Walt Siegl Motorcycles

[Peon Maface]

Has everybody but me already seen this guy’s work? I bumped into his latest, simply named the Adventure, when I was slurking around the web looking at Ducati ADV bikes. Not sure how this works, since the brand new Scrambler 1100 Sport PRO we just tested tipped our scales 457 pounds worth, with 4 gallons of gas. Walt claims his Adventure, also packing an 1100 Ducati motor, weighs 350 pounds. With 6.5 gallons of fuel. Light is right.

We’ve got Kevlar bodywork enveloping two linked aluminum fuel tanks, one of them in the subframe of the braced, first-gen Hypermotard frame. An upgraded Marzocchi fork and Ohlins shock give 8.5 inches of travel, but the beauty of your Siegl machines is that they’re customizable, so you can go full moto suspension if you desire – but the seat’s also made with long-distance comfort in mind. And Walt’s site says there’s already 14,000 miles of trails downloaded in the bike’s GPS, which “can be easily disengaged from its holder and used as a tablet.”

I came for the Adventure but stayed for a bunch of the other bikes this guy has been turning out from his actual old-world barn workshop in New Hampshire since 2007. I take it back, it’s a converted textile mill.

The Leggero was the first; it also uses a 900 Ducati motor (Bruce Meyers Performance rebuilt and blueprinted, with Keihin FCR carburetors if desired), in a chrome-moly frame built in-house.

With the Leggeros, I’m using classic sport design elements that are clearly recognizable as such. That includes almost all aspects of the build, from exhaust to frame design. And with today’s brakes, modern suspension components and fuel injection systems, I’m able to build a truly contemporary motorcycle. I’m getting the best out of the really great characteristics that Ducati has engineered into their bikes, while making everything lighter and stronger. With the two-valve engine I need less components, so the design is much cleaner.  — Walt Siegl

What? You like Italian but prefer three cylinders?

Built of course to order, the Bol d’Or packs a new, 798 cc MV Agusta triple inside all-new lightweight composite bodywork. It’s not easy to improve upon the looks of a standard MV F3; you’ll have to make the call. Further lightening measures include an aluminum subframe, a lightweight exhaust system and WSM rearsets machined from 7075-T651 grade aluminum.

A ram air system was created to get the best out of the highly tuned 3-cylinder engine. The diameter of the air intakes was increased and they were tucked into the front of the fairing. To get the most out of these modifications and to gain better torque and horsepower, the ECU is flashed with a fully tunable performance program.

What? You just want a track bike? And so you shall have one. The WSM Superbike gets

another Bruce Meyers Performance engine, this one a 1098. This particular bike is swaddled in all the finest accouterments, including Ohlins FGR World Superbike forks and WSM-spec Ohlins TTX shock, Brembo Monobloc calipers and 330mm rotors, WSM pre-preg carbon fiber with c-f  airbox, a WSM aircraft spec chrome-moly structural carbon fiber subframe/tail, OZ wheels…
the Ducati ECU with WSM Race Spec program and wiring harness provides traction control and quickshifter, controllable via full-interface dashboard.

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I, I think I’m starting to hate Walt Siegl and his Hollywood looks and New Hampshire textile mill with the red Alfa parked out front. Here’s his “About” info: At 19, Walt left art school in his native Austria to join a road racing team. He later worked in France as a shunter in a train yard and as a toolmaker and welder in Germany, Austria and Italy. A job with an Austrian steel company took him to Moscow, where he eventually joined the Austrian Foreign Service.

In 1985 he transferred to New York City for a position promoting contemporary Austrian art and culture for the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Walt spent his free time building motorcycles for himself and friends out of a basement across the river in Long Island City.

In 2007 he moved his workshop and his family to an old mill town in southern New Hampshire to build motorcycles full time.

There’s tons more information and fantastic photography of all the bikes, and Walt, and the mill at Walt Siegl Motorcycles. Oh, and the Adventure isn’t his latest. There’s an electric bike now too, the “Pact.”

 

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