We’ve seen builders manipulate steel, aluminum, titanium, fiberglass and carbon fiber. But this creamy smooth Ducati Monster 400 cafe racer features a material that very few people know about: basalt fiber. Indeed, we’ve only come across it once before, on Mark Atkinson’s breathtaking BMW Alpha landspeeder.
For 25-year-old New Zealander Max Betteridge, it was a material he wanted to use even before he had a bike to try it out on.

?In many ways, basalt is the new carbon,? he tells us. ?It has similar performance to carbon but at a lower price. What captured me was the subtle gold hue in its reflection?in contrast to carbon’s harsh weave, basalt appears almost black until the light hits it at just the right angle. Then it reveals a surreal depth.? Max works as a product development engineer in Auckland, designing products that treat sleep apnea. Building bikes is a hobby for him?an obsession that originally started with vintage cars.

Remarkably, Max considers his baby Monster a budget build. ?I bought the donor bike for about one third of the price of the cheapest brand new Ducati,? he reveals. ?The paint, powder coating and anodizing were the only things which I didn’t do myself. In the end, the paint cost almost as much as all the other costs combined.?
Max’s day-to-day involves a lot of surface modeling, so that’s how he approached the project. As soon as he had the Monster in his hands, he 3D scanned it and began building th...