Chimera: A wild Ducati from Balamutti’s mad scientist
Most customs are driven by aesthetics. A handful are defined by engineering, and this very strange Ducati from St. Petersburg is one of them.
It comes from Vitaliy Selyukov of the Balamutti workshop, and he?s a dab hand at pushing the engineering envelope. He’s the man who built a three-wheeled Hypermotard ice racer, and he’s stayed true to form with his latest creation.
Balamutti is actually a family operation, because Vitaliy works with his wife Sanita and daughter Angelina. But there?s nothing homely about this 900SS-powered build, which he?s called ?Chimera.?
The project took the team almost four years to complete, with a lot of that time occupied by the front end?which uses a swingarm with hub-center steering.
The obvious parallel is the Bimota Tesi, which has a similar front end. But this one is slightly different. ?I was able to bypass Bimota’s patents,? says Vitaliy mischievously. ?The person who designed this suspension was the inventor Count Shilovsky.? (Historians may know Shilovsky as the man who revealed the ?Gyrocar? in 1914?a two-wheeled oddity stabilized by a gyroscope.)
?Of course, the Bimota Tesi was an inspiration,? Vitaliy admits. ?But I?ve reduced the spherical joints and levers in the steering. As a result, I have one less lever and two fewer loops.?
To reduce unsprung weight without compromising strength, Vitaliy has used high-quality structural alloy steel wherever possible?which was not easy to find in billet form.
The...
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