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Quick Facts: 1996 DUCATI 916

Owner	Michael Gugel
Location	Bloomingdale, NewJersey, USA

In 2000 Mike purchased a stock Ducati 916 for a deal that could not be passed up. He always admired the Italian engineering, but he wanted to take it a little further. After only 2 months Mike pulled the bike into his garage and began to tear it down to just the bare frame and swing-arm.

Starting from there, Mike painted the frame and swing-arm a custom satin black. After completing the frame Mike found a company called MotoWheels to fulfill his performance needs. They started working with Mike, finding the parts that would suit him best. They started with the carbon fiber, custom mirrors, instrument cluster with LED shift lights, a 3-piece air-box with runners and an under-tail manufactured. They then decided to upgrade the suspension to the best Olins dampener and shocks on the market.

For the engine, Mike added the following:

Nichols lightweight flywheel
Full Termignoni 50MM carbon exhaust
Quick change sprocket carrier with Renthal 48 rear and 14 tooth front
Gold dido-ring chain
Ducati billet fork leg adjusters
Billet race gas cap
6 way adjustable levers
Superbike air filters
A race computer with arrow chip
Ferracci bar risers
Frame plugs
Custom reservoir caps
A custom rear nut cover
New Brembo front and rear calipers with full floating rotors all around
Ducati performance carbon fiber key protector
Buckle guard
Corse exhaust guards with race heel guards
Custom rear hugger with chain guard
1/2 vented clutch cover
Custom frame sliders and bar ends with LED lights

Mike also obtained a clear taillight and customized rear blinkers into the housing. The fronts were imported from Europe. Mike found a company in London England, who custom made dial faces to match the bike.

When Mike first purchased the bike, it was a Monoposto. He decided to be different and convert the Ducati into a Bi-posto changing the Sub-frame and tail section.

The Ducati is painted with white number plates, accents and Ducati Corse racing stripes. After painting the tail section, he had custom seat covers to match the bike. Custom screens were made to fill in the vents in the plastics.

Mike wanted to have Carbon Fiber stickers, so he contacted John at JC Designs. He made the exact logos in carbon fiber with a white background to match the bike.

They also decided to attach headlight covers to give the effect of a race front end. With the Ducati almost fully completed, Mike wanted to do something different. He had contacted Marshall at HPC Coatings to try a hyper crystal ruby chrome powder coating. They powder coated his rims, exhaust brackets, levers, rear sets, rear foot peg brackets among other parts. After that, Mike had his exhaust Ceramic coated, and then hyper coated to finish off the chrome look. After that was the fun task to chrome all of the rest of the parts. Rich at G&H chromed the complete fork assembly, rotors, calipers, headlight bucket, triple tree among all other nuts and bolts and misc. parts.

Brian Lu (THE DUCATI WIZARD) and Mike worked day and night to put the whole bike together and fine-tune it back to Ducati specs. The estimated costs for all this hard work and patience came to about $30,000.

Special Thanks:

ROUTE 23 CYCLECENTER
MOTOWHEELS
G&H CHROME
BRIAN LU
HPC COATINGS

Thank you to Martin at The Ashphalt Magazine for taking the photos, and especially Stacy for all the support and help to finish this Italian Masterpiece.

November 20, 2009

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