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It is common for us to write about a motorcycle with a special story, and in a way, they are all very personal. Still, this might be the most special motorcycle we have covered to date. This is a story about a man that does not compromise.

Controversial Design

Let’s start with the bike we have at hand. It started out its life as a Ducati 999; a controversial motorcycle designed by the famous Pierre Terblanche and produced in the Ducati factory from 2003 till 2006. Why was it controversial? Well, first off, Terblanche superseded Massimo Tamburini, the man that designed the magnificent Ducati 916, among others. Tamburini designed motorcycles for Cagiva, Ducati, MV Agusta and even founded Bimota. All of his designs were basically iconic. Does are some pretty big shoes to fill for Terblanche.

Terblanche had his own style, which wasn’t always liked by everyone. Despite the odd looking double stacked headlight, and sharp lines of the original 999 and its smaller displaced 749 sibling, Terblanche’s design grew a cult following. Also because the 999 was an incredibly capable sport bike, with various victories in the Superbike World Championship. Compared to today’s figures one might not be impressed with the specs. However, nearly 20 years ago, it was a totally different story. So far the history lesson.

A man from Twello

So how did this Ducati 999 end up in the workshop of the dynamic Dutch duo Moto Adonis? Well, THAT’S an interesting story! This may sound like a story you would hear in a bar. Maybe one to take with a pinch of salt. Not this one. So here goes.

A few years ago, a man from Twello, a small town in the Eastern part of the Netherlands, had a traumatic accident. As a matter of fact, it was so bad, that he lost his left lower leg. Since then, he learned how to use a prosthetic leg and moved on with his life. This man had a vivid dream. He dreamt that one day he would be able to ride a sports bike. Not any sports bike, but a Ducati 999 nonetheless. He was so focused on achieving his dream, that he purchased a 999, bought a retro styled fairing kit, and tried to build the bike he had dreamt of. There was one major issue though: his leg. No matter how you look at it, a left leg and foot is needed to control the gearbox. Despite this setback, he kept moving forward, and found the boys of Moto Adonis. Together they came up with a plan.

Shifting Gears

We’ll cut straight to the chase. To deal with the gear shifting challenge, a pneumatically actuated manual shifter was created, which allows the rider to shift gears with the push of 2 buttons on the left clip-on. To give the prosthetic leg a safe place to rest, and to keep the motorcycle in balance, a modified floorboard was created from scratch. This is what engineering is about! To make the 999 look like a million bucks, the fairing kit got customized to suit and the side panels were ditched. The tank got modified to flow with the rest of the design, which as you can see, is heavily inspired by 1970’s race bikes. The subframe had to be modified and now houses the battery.

The seat was custom made and designed to look like a horse saddle; courtesy of Miller Kustom Upholstery. Looking closer and you will see an LED taillight, which is actually of a Yamaha XSR700. A round 7” headlight adds to the classic look, as well as the round Motogadget speedo. To custom paint job really pops when you see the Ducati, with a Moto Adonis unique twist to the Italian Tri-Colori. Not red, white and green, but red, gold and blue. Ohlins suspension ensure proper tractability, and the SC Project silencers add to the audible character of the liquid cooled L-twin from Bologna. Combined with the unique, classic Ducati logo on the tank, we think this is the best looking 999 in the world!

There’s more…

There is a little bit more to this story that we would like to share with you. The original prosthetic leg had to get irreversibly modified to allow the owner to sit properly on the motorcycle. This was a bit of a problem because he only had 1 prosthetic leg, and another one would cost a fortune. Also, not one single prosthetists was willing to modify a leg for motorcycle riding. Fortunately, the guys from Moto Adonis were willing to do the modification, provided a leg was available. When word got around, another motorcycle rider with a modified motorcycle and a prosthetic leg offered a spare prosthetic leg. Legend has it that both are now riding buddies and have become close friends. Now that is a story worth telling.

Builder details:
Moto Adonis
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The Monkey and the Ape

By now you should have a pretty good idea about who Rusty Stitches are and what they are all about. They are the David to the motorcycle riding gear industry’s Goliath. And they’ve been growing recently…fast! Although their mascot is a big hairy ape, the Rusty Stitches management team thought it would be a good idea if the giant ape had its own ride. And what better bike to start with than a Honda Monkey!

If you want to get technical about the difference between a monkey and an ape; a monkey has a tail and is relatively small by size, and an ape has no tail and can grow much larger than a monkey. This is the story of the ape and the monkey!

