In 2005, Gooichi Motorsports' Sam Morris was just a starving college student. Despite a serious lack of funds he still wanted to build a custom sportbike that showcased his style as well as his mechanical skills. "I bought a used Ducati 749 and had some ideas for a custom exhaust. From there it all just snowballed," Morris explained.
A direct descendent of Pierre Terblanche's 999, the smaller 749 was introduced as the middleweight muscle in the Ducati line-up. But with twin stacked oval headlights, huge car-sized exhausts and quirky bodywork it was widely considered one of the ugliest Ducati sportbikes ever made.
This 749 is quite a stretch from the typical 'Busas, Gixxers and R1s. So why did it catch Morris' eye? "Honestly, why not? I love Ducatis and no one else had built a 749. From the paint to the seat the whole bike is old school. I didn't want to do something that everyone else does.
I'm a little bit of everything: I started in cars, and now I'm doing bikes. I have a turbo Civic and a custom RX-7, and I'm also going to school for automotive technology which helped form the root of this build."
The exhaust design has obvious...
The exhaust design has obvious hot rod influence. You can imagine how hellacious it sounds.
When it came time to start cutting, he pulled out all the tricks from both his automotive upbringing and personal collection of modified motor vehicles. As a result, the bike is an unlikely mix of hot rod, chopper and specifically designed one-off parts. Morris gave a quick synopsis of how the build played out: "The first thing we did was slam it. I had to remake the exhaust from scratch because we lowered it so much.
Diablo made the swingarm and had a tricky time doing it. I really didn't want to go with chrome wheels, so I went with something completely different with the wire spoke wheels. I saw them on a couple of choppers and liked the look."
When it came time for the air ride, Morris designed his own system from scratch. Rather than the typical air cylinder shock, he came up with a purely mechanical unit using cylinders designed for industrial applications. "We [Gooichi Motorsports] wanted to design a prototype that could be tuned. We made the whole thing to be mechanical. It's all manual control and has air going to both sides of the shock. The shock can rise to a preset height and the firmness is also adjustable. It has adjustable settings so if it drops down to a preset height it will fill back up.
Look close and you'll see...
Look close and you'll see a funky skateboard part even made it onto this one-of-a-kind Ducati 749.
There's no kickstand on the bike; just a plate that's attached to the motor. It can drop down on the plate while going 40 mph and throw sparks like a mini-truck!"
It's hard to imagine what the Ducati purists must think of this creation, but Morris has had some encounters with the Ducatisti: "It's hit or miss with Ducati guys. More or less everyone in the US likes it, but people in Europe send me death threats!"
By taking Italian design and adding some classic American muscle, Sam Morris has managed to make it cool to be a little ugly.
2003 Ducati 749
Front end: Ride Wright wheel, lowered three inches
Rear end: Ride Wright wheel, Diablo 14-inch-over 300 swingarm, Gooichi air ride
Motor: Gooichi slash cut exhaust, Power Commander
Paint: Patterson's Artworks, Pittsburg, KS
Polish/chrome: Performance Plus Powdercoating, Joplin, MO
Bodywork: Shaved mirrors, five inches removed from the tail section
Accessories: Slingshot Racing rearsets and clutch pressure plate, Pro-Bolt Full Monty bolt kit
Owner: Sam Morris
Builder: Gooichi Motorsports (
gooichimotorsports.com)