If you walk into your local motorcycle dealership these days, odds are there is a new ‘cafe racer’ for sale, a modern classic, from any number of manufacturers. But they’re not really a ton up boys’ bike are they? Sure, they look the part, but when lads were fitting Triumph engines into Norton frames and creating Tritons, they were building genuinely fast bikes for the era. So what would a true modern cafe racer look like? Well, it’s right in front of you and nearly capable of the double ton if you can hold on tight. From the mind of California’s Lucas Worthing, comes the beautiful harmony of hybridising a 2011 Ducati 1198 SP with the same marques Sport Classic, and then making it all beautifully better.

Lucas has been a successful architect for 25 years, so creativity and design are clearly two of his key strengths, but motorcycles have always been pumping through his veins. At age five, he’d sit in front of his Dad on the elders’ Honda dirt bike and cruise around. Sadly just a year later his Father was taken from him far too early in a car accident. But that love and bond they shared burns strong and Lucas can be seen showing the world what his Dad taught him when cruising on his Sport Classic or tracking his Aprilia RSV4 Factory. He bought an 1198 too, but sadly it was stolen and so when his friend then had a low-speed slide and crashed his own 1198, a question was asked inside the architect’s mind.

“How do you take a Ducati trellis superbike frame and a Ducati sport classic trellis frame and merge them into one.” This question arose after buying the frame, engine and swingarm from his friends totalled 1198 SP and then amassing a number of the parts needed to get it rolling again. “I had already been running a side project for Sport Classic Carbon Fibre Fairings (Worthing Classics on Facebook) and thought I would produce the fairing hardware in all titanium components. I had built a friendship with Randy Martin of Stradafab out in Kansas, and talked about the concept of the frame with him.” Obviously, it would have to be a full custom job and there would be some serious obstacles to overcome.

“Randy and I had many hours of conversations and I would fly out to Kansas a few times when things were getting tricky. He would tell me where the challenges were and I would sketch and discuss solutions with him,” Lucas explains. The rear suspension was a major obstacle, but with lots of clever thoughts and engineering solutions, you’d never know it was always meant to be this way. The next issue to resolve was how to make the classic tank fit, and it meant cutting out the fuel pump area on the underside and relocating it further inside the tank. Now the frame design could be finalised, but there were still some steps before the final welds were laid down.

“One item which was fun was the rear set mounts. I wanted to reinforce the frame in certain places with gussets and we used pieces of cardboard for this as well as to figure out the mounting plates for the rear sets.” Those race-inspired pieces come from Italian legends NCR, and the stunning rear sets and custom mounts are a seriously trick touch. One item Lucas had to have for the bike was a full Akrapovic Evo 3 titanium exhaust system and he found one on eBay from a crashed bike. Then with Randy’s help a bent section of pipe was repaired and a custom 2-1-2 mid pipe was created to allow for the fitment of a pair of titanium SC Project cans.

So far so good, and then being time to get the bike wired up and running, the project hit a roadblock. Lucas had a $5,000 credit at a well-known shop and decided to use it to have the bike wired up and have a few other pieces fitted that he supplied. What should have been a month’s work ended up being a year, with more money supplied and in the end, Lucas had to cut his losses and go pick up the pieces. “I reached out to Victor at Motoclub di Santa Monica and negotiated dropping the bike off and getting it finished.” Finally, things were back on track and moving in the right direction after a major pause.

“Randy Martin, Victor Ruvalcaba, and Victor’s Mechanics, Brian Wellman & Guillaume Blaise, and of course my friends in the Sport Classic Ducati community,” all pulled together to get the bike done just the way that Lucas had always envisioned it. In went the Ohlins rear shock and the 1198 Showa forks, clamped by a pair of stock tripe trees.

To reduce unsprung weight and improve performance in every area, a set of BST carbon wheels went on and sticky Pirelli rubber further enhanced the grip. Then there is that gorgeous bodywork that gives the bike a look of its own when combined with the superbike engine and you can’t miss the colour, a green straight from the Porsche catalogue, with a twist.

Oh, and how about that engine, arguably the best twin that Ducati has ever made with rampaging amounts of horsepower and torque to lift the front wheel in every gear. “The power-to-weight ratio is hard to describe without riding it. It feels featherweight to me – somewhere around 345 lbs and hp is around 185-190,” Lucas smiles. The sorted Brembo brakes mean she stops on a dime and the handling is razor-sharp.

“Occasionally the power still shows me I owe it more saddle time, but I’m truly stoked at the way it has finally come together – every single time I throw a leg over it is pure joy on an elegant beast – always waiting for the next cafe run.” Absolute beauty, with power and passion, this is a true modern cafe racer and the hard work and heartache to achieve it, we can’t help but applaud.

[ Worthing Classics | Photography by Jose Gallina ]