Scrambler Heros

Project: Ducati Scrambler 2015 x Moto Heroes x Holographic Hammer ,
built by Sylvain & Florent Berneron.
700h of work in 14 weeks.

We had to wait for the date of June 11 to show you the photos of the new Scrambler, it is the date chosen by Ducati to present to the public the bike

3 months ago, Ducati contacted us to ask if we could work on an official Scrambler project, for a release at Wheels&Waves in Biarritz.
The bike is cool so we said yes right away, but 14 weeks to do it all is quite short. We signed the deal and a few days later we received a brand new scrambler, fresh from the factory.

 

The question was then, what do we do with it ?
We had a few rides on the scrambler when we were still discussing the project, the bike handles really good, and is very fun to ride, but for us a scrambler is a bike you want to live with, I mean you’ll scratch it, go through mud and dirt, even loose the front here and there to fall over, so if you want to spend money on it, it will most probably be to change tires and brake pads to keep the fun coming.
So we didn’t feel like putting 20Ke of parts and labour into it, because it would have make it too shiny for what it is meant to be really.

From that point, it was then clear that we would turn the scrambler into something else, something faster and cleaner.
When I was doing the research phase before sketching, I noticed that a lot of the original 1962 scramblers ended up being cafe racers back then, the bike is so light that you can brake very late and turn quick as well, instead of power, it is really the package that provides the speed here.
So we decided to keep that spirit on our 2015 base.

After a week of sketching and thinking, the final design was done, the plan was to do a proper cafe racer like in the old days, but loaded with 2015 technology like high performance parts, LEDs, fuel injection, proper suspensions and brakes.
Nothing revolutionary I know, but still, at the moment there is no proper cafe racer in the Ducati range, the Monster is now liquid cooled and became an high performance roadster over the years. But if you look for an old school engine, something strong and simple, in 2015 there is not so many bikes to choose from.
We took away all the parts we could, without making it rough to ride. We gained 20 Kgs in the process, it now has a dry weight of 145 Kgs.
Saving weight is as efficient as adding more power, in its current stage, the bike feels a lot lighter to handles, making it a lot easier to carry more speed in the corners.

We wanted to properly upgrade the chassis, so we ask to some specialists if they wanted to be part of this project.
Some say custom is all about « do it yourself » or « built not bought » , well at Holographic Hammer we don’t want to reinvent the wheel, we focus on our strength which is designing and building one off parts and bikes, but when it comes to developing racing brakes and rims for exemple, we prefer to team up with people who have the knowledge and the experience for it.
We sent a peach to convince potential sponsors, and got the support from the following brands:
- COGNITO MOTO > Frame loop with the integrated LED brake light
- RIZOMA > Milled parts and details.
- WERKES USA > Silencer
- PIRELLI > Racing and road tires
- BERINGER > Racing brakes - 4D System
- ROTOBOX > Carbon rims

 

But if it was just about mounting brand new parts on the bike to call it a custom, it would be too easy and mostly Holographic Hammer would be useless in the mix.

The scrambler just came out, so none of the parts we receive were made for it, each one has been modified to fit properly.

Our design included a drastic change of geometry and proportion, here is the list of things we’ve done to it:

- The complete subframe has been developed and made in house.

- Custom battery box to fix all the wiring and the electronics.

- The seat has been entierely made in house too.

- We swapped the complete front end for a 43mm upside down SHOWA.

- The new fork required a complete rework of the triple clamps and steering head.

- Custom mountings for the front light and the speedo.

- The wiring has been modified to add our components and simplify the rest.

- Modified exhaust to fit our new silencer

- Milling of various parts and spacers to mount the brakes and the rims.

- The side stand is all new, to get the clearance for the new rear sets.

- One-off front fender.

- Custom engine covers

- Modified tank and frame.

From Ottonero