Star to Paparazzi: "Catch me if you can!"
THE JOB OF BEING A CELEBRITY photographer just got a little harder, thanks to this Ducati V-four special. Imagine trying to capture an in-focus image of a machine that can split lanes in traffic, then in a flash accelerate away to the far side of 150 mph. We've been sworn to secrecy about the bike's actor owner, but he's obviously a gearhead extraordinaire.
The concept was a sportbike rider's ultimate fantasy: Take a real MotoGP bike and convert it to regular streetbike use. Expensive. Impractical. But certainly the ultimate canyon carver and Rock Store attention-grabber. Chris Redpath of MotoGP Werks located in Anaheim, California, got the call. A former Grand Prix race mechanic who has settled down from traveling the race circuits of the world to run his own racebike-oriented shop ( www.motogpwerks.com), Chris is also one of the regularly featured custom-bike builders in the FastDates.com motorcycle pin-up calendars. He has built a number of custom Ducati sportbikes for the unnamed star, and also helps to service and maintain the man's bike collection.
Jumping-off point for the project was a Desmosedici, the limited-production replica of Ducati's MotoGP V-four 990cc racebike ridden by the likes of Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi. They sold in 2008-09 in a production run of 1500 bikes for $65,000- $72,000, depending on your factory connections. Word has it that our superstar has three of them, hence the desire to make one a little different and more practical for everyday riding.
Chris Redpath at MotoGP Werks created this one-off six-figure Ducati for a very famous client but by contract isn't allowed to say who. Neither are we.