The Honda Monkey was first introduced to the public in 1961, after increasing popularity as a children’s ride at a Japanese amusements park. Originally it was a 100cc minibike called the Z100 but quickly gained popularity amongst people in its 50cc trim as the Z50 a.k.a. “the Monkey”. Not a bad name considering it is one of Honda’s longest produced models in the company’s history. We’re not going to bore you with performance specs. What we can say is that people who owned them, loved them! It was an ideal vehicle to take on a trailer or on a camper. It’s lightweight, small, frugal with fuel, and easy to work on.

Cult status

The Honda Monkey has gained something of a cult status. In 2018 the late Beatles singer John Lennon’s old Honda Monkey Z50 was auction for a whopping $80,000! Not bad for a bike that initially cost about $250. What also increased the popularity of the Monkey is the availability of aftermarket parts. You can turn a standard 50cc Monkey into a fire-breathing, tire smoking, little ripper, capable of serious speeds.

Moto Adonis

This is where part 2 of the story begins. Enter: Moto Adonis. The Dutch based team consisting of Arthur Renkema and Job Leussink have been dabbling in the world of customization for some time now. As far as Rusty Stitches were concerned, Moto Adonis the go-to guys to get their custom Honda Monkey built. It was clear from the beginning which direction they wanted to go with this little bike. It had to look a lot meaner than the original Monkey, and they knew exactly how they were going to do that.

The little Honda got stripped of all its parts and received a complete rebuild from the ground up. One thing that wasn’t changed was the engine displacement. The reason for this was that the Honda will serve a promotional purpose only, travelling around to various Rusty Stitches dealerships and motorcycle shows. Besides, increasing the displacement would also mean going through a series of mandatory tests and complete re-registration; quite pointless for what is intended. What the engine did receive was a dry-ice vapor blast treatment, and a complete respray in black and white. Other than that, very little was kept of the original Monkey.

The original wheels were removed and saved for later. Instead, a pair of 12” oversized wheels were added with Maxxis NSR knobbly tires. To accommodate for the wheels, the front shocks were replaced as well as the triple clamps for wider units. Both front and rear shocks now have an increased travel. A round LED headlight was mounted using a unique set of custom brackets. Using an LED light was made possible by upgrading the original 6 Volts system to a more modern 12V power supply. A black aluminium handlebar is now in place, coupled with a beautiful set of white Biltwell grips to stay with the black & white theme. The front brake has been beefed up with a 2-piston caliper and bigger disk brake.

More than just a few parts…

Moving to the rear we can see an extended and widened aluminium swing arm. The little drum brake from the rear has also been replaced with a 2-piston disk brake conversion kit. The final drive was changed to a bigger rear sprocket. The subframe has been custom built and houses a café racer style hump seat. The seat has been custom made by Miller Kustom Upholstery. Look closely and you will notice the white stitching and lettering. We love such craftsmanship! It is worth mentioning that the entire rear seat was built from scratch.

There are 2 other real eye-catchers on this little Monkey: the tank and the exhaust. Let’s start with the tank. It is the original Honda tank but it received a fresh coat of black paint. What makes it special though, is the pin-striping that was applied by hand; an art form we don’t see much anymore. It was done by Huid & Staal’s very own Frank Bouwmeester. The other eye-catcher is the exhaust system, which was built from the ground up by MAD Exhausts. We have heard this Monkey in real life, and it sounds more like a Gorilla than a Monkey!

Trailer

That’s it then, right? Wrong. Remember the original wheels that were saved for later? They were repurposed to be used on a custom-made trailer. Built to resemble a giant banana box, the trailer was completely built from nothing to serve as a prop. That also means that the Monkey has a trailer hitch, and we think that it’s the cutest thing we have ever seen. The little engine that could…

Photo credits: Rob Willemsen

Builder details:
Moto Adonis
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Beautiful Monster

Monstrous Monster
Taking a Ducati Monster and turning it into something more monstrous is not an easy feat. Yet, the folks from Moto Adonis didn’t shy away from such a challenge. As the Dutch builders have done before, they like to do thing different from other builders. It is clear that they have their own design language, which is great! Their bikes showcase their creativity, originality, and a level of craftsmanship we don’t often get to see. Just look at some their recent build to judge for yourself.

While you are reading through this, have you ever considered having your own custom motorcycle built? Are you worried about how much work it actually is? Well, we have good news for you! Moto Adonis in the Netherlands have increased their capacity and are currently looking for new projects to take on! Make sure you go over to their website https://www.motoadonis.nl/ for more details.

