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The Simple Beauty of Walt Siegl Motorcycles Bol dOr MV Agusta

I saw this bike a few years ago, and was profoundly struck with its beauty, even though I didn't know a thing about one of greatest custom motorcycle fabricators at the time.
Walt Siegl might be greatest living Ducati builder alive, designing and manufacturing super-light custom Ducatis (Leggeros), and his precise aesthetic turns already-beautiful machines into something transcendent (in this writer's humble opinion).
Although I was only peripherally aware of the WSM brand at the time, I was awestruck by this highly-modified MV Agusta Brutale triple when I saw it at the Brooklyn Invitational Custom Motorcycle Show a couple summers back, that I learned was part of Walt Siegl's "Bol d'Or" series.
I recall wishing that I had a better camera to capture the beauty of this machine, and I later learned that the bodywork and custom subframe weigh just 8.5lbs.  Known sometimes more for the appearance of his beautiful bikes, Siegl is an engineer and ex-racer, who knows modifications impacting power-to-weight ratio are much more useful than fancy farings, as sublime as they may be.  This Bol d'Or comes in at nearly a hundred pounds lighter than the factory Brutale.
 Walt Siegl builds out of Harrisville, New Hampshire, and is currently working on a couple Ducati projects using prototype aircraft-grade steel.
 I someday hope I can afford one of these machines, which I hear start at about $50,000,  and are backordered for quite some time, but until then... I'll just be happy that bikes this beautiful actually exist.


© 2017 Tigh Loughhead

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