Ducati Monster 1200R is one mean machine and to begin with, it looks rather fantastic in its stock form. So, a fabricator working on it might just want to retain most of the original bodywork. And that is what happened with this one, except one very unique change – the gold. Even after 25 years of its inception, the Monster has remained true to the original M900 design by Miguel Galluzzi. And with the 152 hp and 125 Nm under the right palm, it is quite a hooligan machine.
Custom builders Diamond Atelier from Munich put together a tasteful selection of trick bits at this 2017-model Monster, mixed with a few one-off touches and wrapped the frame in gold. A brave move.
The commission came from an existing Diamond Atelier customer in Frankfurt. He’d given the guys free rein on a previous build, and was so chuffed that he was willing to do it again.
“There was basically no brief,” Diamond’s Tom Konecny tells us. “Only a wish to make a great bike even better. That’s what we tried to achieve.”
There’s a lot on the 1200 R that looks exceptionally good out the box. So Diamond kept the iconic Monster tank, and parts like the front fender and headlight. But the entire tail section went in the bin, pronto.
In its place is a custom-made tailpiece, designed using CAD software before being 3D printed. A hand-stitched cowhide leather seat sits on top of it, and the whole arrangement is perched on a custom-built subframe.
Of course, reworking the rear end meant a whole lot of wiring components suddenly had nowhere to go, so Diamond had to relocate them. “But that was actually quite easy, compared to other bikes we’ve dealt with,” says Tom.
At the pointy end of the Ducati, Diamond have fitted a custom top triple clamp, along with a set of CNC’d clip-ons from Gilles Tooling. They’ve trimmed the headlight cover to accommodate them, and sunk in a set of Motogadget turn signals.
Tom mentions that the Monster 1200 R is pretty rare in Germany, which should make this gem even more rare. And the Diamond boys plan to keep it that way. When we heard the tailpiece was 3D printed, we automatically assumed they were planning a limited production run of Monsters (like they’ve done with their Mark 2 series).
“No, this is a classic ‘DA#’ build,” Tom replies, “so it’ll stay absolutely unique, with no similar bikes planned. We are happy to take commissions on similar Ducatis though, as we have a ton of ideas which popped into our heads while we were building this.”
Source: Bikeexif