Written by Andrew Jones
?We started off just doing general welding repairs and custom fabrication jobs,? says Jim from the UK’s Alonze Custom. ?There is only me and my Dad here so we?re not a big company or anything.? And as if to prove the point, this beautiful custom ?67 Ducati’s photos were snapped by his Dad, too. But the photos, like the bike itself, jar against the father and son’s humbleness. I mean, just look at the results. ?I built my first bike – a 1954 Triumph – in 2013. Then there was a Honda CB500T in 2015. This Ducati is my third bike, which was finished late in 2017.?

Jim says he doesn’t really like calling the bike a cafe racer, but he admits it most readily falls into that category with its single seat and clip on bars. ?The motor is a Ducati 350 single. It?s the earlier, ?narrow case? motor and I believe it?s from 1967.? The rest of the bike is pretty much all new, as it?s mostly custom fabrication from Jim’s own hands. ?I call the bike the ?Alonze 350 Special,? he says, smiling broadly.
Jim bought the bike in his home town of Scarborough and it was in a pretty bad way. ?It had a Triumph 350 motor fitted; something known as a Tricati. At the time of buying it, I had no idea how hard the 350 single motors were to find. After a year of looking, one popped up on eBay in a town called Saltburn (Sounds strangely familiar – Andrew) just up the road from me. It wasn?t cheap and it needed rebuilding. Another ye...