MACHINES
SILVER DREAM
WALT SIEGL’s custom Ducatis and MV Agustas are breathtakingly beautiful...
M
Te x t b y D U N C A N Q U I N N
assimo Tamburini’s limited edition Bimotas are legendary. Constructed in Rimini, Italy using Japanese superbike innards cannibalised from brand new bikes, then shoehorned into superior frames with visionary aesthetics. Also responsible for designing the Ducati 916, and the MV Agusta F4, Tamburini was an icon. In the Top Trumps game of cards the Bimota was always the most expensive piece of kit. Which made sense, given they threw away most of a brand new bike to make every one. Today, if you are looking for an exotic and beautiful beast of a bike like a Bimota your list will be short. Right at the very top with a star will be someone who shares more than a few things in common with Tamburini. His name is Walt Siegl. And for a cool US$36,000 you can join an elite cadre of petrolheads basking in the glory of machinery so beautiful it makes grown men go weak at the knees. And your granny come over all of a quiver. Without Brad Pitt offering her a ride in her nighty on one of his. It’s a long way from dropping out of art school in Austria to becoming one of the finest custom motorcycle builders in the USA
2 6
MAXI M.COM.AU
Ph o t o g ra p h e d B y DA N I E L A M A R I A
today. But it was also a long way from pipe fitting school dropout to co-founding Bimota and later designing the Ducati 916 and MV Agusta F4 for Tamburini. One thing he and Siegl share in common is being self taught. Both guys with no formal training who loved going fast while looking good. Becoming renowned for tuning bikes both aesthetically and mechanically. You could just as easily stick one of Walt’s creations on a pedestal in your Ferris Bueller-esque man cave as thrash it to within an inch of your and its life. But as with all the very best things, Walt’s bikes are not simple head-turners with no brains. Each is a precise accumulation of decades of experience and experiences, hours of meticulous research and meditation, and just as many man hours of meticulous construction. Colin Chapman, the founder of Lotus, is often quoted as saying his main objective was to “simplify, then add lightness.” Walt builds his bikes with this same ideal in mind. And with perfect geometry and balance. My two favourites of his “production” bikes, the Leggero and Bol d’Or, are built around a Ducati heart on the one hand, and an MV Agusta on the other. Yet more parallels with Tamburini for those so inclined. The Leggero is powered by the classic Ducati
“PEOPLE BOUGHT DUCATIS BECAUSE THEY EVOKED A CERTAIN FEELING THAT OTHERS WERE NEVER ABLE TO CAPTURE.”
Siegl’s Duacti-based Leggeros, including this “Brave”, use “classic sport design elements that are clearly recognisable as such”, he says. "That includes almost all spects of the build, from exhaust to frame design.”
