FEATURE - 2020 Ducati Custom Rumble winner

COVID-19 has changed life as we know it, but fortunately, the skill, creativity and enthusiasm of the custom motorcycle community are amongst the things in life it hasn’t changed. That was evidenced by the strong response to Ducati’s Custom Rumble competition.
Custom Rumble is all about the Ducati Scrambler, with builders and customisers invited to turn Ducati’s retro-inspired street roadster into something unique.

Global Competition
This year marked the third edition of the biennial Custom Rumble, which was open to Scrambler customisers from around the world, with their creations required to suit one of the following five categories:
Rocker - motorcycles inspired by the culture of the legendary café racers that, in the ’60s, gave
birth to a revolution in the world of two wheels
Cut-Down - bobber-style motorcycle in which every element that’s not strictly necessary is eliminated
for an “essential” look
All-Terrain - enduro-style Scrambler, perfect for any terrain and equipped with
off-road-inspired components
Outsider - designed for those who don’t want to limit themselves to one category, but
unleash their creativity

Bully - the special category dedicated to the Ducati Scrambler 1100, without any restrictions
on the type of bike or style
While Bully was limited to the Scrambler 1100, builders could base their creations for all the other categories on the original 800cc Scrambler and smaller 400cc Sixty2, as well as the big 1100cc version.
Ducati opened registrations for the third Custom Rumble last year, and when entries closed in December, a total of 74 bikes had been registered, setting the stage for phase two of Custom Rumble: the public vote.

Final Five 
In February, Ducati unveiled the 74 Custom Rumble entries and opened the public voting, which would whittle that big field down to five – one from each category. The bike with the most votes in each category would then go to the final, where the ultimate winner would be determined by a panel of experts and celebrities, including Ducati factory team riders.
Ducatisti responded enthusiastically to the public voting phase, with almost 5,000 votes submitted. In the Rocker category, these included ‘Roasted to Perfection’ from Italy, ‘Bourguet Scrambler’ from Switzerland and ‘Itchy1961’ from Thailland, but the simply-named ‘Scrambler Café Racer’ from Ducati Hellas in Greece was the fan favourite, scoring more than double the votes of its nearest rival.
In Cut-Down, there was the wild ‘Scrambler 2.0’ from Spain (which included an extended single-sided swingarm amongst its many mods), ‘OhMyDeus’ from France and the subtly stylish Beirut SCR out of Lebanon, but this category saw another clear winner, too, in ‘Argo 803’, created by Italy’s Francesco Russo in collaboration with Moto Design Custom in Naples.

All-Terrain attracted 15 bikes, with a mix of mild and wild creations. Firmly in the latter camp was ‘Scrambler 1’ from the USA and ‘Bordi SCR’ out of Italy, but the overall public favourite in this category was the ‘Ximong Scrambler’ from Taiwan.
Dominating the voting in the Outsider category was ‘Barceloca’ from the USA, but there was eye-candy aplenty here, too, including the ‘BRKT Street Tracker’ (that was actually created by an engineer at electric motorcycle company Zero Motorcycles), ‘Nilpat’ from Thailand, ‘Brio’ from Sweden (one of JUST BIKES’ favourites) and the racetrack-inspired ‘Street Tracker’ from Germany.
Finally, the Bully category was a small field, but a quality one, with the radical, partially-faired ‘Scrambler van der Colff’ from South Africa up against the more subtle ‘Lachkar Scrambler’ from France,  ‘Indy Scrambler” from the USA and the public vote winner in this category, ‘Scrambler 1100 FT’ from Italy.
The finale was originally scheduled to be held at the BikeShed London custom motorcycle event on 23 May, but with COVID-19 knocking everything off kilter, the final judging would ultimately be an online-only affair, held on 25 May and live streamed to Ducati fans around the world.

Viva Italia
Two months after the public votes determined who would be the final five, a jury of five special judges would decide the ultimate Custom Rumble winner. That jury was made up of factory Ducati riders Andrea Dovizioso and Chaz Davies, British actor Nicholas Hoult, Filippo Barbacane of highly-regarded bike builders Officine Rossopuro and founder of BikeShed London, Dutch van Sommeren.
Scrambler ambassador and past Custom Rumble entrant Dominika Grnova hosted the live-streamed event, which attracted more than 16,000 followers.
Scrambler 1100 FT had received the highest number of votes across all categories during the qualification phase and ultimately won the jury’s favour, too. 
Created by Marco Graziani of CC Racing Garage in Rome, the Scrambler 1100 FT remained recognisable as a Scrambler 1100 (thanks in no small part to the bold branding on the fuel tank), which Graziani said was a goal from the outset.

CC Style
Starting with a new Scrambler 1100 Special (identified by its wire spoke wheels instead of alloys), Graziani deliberately left the headlight, tail light and fuel tank – what he describes as the ‘3 pillars’ of the Scramber – untouched,  but he did make changes elsewhere.
The most noticeable modification from stock is the solo seat conversion with its stylish ducktail and slim, race-style seat. This covers the subframe and, according to Graziani, can be swapped for a two-up saddle when required without impacting the tail light.
A compact flyscreen over the factory headlight complements the ducktail, as does deletion of the number plate hanger, while the custom exhaust system, made up of myriad welds, is repositioned to further highlight the changes at the back end. 
Shaving the pillion footpegs off the swingarm and repositioning the rider footpegs are less noticeable modifications, as are changes to the radiator and swapping the factory front suspension for Öhlins forks.
Wheels, tyres and brakes are all stock, but the front mudguard has been modified and the front indicators downsized. The factory handlebar has been replaced with a flatter item, with the master cylinders, mirrors and levers replaced, too, but the instrument panel, switchgear and grips are unchanged. 
All other changes are achieved through paint, with the black frame extended to the swingarm (normally silver on a Scrambler 1100 Special) to enhance the bright metallic blue and white on the plastics and tinware.

Small Changes, Big Result
Take a closer look at the Custom Rumble winner from CC Motor Garage alongside a factory Scrambler 1100 Special and, tail changes aside, you’ll see it’s very similar to the stock bike in most areas, which really is testimony to Graziani’s skills in making his creation look so different.
Going subtle and minimal was also a gamble on Graziani’s part, as the Bully category was unrestricted in terms of modifications.  
“To me, customising a bike means making it one of a kind,” Graziani explained. “And making it more beautiful.” 
As the Custom Rumble winner, Graziani received a complete tool kit and workbench from Italian motorcycle tool specialists, Beta, to use on future custom creations at CC Racing Garage.
In second place behind CC Racing Garage was the Scrambler Café Racer from Ducati Hellas and Jigsaw Customs, with Nick Tansley’s Barceloca third. Fourth overall was Argo803 from Francesco Russo of Italy’s Moto Design Custom, with Le Nguyen’s Ximong Scrambler fifth.
 
For images of all entrants in the third edition of Custom Rumble, go to https://scramblerducati.com/au