REVIVAL of the FITTEST

Revival Cycles' Ducati Fuse is a stripped-down retro ride worth over half a million dollars...

- NICOLAS STECHER

When the apex motorcycle racing series MotoGP came to Austin this spring it brought more than the fastest bikes on the planet to Texas' capital. Timed to complement the event, the Handbuilt Motorcycle Show took place highlighting some of the most beautiful, imaginative, and wild custom cycles America has to offer.

Among the two-wheeled sculptures assembled one that stood out was Revival Cycles' Ducati Fuse - a sleek crimson creation built in collaboration with the man who commissioned the bike, Ed Boyd. The former Vice President of Design for Dell, Global Category Creative Director for Nike, and Technology Designer for Sony clearly has an eye for aesthetics, so it's little surprise his vision is so well defined.

"He'd designed all these electronics, but never a motorcycle." Revival Cycles founder Alan Stulberg tells us of what brought the two forces together. "So he reached out to us to teach him how to design a motorcycle." Living in Austin as well, Boyd had fallen in love with a Revival creation called the Ducati J63 and was inspired to imagine his own unique version. Originally Boyd wanted Stulberg and co. to build it out of an old Yamaha Virago, but quickly that plan turned out to be a fool's errand - so they pivoted to centering off a Ducati Monster 1100 engine.