No one upcycles quite like Roland Groteclaes. Based in Belgium, he’s a multi-talented creative that splits his time between illustration, design, painting and sculpture. And the latter is almost always done using salvaged parts.
This approach to his art is reflected in the custom bike he’s just built. Dubbed ‘Foray,’ it’s best described as a Bimota/Ducati hybrid. But this wasn’t a simple engine swap job?instead, it was pieced together almost entirely with leftover parts from multiple donor bikes.

The inspiration for Foray came from a particularly unusual source. ?A friend form England gifted me a used Honda F1 carbon fiber heat exchanger,? Roland tells us. ?He thought I could use it in a sculpture, but it was more than clear to me that I should give this piece a new identity, as an upcycled motorcycle fuel tank.? ?So the creation of Foray?its mere existence?revolves around one piece: the fuel tank.?

Roland needed to piece a motorcycle together to host his new fuel tank, so he took stock of what he had in his garage. ?I ride a Bimota DB3 Mantra,? he explains. ?And, like most motorcycle maniacs, I have a lot of new and used parts, all saved with the idea that one day I may make use of them.?
Roland’s stash included a Bimota DB3 swingarm, a pair of DB4 Antera wheels, and a DB2 exhaust system. Given that those parts all came from Italy, he decided that a Ducati engine would be the perfect fit.

After some searching, Roland found ...