How does the best Ducati of the final decade get constructed 4 thousand miles from Bologna, in a workshop most individuals have by no means heard of? Ducati’s residence turf is mainly hallowed floor, all purple paint and Borgo Panigale badges and 100 years of racing pedigree respiratory down each design determination. Bandit9 clearly didn’t get the memo, and thank god for that. The Saigon based mostly atelier, based by former inventive director Daryl Villanueva, builds bikes the best way a sculptor builds a monument, one hand formed panel at a time, with zero curiosity in enjoying by anybody else’s home type. Their tackle the Ducati 821 takes a inventory Monster and turns it into one thing that by some means feels extra Ducati than the precise Ducati. It’s the type of transfer you solely get to make when you may have completely nothing to lose.
Solely 9 of those have been ever going to exist, and eight of them are already gone, which implies we’re trying on the final one on the shelf. Bandit9’s resume consists of everlasting spots within the collections of MoMA and the Petersen Automotive Museum, so this isn’t some storage tinkerer getting fortunate as soon as. Beneath the bodywork sits Ducati’s personal 821cc Testastretta L-twin, 110 horsepower, a 3.3 second dash to 60 mph, wrapped in a hand fashioned shell that splits clear between brushed aluminum and gloss carbon fiber. At $49,900 for the final unit, you’re shopping for the argument as a lot because the motorbike.
Designer: Bandit9
The fabric break up down the center grabs you first, and whereas it seems beauty, it really serves a practical objective. Brushed aluminum wraps the nostril, tank, and stomach, whereas gloss carbon fiber takes over the tail part, and the seam between the 2 supplies tracks the precise bodywork geometry as an alternative of sitting on prime of it like a paint job. That tail part deserves its personal second, a bullet nosed unit with an LED strip tracing the ridge line right into a tucked amber flip sign, wrapped in uncovered weave carbon that catches mild like a jewel. Flip to the cockpit and Bandit9 sweated even the smallest particulars, milling a prime yoke in aluminum with a tiny embedded LED journey readout nested between the fork caps. Most customized outlets would depart that area clean or bolt on an aftermarket gauge. Bandit9 machined a bespoke resolution as an alternative, as a result of subtlety doesn’t look like a part of their vocabulary.
Ducati’s personal 821cc Testastretta 11 diploma L-twin sits beneath all that hand fashioned metallic, nonetheless producing 110 horsepower and 65.8 ft-lb of torque, sufficient to ship the bike from 0 to 60 mph in about 3.3 seconds. A customized tubular metal trellis body carries the engine, paired with 43mm Sachs forks up entrance and an adjustable Sachs monoshock out again, whereas twin 320mm Brembo monobloc calipers deal with the stopping duties. None of that’s notably radical on paper, and that’s the level. Bandit9 by no means touched the components that make a Ducati go quick or cease onerous, they solely rebuilt all the pieces round it by hand. No stamping press presently exists that may produce a single panel wrapping from the entrance cowl over the tank and down the physique and not using a seam, so each curve on this bike bought there as a result of an individual spent months shaping metallic the best way a watchmaker shapes a case. That’s what craftsmanship really seems like, no advertising spin required.
9 of those have been ever going to exist, and eight have already got house owners, so the maths right here is straightforward. Bandit9 has spent years constructing a repute that features everlasting placements within the collections of MoMA and the Petersen Automotive Museum, placing them in uncommon firm inside the customized bike world, alongside names like Deus Ex Machina and Icon, however working on a unique airplane of ambition totally. Founder Daryl Villanueva, a former graphic designer and inventive director, runs the Saigon based mostly atelier much less like a storage and extra like a small design home that occurs to construct bikes as an alternative of furnishings or typefaces. At $49,900, the final unit just isn’t low cost, however measured towards months of hand labor and a manufacturing run that may by no means reopen, the quantity begins to make sense. Whoever buys it walks away with a working sculpture that additionally occurs to be a genuinely fast motorbike.
Ducati will hold constructing glorious bikes in Bologna, and no person is arguing in any other case. However Bandit9’s 821 makes an sincere case that nice design doesn’t want a postcode, a century of racing heritage, or a manufacturing unit in any respect, only a workshop, a cussed sense of craft, and somebody keen to spend months getting a single curve precisely proper. The final unit will promote quick, most likely to somebody who already owns a storage filled with issues most individuals solely see in magazines. What occurs after that’s anybody’s guess, although I might not be stunned if Bandit9 is already sketching no matter comes subsequent. For an organization that retains proving Bologna doesn’t have a monopoly on nice Ducatis, retirement doesn’t appear to be a part of the plan.