Great start!
Now, it must be noted that there was already some work done on this modified 1995 Ducati Monster 900. When the bike arrived at the Moto Adonis workshop, the engine had already been treated to a big-bore kit, a custom exhaust, and was tuned for performance accordingly. So no additional work was needed to the engine, a great start! There was also some work done on the tail section and fuel tank, however, the customer wasn’t very happy with this. That’s why he visited the folks of Motor Adonis.

Unique design
First step was cutting the tank and tail section apart and modify it to their own design. They also made an aluminium front headlight fairing with a laser cut Ducati logo in the center. After these initial mods, the customer seemed very pleased with the direction the build was going. The next step was to seriously upgrade anything that could improve the handling and the looks (obviously!). An original Ducati S4R single-sided swingarm replaced the original unit. Marchesini magnesium wheels, with upgraded Brembo radial brakes, all original Ducati parts, were also added. To top things off, a set of Öhlins fully adjustable rear shock and front forks were added.

Under the skin
Some modifications were made to the suffrage to accommodate the single seat, curtesy of Miller Kustom Upholstery. The fenders and various brackets were all made in-house by Moto Adonis. To keep a clean look, the wiring needed to be reduced to an absolute minimum. For this reason the battery got relocated and a MotoGadget m.unit system was added to run all electronics. Some of the components that are connected to the m.unit are a Motoscope tiny speedometer, mo.blaze indicators, minimalistic Motone handlebar switches, and the head and tail lights. To accommodate for all of this, a completely new wiring harness was designed and built.

Factory-style
The show ain’t over until the fat lady sings, or in this case, no build is complete without a well-thought of colouring scheme. And the paint job on this Ducati Monster is something of a statement, even if we have to say so ourselves! The combination of black, gold, vintage Porsche orange and gray fits the Monster and the lines of the bodywork really well. It almost looks like a factory option.

Photo credits: Lennart Stolte

Builder details:
Moto Adonis
Website
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Since the CB 750 competed directly with Triumph, BMW, and Harley-Davidson, it too became a popular object to modify. As far as we’re concerned, the Honda CB 750 is probably the most customized motorcycle ever! We covered numerous of projects that were built around the platform, and yes, HD-Triumph-BMW are also incredibly popular base bikes, but they just can’t compete with the Honda in terms of affordability; it is the people’s champion after all.

Its 2022 now, and still we get notifications of newly built motorcycles that revolve around the Honda CB 750. So, when the guys from Moto Adonis gave us a call, we answered. We have been featuring builds from the Dutch customizers more often recently, and the rate at which bikes leave their workshop is incredible. Make no mistake, these guys have an eye for detail, and they do it with a ton of passion. This might be the right time to mention that they have some room in their schedule and are now actively looking for new challenges. Make sure to head out to their website and reach out to the guys yourself!

Despite its superbike status in the late 1960s and early 1970s, nowadays when people think of the Seven Fifty, they think of a modest, soft, naked touring bike. Very reliable, easy to maintain, and how do we put this nicely, a bit boring. A challenge the Moto Adonis crew, which exists out of Arthur Renkema and Job Leussink, know how to deal with. As the team usually starts, at first a couple of ideas were sketched out on a piece of paper. Once the ideas started to become more concrete, a digital render was made on the computer. From those designs the owner of the Honda could get a good idea of the final product. Once he greenlit the render, the build could start.

The idea was to build a scrambler around the 2001 Honda CB Seven Fifty. A clean one at that. With some big ol’ knobby tires. Something you would want to have with you when the zombie apocalypse brakes out. The first order of business was to chop up the subframe, raise it by a few inches, and weld a shorter version back in place. This allowed for a pair of taller rear shocks. A simple bench seat was fabricated and upholstered by Miller Kustom Upholstery in diamond-stitched brown leather with black piping. Moto Adonis added their signature built-in tail light to the rear seat to keep things looking clean. A custom battery box was created to accommodate for the under-seat battery. MAD Exhausts are responsible for the sick stainless-steel exhaust system. Combined with the pod air-filters, this thing must sound loud!

Up front, a new handlebar was fitted for a more commanding stance. A minimalistic speedo provides all the necessary info, and the new LED round headlight ensure visibility at night. A pair of fork-gaiters prevent dirt and grime from sticking on the fork tubes. Custom short fenders at the front and rear help somewhat with that as well. The bar-end mirrors provide with rear-view vision and look spectacular on this Honda, especially in combination with the bar-end indicators. The Heidenau K60 dual sport tires look like they are up for the task. The grey color of the tank combined with the blacked-out engine, wheels, and swingarms really make this scrambler look great. To make sure that the CB also runs great, it was put on a dyno and tuned to a healthy 81 hp at the rear-wheel. Not bad at all!

