1998 Walt Siegl Leggero
Miles: 274
Second Owner
Clean Title
Listed Price: $49,880
Listing ends: June 6th, 2024
You could be forgiven for mistaking this Walt Siegl Leggero for some sort of ordinary custom Ducati, a SuperSport shorn of its original bodywork and adorned with some fiberglass bits and a loud exhaust. Which it sort of is, in the same way that a Singer is “just” a customized Porsche 911: while technically correct, it hardly begins to describe the finished product. The Leggero’s frame is a bespoke design by Walt Siegl, a motorcycle craftsman based in New Hampshire, where the long winters no doubt gave him plenty of time and motivation to hone his obvious skill and craftsmanship… That crome-moly frame is said to weigh just 15lbs. The bodywork is also bespoke and made from carbon fiber, while the tank is aluminum. Suspension is a fully-adjustable Öhlins FGR fork up front with a fully-adjustable Öhlins shock at the rear, while braking, naturally, is by Brembo. The engine is the final iteration of Ducati’s venerable two-valve, air and oil-cooled twin, the 1000DS. For the Leggero, that Desmo twin has been built with an entire catalog of custom parts on the inside and outside by one of the foremost Ducati engine builders in the world. Visible and most obvious are the magnesium clutch housing and the NCR oil cooler. But while custom bikes can obviously end up being less than the sum of their parts, the fit and finish seen on WSM products is excellent and, by all accounts, the Leggero manages to combine all of these top-shelf components into a whole that delivers on the promise of those parts.
Here it is; the LEGGERO. A tru piece of motorcycle art. AMAZING! The air – cooled Ducati – based Leggero, using Walt Siegl – designed chassis and bodywork. The Leggero is hand built in Walt’s New Hampshire workshop. The frame is built in house with aircraft spec chrome – moly steel tubing and weighs just 15 lbs. The air-cooled 1000cc Ducati engine is fully rebuilt and blueprinted, with updated internals, by the great Bruce Meyers.
“It’s that 90 degree, two-valve, Desmo engine that won so many hearts, including mine. There is no engine out there with the same characteristics. It’s a brilliant performer that can be hammered on the racetrack or ridden to the café. No, it won’t have 200 horsepower, but that was never really what owning a this bike was all about. You dip the bike in, and as soon as you clip the apex you feed the throttle in and it makes you grin stupid. It’s how these engines make power that is so much fun. With the Leggero 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.”
Walt has been building custom bikes for a while, but they were basically one-of-a-kind machines, while the Leggero is his first go at “series production.” There’s still a wide range of customization options available, if the “stock” bike isn’t quite special enough for you, that can improve the looks, the handling, or both. $50,000 is obviously a lot of money for an air-cooled motorcycle making maybe 110hp, although I’m sure it feels like much more when you factor in the bike’s incredible weight, or lack thereof. And outright speed is hardly the point here, anyway. Honestly the price for this one does seem on the high side, compared to other Siegl bikes that have come up for sale in recent years. I really don’t know what a Leggero costs new: WSM doesn’t advertise prices. But these are “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it” kinds of toys for folks who adore the simple charisma of Ducati’s two-valve twins and have the money to spend on a bike that captures the very essence of motorcycling. That may sound like fawning hyperbole, but I honestly can’t think of a bike I’d rather have, if I could only ever have one bike. Although I’d prefer mine with a simple round headlight, instead of the fairing.
-tad
