Ducati Tifoso

The Tifoso ST Full Fairing Cafe-Racer kit,

or why am I doing this.

For the past 2 years i'm driving every day in front of this bike. An ST2 that a motorcycle repair store is using to occupy the parking space in front of the store. Such things you can do here in Greece.

Anyway this bike serves as a traffic cone. So for some people, the value of this bike is insignificant. And to me this is such a big shame. It is such a big shame, because this bike, the ST series, captures maybe the best part of the Ducati philosophy, of the Ducati idea, of the Ducati entity. It has that good old trellis frame, it has (in cases) the most iconic engine of the Ducati history (916), or the second most iconic one (996), it has the best fetish for every true motorcycle enthusiast, the dry clutch. And this is the reason that i'm doing this. This bike and a few hundrend more bikes like this in the world. Cause i can't cope with the idea that such a bike is treated like a usefull waste and not a beauty.

Just to support my claim, i'll post some of the best pics i have of those (in my humble opinion) current and future classics.

Now this process started 4 years ago and the truth is that back then my dream was to build a full fairing retro-styled bike and not a half-fairing one. Those are the first Photoshop sketches of that period.

In the file properties of this last picture for example i see: Date created:"Sunday, December 2, 2012 8:40 PM". And i remember that back then, the reason that i didn't build the full-fairing version was that the only builder who had fiber-glass made SC side panels, was someone in Canada and when i've mailed him for a price, he told me that it was some $500 plus shippment. In contrast now every serious fiber-glass builder has those panels (i also have them for $170). The fact that i was obsessed with the full-fairing bike can also be seen in those pics of my first bike, which had a pair of number plates attached on both sides of the engine.

And the file info of those pics says: Created :Tuesday, March 23, 2013".

And you know, a man should never give up on his dreams.
So it took me 4 years, 50 kits and 650 other parts to get to this. The Tifoso ST Full Fairing Cafe-Racer kit.

In the pics you see all the parts covered in primer coat. It is the final fitment test before painting. Those parts will be painted by the end of the week, so some time next week, this bike will be ready. This is the No2 bike. Kit No1 is already in Portugal and it is also through the building process.

Kit No3 is here in Greece as well.

First i want to make a couple of notes for the full fairing bike seen in the pics above. In some pics you can see two black holes on the side panels. These holes are the radiator vents, but on those pics are made with photoshop, cause the parts when those pics were taken, were masked with paper on the inside. So i've photoshoped them in order to give a more accurate image of the bike's final looks. Now why the masking on the inside. Because these are Glass-Carbon parts. Fiber-glass on the outside and carbon fiber on the inside. So through the painting process they have to be masked on the inside and they will be unmasked only through the clear coating.

Now why fiber-glass on the outside and carbon fiber on the inside, is something that i will discuss in a future post.

So this is the new Tifoso kit for the Ducati ST. The kit contains all the parts that you see bellow. In this first pic you can see that together with the full fairing kit, you also get the side panels of the half fairing kit, so you can have both bikes, depending on your mood. How do i feel this weekend? Half, or full?

Best

Kostas

PS1: For details and orders, you know: ducatitifoso@hotmail.com

PS2: Designing analysis follows asap.