Real world rides, real world riders

Ducati Meccanica Vintage 2: Retro Et Modern

Often it’s so good that Joe Public ends up getting the chance to buy a copy, too, and maybe it’s no coincidence that many of these have been Ducatis – bikes like Miguel Galluzzi’s original Monster, or Pierre Terblanche’s go-anywhere Multistrada, or indeed Thierry Henriette’s new Boxer V2 Vintage, which he originally created out of a Ducati GT1000 to carve a path along the urban freeways, city boulevards and tight-knit warren of historic streets and squares in Toulouse, the capital of France’s Languedoc region nestling up against the Pyrenees.

Hard as it may be for a red-blooded Welshman like myself to concede, born and brought up within a long kick on goal of Cardiff Arms Park, Toulouse is quite arguably the European centre of rugby, having won the Northern Hemisphere’s benchmark Heineken Cup club title an unprecedented three times. It’s also the epicentre of the European aerospace industry, with the headquarters of Airbus, Galileo, Thales and EADS all rubbing wingtips with each other alongside the CST/Toulouse Space Centre, the largest in Europe. But in two-wheeled terms, above all, Toulouse is the home of Boxer Design.

The creation of 54-year-old entrepreneur-turned-stylist Thierry Henriette, Boxer Design sprang more than a quarter-

century ago out of Henriette’s Toulouse-based Boxer Bikes conglomerate, a three-store empire that for many years was France’s largest Kawasaki dealership, as well as a massive main dealer for Honda and, through his Road Masters Eurobike subsidiary, for Euro-brands like Ducati, BMW, Triumph, Aprilia etc.

A smart businessman with his finger on the bike market’s pulse, coupled with an eye for the innovative as well as the aesthetically pleasing, Henriette has produced a series of uniquely attention-grabbing motorcycles over the past 26 years. These have not only showcased the latest in two-wheeled design trends, but have often foreshadowed future styling themes by major manufacturers – in just the same way as the ready-to-wear fashion market copies The Look of each season of haute couture Paris or Milan shows.

But his earlier creations also succeeded in hitting their principal commercial objective, bringing the Boxer Bikes name to the attention of bike buyers all over France, as well as in Spain and Italy. "Building the various special Boxer models we did was never cost-effective in its own right," admits Thierry, "but in terms of sales promotion and PR, it was invaluable, and good value for money – quite apart from the fact that this is what I went in to business for, to make enough money selling volume production streetbikes, to allow me to design and build my own!"

The first of these, the Vecteur, appeared back in 1984, using a Kawasaki GPz1100 motor fitted in a then-unique fully-adjustable Fior aluminum chassis. At a time when all streetbikes had steel frames, and even the groundbreaking Suzuki GSX-R750 with its all-alloy square-tube chassis was just on the horizon to point the way ahead, the Vecteur broke new technological ground, and although its styling was chic without being radical, the succession of ever more innovative Boxer Bikes designs which followed each year certainly took care of that.

But in 1999, Henriette startled the French bike world by selling up his interest in Boxer Bikes to his brother Philippe, withdrawing from the retail sector to concentrate on his first love via his newly founded creative entity, Boxer Design. In the past decade, Thierry has worked with many of the key players in the European bike industry, including both Honda Japan and Honda Europe, Aprilia, Peugeot (on both two and four wheels), Suzuki, Mondial, Ducati France, Yamaha France, and until their recent demise, the two French makes of Voxan and Scorpa.

In addition, he’s designed boats for Beneteau, helmets for Shark, an alarm system for ICA, various items of furniture, and with the aid of his architect wife Françoise, restored the exquisite Art Deco building of the Hotel les Bains-Douches in the historic centre of Toulouse, redesigning the interior in a minimalist modern style that Philippe Starck might be proud of, then filling it with examples of Boxer Design furniture.

Beginning three years ago Henriette has steered Boxer Design into the electric transportation segment. There, it’s now a key player as a consultant to major companies both inside and outside the motorcycle sector, with the 20-odd Boxer Design staff designing and constructing prototype e-vehicles on two wheels and four. “To begin with, this seemed just an interesting alternative sector with some challenging design opportunities,” says Thierry. “But the e-segment has mushroomed in the past 18 months, and now it occupies 90% of our focus.”

Visiting the snazzy, sleek Boxer Design HQ clad in aluminium outer panelling and perched on a hillside overlooking Toulouse, to address the other 10%, offered the chance to see and ride the Boxer V2 Vintage. Originally a one-off design that Thierry Henriette created for himself as his everyday ride in France’s sunny south, it’s now set to be publicly available via a Boxer Design kit capable of transforming a stock Ducati GT1000 Sport Classic into a Gallic designer bike.

“I’ve always liked Ducatis, and we were their largest dealer in France for many years,” says Thierry. “Last year, after riding a Yamaha MT-01 for a while, I wanted to get a new one, so I looked at the range but couldn’t find anything I liked – it seemed that as I’d grown older, Ducati’s models had got younger, so we weren’t talking the same language. They were either too sporty for everyday use, or frankly too extreme in terms of styling, like the Hypermotard.

