When trouble 90s Ducati 900 SS With upgraded suspension systems appearing on Marketplace at prices too good to pass up, Matt Coulter of Sticky’s Speed Shop jumped on the bandwagon. He figured that, with a little cleaning up, the Ducati would be a perfect daily rider, with the ability to do double duty as a road racer. Not a snowball’s chance in hell.
It is a story as old as time. A serial builder buys a new machine, with a faint promise to himself to keep it in stock. But when your eyes recover from the lightning strike you saw before you and are able to see beyond the peacock paint job, you’ll notice that this Ducati 900 SS is a significant leap forward from “a little neatness”.
Matt continued the story; “I was approached by Hitchcox, custom exhaust fabricators. They asked if I was working on any interesting projects that they could collaborate on to promote their ‘Design Your Own’ exhaust program. I didn’t, but I had an idea for that 900 SS.”
That idea continues to struggle to surface? Synthetic framework; Half steel, half aluminum. To commit to the project, Matt fired up the grinder and cut the unsuspecting Ducati in half. Hitchcox is on board and the impending deadline for the 2024 Bike Shed Moto Show has been set.
The front portion of the frame was sent to Powder Worx for a quick coat of satin black, while the rear portion was removed. The stripped-down Ducati was then transported to Steelheart Engineering in Kent, where Matt and his frequent collaborator, Lee MitchellBegin building the aluminum portion of the half-and-half frame.
Matt describes: “Lee is an absolute legend in motorcycling who loves challenging technical solutions. “We have a similar approach to creating something unique as well as useful, he’s a real pleasure to work with.”
After several design iterations, the CNC machine was fired up to create the complex frame panels, before Lee began work on the tubular subframe. At this point, when the project was clearly in free fall, Matt couldn’t help but task Lee with creating a splendid twin-tube swingarm.
With the complete frame and arms, the name Arfa was given to the bike; ‘arfa this, ‘arfa that thing. It then set off again for Hitchcox’s headquarters near Silverstone. There, Hitchcox founder Tom and his team tirelessly designed and built a double underseat escapement system in titanium.
Guided through the bike’s frame, carefully routing the shock while leaving enough space for the electrics under the seat, the 1mm-thick-walled titanium tube is a work of art. At its end are twin 2-inch mufflers, with custom titanium billet end-detailed taper rings and jaw-dropping titanium shutter cores.
When collecting the Ducati from Hitchcox, Matt, no stranger to exotic parts, was stunned. “From front to back, it is striking, with perfect curves and welds. Pictures will never do it justice – it must be seen in the flesh to be fully appreciated.”
Back at his Essex workshop, Matt began assembling selected components to complete the project. The fairing for the Suzuki RG500 MK2 was supplied by King Carbon to complement the chopped Yamaha TZ tailpiece that Matt rescued from a racing scrap.
The Ducati 916 fork was bought from Marketplace and the dusty Dymag wheels from a road racing Yamaha R1 were pulled from the shelf where they had been patiently waiting for such a project. Michelin’s new Power GP2 race tires were ordered to complete the wheelset, while Hel Performance supplied the brake calipers, axial to radial mounts, levers, master cylinder and hoses, to create a package Can turn corners as quickly as possible.
And so, on the delicate paint, oh, so gentle.
Friend and partner in crime, Alex at AK Custom Paintworks, was brought in to help bring Matt’s extrovert paint scheme to life. The original idea was to create a gradient from front to back using graffiti paint, overlaid with a thick layer of lacquer. But after a few tries, Matt was not satisfied because the actual color gradation matched the image in his mind…
“We messed with the idea of lightning and metallic black,” he says. And when their eyes had recovered after spending considerable hours covering and removing a large number of zigzag bolts, the pair could finally stand back and see what they had created.
“There was no disappointment at all! The patches and dots of imperfect graffiti fade, offset by the precise, sharp lines of covered metallic black, buried in multiple layers of deep gloss lacquer.” Last stop was Image Worx in Essex (Matt’s day business) to buy a few small stickers before the bike was ready for display.
The final piece of the puzzle was the saddle, which Baz covered at BMK Creative and was installed after the bike was pedestaled at the Bike Shed Show. Although the bike strayed away from its Italian heritage, the inspiration for the saddle came from Ducati’s homeland.
“I’ve seen a few old Ferraris with perforated leather straps running across the seats,” Matt explains. “Baz, as always, loves a challenge and there’s always the chance of recreating what I’ve seen on a small bike saddle. I think it’s safe to say he’s done that.”
Along with the 270 custom machines at the Show, Arfa’s distinctive paint scheme stopped them in their tracks. But it’s what lies beneath those neon eyes that keeps them rooted to the spot. It’s ‘bitsa’ at its best, born from a mad desire for composite frames and realized by the network of highly skilled craftsmen and fabricators Matt has brought together under the Sticky’s banner. Speed Shop.
Final words to Matt; “A huge thank you to everyone who helped get this all done in such a short space of time. Shows what can be done when great minds and driven people put their passion into a project!”
Instagram Sticky’s Speed Shop | Image by Thomas kettle