Photo credits: Lennart Stolte

Builder details:
Moto Adonis
Website
Instagram
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We have seen some incredible builds the last 12 months, and we have to say that despite the world pandemic, we are very pleased to see that so many people still take time work on that what we love most: motorcycles. For 2021 we have created a TOP 5 of some of the most interesting, esthetically pleasing cafe racers we wrote about here on BikeBrewers. We looked at the number of views and shares on our website and social media channels, but also at originality. After all, the list is subjective.

So without further ado, and in complete random order, here are the BikeBrewers TOP 5 Cafe Racer builds of 2021

1. Moto Guzzi 1100 Cafe Racer by Robin Mehnert
When Robin Mehnert, the woodwind instrument maker from Germany, messaged us that he and his father had built a cafe racer based on a Moto Guzzi 1100 California, we got very excited. When you see the pictures of the Guzzi, it’s not hard to see why. Make sure to read the full article to find out more about this clean looking example of Italo-Germanic craftsmanship

2. Icon Motorcycle Triumph Bonneville Triton
Okay, so this Triumph Bonneville was actually built a couple of years ago. However, we only really heard of Icon Motorcycles last year. We didn’t know much about the outfit, and sadly their website has gone offline since. All we know is that the 2 Triumph Tritons they’ve build are unlike anything we have seen in a very long time. It’s almost like a spiritual experience. Luckily, we spent some time writing an article about the work of these fine people, that are based in the Netherlands.

3. Harley-Davidson LiveWire “Rule Breaker” by Moto Adonis
Moto Adonis has been working hard in 2021, with a number of unique projects and builds, we are impressed by the work the 2-man team from the Netherlands has been delivering. When they presented their Harley-Davidson LiveWire project our jaws literally dropped to the ground. This must be the most menacing looking electric motorcycle we have ever see. Period! It looks like a great white shark. In black. On 2 wheels. We dare anybody to show us a custom electric motorcycle that looks better than this.

4. Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 “Lilith” by XTRPepo
There is such a thing as a match made in heaven. In this case, it would be Pepo Rosell, founder and owner of XTRPepo, and Royal Enfield. Let us explain. Pepo has been building race bikes since before we could remember. He has been doing that passionately for the past 25 years. The last 6 years or so, he decided to take step back from building radical custom racing machines for high end customers, and to focus on the more “fun” side of business. Which brings us to Royal Enfield. The people’s champion as far as we’re concerned. Royal Enfield has rapidly gained popularity outside of its domestic market in India. No frills, simple, classy, and affordable. Heck, 2 of our editors bought a Royal Enfield 650 for personal use! That says something! Pepo built a period-correct racer around the Continental GT, and it looks the part.

5. Triumph Bonneville “Gotham” by Tamarit x MotoShare
Tamarit has been building bikes for a long time now, and this heavily modified Triumph Bonneville was their 81st build to be precise. The Alicante, Spain based builders were commissioned by MotoShare to build a cafe racer that provokes people. A bike that gets people talking. José Antonio of Tamarit says: “We took a 2007 Triumph Bonneville and turned it into this ominous looking machine. It was during a video call that one of the guys from MotoShare mentioned it looked like it was made for Batman. It was ‘The Gotham’ from there on.”

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Moto Adonis

Popular Bike
In all honesty, we can list the factory bike specs here again, but that would be pointless at this stage. Yes, the BMW R80 is probably the most popular motorcycle to use as a base bike for a myriad of projects. Be it a café racer, scrambler, tracker or even a resto-mod; there is something about the simplicity of the airheads that inspires creativity. But there is more to it than that. The overall build quality and availability of new parts, considering the fact that these aren’t new motorcycles, inspires confidence.

Project “BIG Dude”
It was no different with this build. A customer called the workshop and asked a simple question: “Can you build me a BMW R80 Scrambler?”. The answer Arthur and Job had for him was “Sure!”. All seemed fine, until the customer paid them a visit. It became clear that they needed to take a few things into consideration. The “biggest” one being the customer’s size. The dude was bigger than most BMW riders, measuring in at 2 meters, the builders knew that they had o make some serious modifications to allow for a bigger rider to enjoy the ride. Hence the name “BIG Dude”

A few ground rules were set before the project started. The most important one being the motorcycle had to be comfortable to ride, without making it look like he was riding a kid’s bicycle. This is a problem many riders face, and of the reasons why big guys ride big bikes. And let’s be honest, most café racers, scramblers and trackers look quite petit.

