Written by Martin Hodgson
From Switzerland, you head up over The Alps to Milan, swing east for Venice before rounding the Adriatic and opening the taps for a full days ride across the Balkans. Here you find yourself on the outskirts of Belgrade in front of a nondescript industrial building. This is the journey one man took to find Nemanja of Serbia’s Clutch & Brake Motorcycles. Six months later he returned to collect his hand beaten and brilliantly emblazoned 1990 Ducati 750, for the final return leg of his European custom bike expedition.

A university educated Economist, Nemanja had been bean counting for just long enough before he decided life had so much more to offer. And with a life long passion for motorcycles he left behind the corporate world to build custom bikes; wrenches over riches! ?We are a small country with a big passion for motorsport but we don’t have money like countries in Western Europe.? Inside his workshop, the high ceilings, dim light, bare timber floors and spread of hand tools give it the feel of a bygone era garage.
On the single lift, he rolled the Duc 750 and hoisted it into the air to examine exactly what he had to work with. Dented bodywork, plenty of corrosion and nearly 30 years of wear and tear meant the Bologna creation would need Nemanja to work on every inch of the machine to bring it up to scratch. Starting off with the frame, he chopped the back end off and used his prodigious welding skills to fabricate a new subfra...