium twin-spar chassis, had a carbonfibre swingarm and weighed just 122 kilos. It was a very high-tech machine, with programmable EPROM chips for variable ignition timing, a sophisticated fuel-injection system, electronically contolled semi-active suspension, and even an experimental traction control system, which could cut out one or two of the V4's cylinders in certain situations, to reduce wheelspin. All this, back in the early 1990s!

Back in January 2003, Cycle World magazine ran a story about Cagiva's announcement that they would build and sell 25 replicas of the C594 grand prix racer, which would be built in Varese, Italy, by the same team that had built the original, 1990s Cagiva 500 GP race bikes. Production was supposed to start in mid-2003 and prices for each of the GP replicas was expected to be in the region of US$100,000. Nothing came of these plans, unfortunately.
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