1998 Radical Ducati ST2

Owner Paul bought a Radical carbon tank and seat before the Spanish Ducati custom shop closed its doors – and so began a very complicated project to build a bike that he could one day hand on to his son.

The bike is based on Ducati’s porky ST2 sports tourer, but severely reworked. Forks are revalved and resprung 996 items, done by Gareth at Reactive Suspension. The swing arm is from an ST4 Monster. The exhaust (downpipes and silencer) is by Storm Exhausts. The frame has been cut and narrowed at the rear. Dash is one from Translogic’s excellent range, and there’s a thumb rear brake.

Paul’s brief was to use the original ST2 loom, and adapt it to suit the new layout. He also wanted the option of high bars and a number board, or clip-ons and a radical fairing. As the Radical design is extremely skinny, all the ST2’s many electrical devices needed to go under the tank: battery, fuses, relays, solenoid, coils, sensors, reg rec and the various plugs that join them together. Things were complicated by Ducati’s two-piece loom with a huge plug which we had to eliminate, and also by the fact that the actual cable colours aren’t quite the same as the ones in the factory diagram. Ho hum. I also wanted to hide the fat wiring harness which runs past the left of the rear cylinder head.

It was a big day when the bike fired up for the first time.