Spirit’s GTR 1000

At last Tim & Kev at Spirit of the Seventies have completed the long awaited Ducati GTR 1000 project, and we’ve been so keen to get this up on The Shed that instead of waiting for the usual professional pics, we snapped a few ourselves (so apologies in advance for the amateur shots) and got on with it.

The bodywork comes back from the paint shop, Revolution.

The bike is a Ducati GT 1000, the later wet-clutch, twin-shock, touring version of the much-loved Sport Classic series created by Pierre Terblanche between 2005 and 2008. Main differences are non-adjustable shocks and steel wheels but the rest is just down to the tank, seat and having handlebars instead of clipons.

Spirit’s saddle is a work of art, created to their own design by Glenn Moger, and made from Brookes leather tape carefully sewn together, to match the grips. We’re told by the owner that it’s comfier than it looks. We don’t care either way, it looks fantastic.

Most of the mods on this bike are cosmetic rather than performance orientated, but these bikes came out of the factory with modern performance and excellent road manners, with most parts pinched from other models from the time, using the tried and tested DS1000 engine.

Spirit have rebuilt the wheels in black, fitted clip-ons, as well as creating bespoke bodywork and commissioning a custom exhaust from CoBuilt, with the headers in ceramic white.

The footrests were modified, brackets were custom built, and of course the guys replaced the lighting and tail with a much cooler setup than Ducati originally came up with.

The end result is a very complete looking package that makes you wonder what Ducati thought they were doing when they created the original bikes with such an ugly fat rear end and seat. The lines on this bike are a massive improvement.

The exhaust is a work of beautiful simplicity, two cyliners into one stubby GP style end can, with white ceramic coating, which complements the retro Brit-racer inspired paint job; the usual high-quality Spirit trademark.

I’m sure we’ll re-post this story when the guys get around to taking some better snaps, meanwhile, we hope this quick feature does the bike justice. Questions and commissions to Tim & Kev via their website.