It takes a healthy measure of skill and talent to successfully run a custom motorcycle workshop. But even some of the industry’s top shops frequently outsource specialized tasks?particularly things like upholstery and paint. Those that can handle every last job in-house are a rare breed.
deBolex Engineering counts themselves among those ranks. The team of Calum Pryce-Tidd and Des Francis is currently neck deep in creating examples of their Ducati Monster 1200-based dB25 series bikes for customers. Each bike is tailored to its owner, with everything from the carbon fiber work to the seat trim happening inside the English workshop.

The dB25 series is a move from deBolex to offer their signature timeless style and high-quality finishes, at a slightly reduced cost and with a quicker turnaround. But it took some doing to get the series off the ground. The guys originally built a prototype with aluminum bodywork, then used it to build jigs and tooling to replicate the work in carbon fiber. It now takes Calum and Des around three months to create a dB25 build. They start by producing the 22 carbon fiber body panels that adorn the Ducati Monster 1200 donor bike, and then do a ‘dry’ build to check the final fit. Finally, the Ducati is stripped for paint and trim.

These two bikes are numbers six and seven in the 25-unit series. As per the dB25 design, they share the same carbon body kit, polymer fuel cell, CNC-machined subframe, and a plethora of smaller laser...