Taller is Better
The modification was made to the rear subframe. It got chopped away, and a new subframe was fabricated with 2 things in mind: it had to be minimalistic, and it had to raise the rear a bit higher. It goes without saying that the complete subframe had to be very strong to deal with the weight of the rider under all conditions. A taller rear shock was added, as well as a taller front suspension, only to increase the overall height of the BMW. One of the benefits of adding the taller front forks, which are upside down, is that they can accommodate for double disc brakes. Not a luxury considering the projects aim.

Modifications
On the subframe sits a new custom-made seat, courtesy of Miller Kustom Upholstery, with built-in taillight, finished in a beautiful brown leather. Moto Adonis has collaborated with MAD Exhausts before, and they have yet again provided the crew with a one-off custom exhaust. A bunch of off-the-shelve gear has been used to enhance the riding experience. A Motogadget m.unit has been adopted to simply electrics. An Acewell speedo provides all the critical info, while we also spotted a set of mo.blaze bar-end indicators on the handlebar together with a set of bar-end mirrors. The original BMW cookie-cutter wheels got a new layer of black glossy paint, and are now wrapped in Continental TKC80 rubber to add function to the form. The matt black color with white stripes brings everything together.

Happy owner
Like all custom-built motorcycles, they are built in the image of its creator. This particular R80 was built with a very specific goal in mind. Its new owner is very pleased with his scrambler, and we can clearly see why. The BMW looks great; the Moto Adonis team can be proud of how this turned out.

Photos: Lennart Stolte

Builder details:
Moto Adonis
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Moto Adonis

Artistic freedom

Lean and mean

Cardboard and tape

Head to tail

Box exhaust for the boxer

Any color, as long as it is black!

Photos: Mark Meisner
Video: Deep bold studio

Builder details:
Moto Adonis
Website
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YouTube

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Booming!
The number of electric motorcycle manufacturers is increasing fast, and the portfolio of new models is booming. We have seen Zero Motorcycles, Energica, Cake, and many more, creating some very good looking machines. There is something about having maximum torque available from the get-go. Honestly, go ahead and try one out, we dare you! You would be surprised at how much fun it can be. Yes, they sound different, and yes, they feel a bit different too. But, at the end of the day, they have two wheels, and with the pull you feel when you twist the throttle, you will smile guaranteed.

Pioneers
It is safe to say that typically, electric motorcycles are designed and built by non-motorcycle building companies. Let me explain: Tesla never built a petrol or diesel car before. As a matter of fact, for a car manufacturer they are still very young compared to, let’s say, Ford or Volkswagen. Still, Tesla is now considered as one of the world’s leading electric car manufacturers.

Traditional
When we think of Harley-Davidson, we think of one of the world’s oldest motorcycle manufacturers. They have a reputation of being the opposite of innovators*. And quite frankly, they didn’t have to be innovators for a long time. Their customers wanted air-cooled, push rod, big v-twins for years. However, decreasing sales numbers as well environmental restrictions are making it harder and harder to continue to build the same type of bikes with the same type of engines as they used to.

Unexpected move
That is, until we heard of Project LiveWire. A radically different Harley-Davidson. Not only was it a naked bike (totally different segment), it was also going to be 100% electric! Clearly this bike was meant to attract a new audience. Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor took two of these machines from Ushuaia to Los Angeles, with some support of course, to show just how capable Harley-Davidson had build this motorcycles; an impressive feat! It definitely got our attention.

Moto Adonis
When we saw that one of the Netherlands finest builders, Moto Adonis, had gotten their hands on a Harley-Davidson LiveWire, we lost our shit. Really, we literally jumped up in excitement! So, we hit Arthur Renkema up, one of the 3 founding members and co-owner of Moto Adonis, together with Job Leussing, to ask if we could see the bike for ourselves. The answer was: YES! But we had to be quick, because the owner of the bike, who wishes to remain anonymous, was. going to pick up his bike in 2 days time. The results of that visit can be seen on our YouTube channel. It is mind boggling when you realize that this entire build was created in just 4 months time!

If you haven’t heard of Moto Adonis before, they have been building custom motorcycles for years. We have featured a great number of articles about their builds in the past 5 years, make sure to check those out! This is the first time we have seen a HD LiveWire build like this. Since the bike is all electric, they left the internals of the motorcycle untouched and focused primarily on the esthetics. And they did an incredible job at that! A quick look at the spec sheet shows: 105hp, 116 Nm, 251kg, 160km range and a top speed of 185 km/h. Not bad at all!

We can’t wait to see more builds like this. In the meantime, enjoy these beautiful shots of the Harley-Davidson LiveWire

Photo Credits: Mark Meisner

Builder details:
Moto Adonis
Website
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube

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