“I was a big fan of the Monster from the very start – we sold hundreds of them, and I was the first to make one with an 888 desmoquattro Superbike engine installed, just as Galluzzi originally conceived the bike to be. We sold that to a Swiss customer, and I wanted then to start marketing a small series, but Ducati couldn’t build enough engines to satisfy their own requirements, let alone sell me any. But although I had many, many Monsters down the years up to and including the S4R, I don’t like the new one – it’s been over-designed, and it’s too fat and heavy. They’ve lost the lean minimalism of Galluzzi’s original concept of a fuel tank, an engine, two wheels and a frame – and that’s a pity.”

“But then I looked at the GT1000, and I liked its understated styling, which was just the modern side of retro, especially with the air-cooled desmodue engine. So I decided to get one and see what I could do to make it still more pure and simple in a retro way, and the V2 Vintage is the result. My objective was not to modify it too much, so by retaining the stock engine, chassis, suspension and brakes it’ll be possible to reproduce the new styling quite easily, and economically, for customers.

“It’s one thing to design a nice showbike, but quite another to do something that can be reproduced in 30-40 examples, as we did many times in the past with Boxer Bikes.” Retaining the original engine and running gear means there’s no need for re-homologation, and insurance costs will be held down, too.

After repainting the engine in an anthracite charcoal tint, Henriette’s main focus has been to lighten the rear of the bike, which in Pierre Terblanche’s factory-fresh design is much taller and heavier-looking than the V2 Vintage. To achieve this, Thierry has removed all the tabs and washers from the rear subframe, and made it a design feature no longer partially covered by the new, much slimmer, leather-covered Boxer seat with a gracefully-sloping rear section that still has room for a passenger.

“The subframe’s a nice part that deserves to be seen,” he says. He’s also removed the rear mudguard, and fitted a much smaller rear light and direction signals out of the Rizoma catalogue, same as the matching duo at the front. But the biggest aesthetic difference is the new Boxer exhaust system, with stainless steel headers and conical aluminium silencers that recall the shape of the legendary Conti items from back at the dawn of desmo Ducati V-twin history in the 1970s.

These are positioned much higher than on the stock GT1000 originals, where the exhaust headers run under the engine, and the silencers are adjacent to the swingarm. On the Boxer, the neo-Contis bisect the empty space between the seat and the rear wheel, which Henriette says it was his main mission to fill in. “It’s the biggest single fault of the original design, and I don’t know why it was made that way,” he says. Certainly not to leave extra space for wheel travel on this twin-shock motorcycle, which now sees the pair of original Sachs suspension units delivering 133mm of wheel travel become a design feature in their own right. The higher-set exhaust needs a set of guards to protect the rider’s leg, which they do pretty well, though any passenger may end up with nicely toasted jeans in a longer ride.

Up front, Henriette has retained the stock headlamp and instruments, but fitted a minimalist plastic wind deflector housing the dash, which gives the bike a sportier look aided by shifting the previously rather prominent pair of horns behind the oil cooler. Aside from the smaller, shapelier Rizoma mirrors that are less retro-looking than the chrome-backed round originals, the only remaining feature is a pair of exquisitely designed badges denoting the traditional Ducati Meccanica emblem that have been laser-cut from solid aluminium plate, then heated to be shaped to the form of the stock fuel tank. And – that’s it! Simple is best...

Ironically, Ducati France had organised a design contest around the GT1000 a couple of years ago, but failed to invite Boxer Design to take part in this! Nevertheless, the importer’s CEO Dominique Cheraki has been an enthusiastic supporter of the V2 Vintage project, and may indeed market the Boxer Ducati V2 Vintage kit via his dealers around the country, leaving Boxer Design to take care of orders from outside France, although no price has yet been fixed for this.

“The kit will for sure cost well under 2000 Euro, depending on how many orders we receive, to include all parts,” says Henriette. “That way, someone can transform a second-hand GT1000, if they wish – but we can deliver complete bikes as new, since there are unsold models on dealer floors in France, because the model didn’t enjoy the success of the other models in the Sport Classic family, especially the Paul Smart Replica. The exact price will depend on specification, and each bike can be tailored to suit the customer.” Contact Thierry Henriette at info@boxer-design.com for an exact quote – and get ready to join an exclusive family, the Boxer Bikes owners club...

Thierry Henriette identifies the kind of customer for his V2 Vintage kit as someone who likes understated elegance, who prefers Aston Martin to Lamborghini, Maserati to Ferrari. But how about addressing another model in the Ducati range? “Yes, I’d love to do something with the Monster, to bring it back to where it ought to be in terms of simplicity and leanness. Come back in a year’s time - we might have something to show you!”

Words: Alan Cathcart  Pics: Kel Edge