Who gives a function…?
…certainly not wildcard builder Edi Buffon. ‘I make something I like the form of, then I make it function.’ Is his mantra. Fair play...
Custom bike designers often talk about blending form and function, but that’s not Edi Buffon’s style. ‘I make something I like the form of, then I make it function, rather than the other way round,’ he tells Bike from his workshop in Sydney, Australia. ‘I always like to do something a bit different that adds to the aesthetic.’ He’s not kidding. Almost everything on this bike happened because Edi liked the way it looks, from the hand gear shift (like flat-tankers of yore), to the carbs poking up at the clouds, to the leaf spring front suspension. Pretty much everything bar the engine, wheels and those carburettors is made by hand.
‘Aesthetically, the leaf spring is my favourite kind of suspension for a motorcycle,’ says Edi. ‘I like that vintage look. It’s not the best sort of suspension performance-wise because there’s no damping so it does pogo [ie, it continues to oscillate long after the bump has passed]. But you get adjustability with the length of the leaf spring, so you can lengthen or shorten it to dial it in.’
The vertical carbs came about after a chat with a mate who’s a classic car fan. Edi mentioned he was thinking about using some SU carbs from an old Jaguar or Aston because, you guessed it, he liked the way they looked. ‘He said, “what about Weber carbs?” That’s when I started looking on ebay, and then left the decision to the universe – whatever was there at the right price, I bought.’
The engine itself is from an early 2000s Ducati Monster 620, which Edi thought was ripe for a hardtail. ‘No-one had done a rigid bobber with a Ducati engine, so that was the challenge.
‘I’ve been doing these builds for the last five years
– about one a year. It’s just showcasing what I can do and hopefully one day I can work full time customising.’
In the meantime, he works three days a week servicing bikes and spends two days on his own projects. ‘I’ve always tinkered with motorcycles and five years ago I decided to get serious and rented a little workshop, where I do the servicing and maintenance work. I bought a couple of
‘It’s like jumping on a 1920s motorcycle. It’s crazy. But I didn’t make it so it was easy to ride. It’s good fun though’
wrecks for my projects, because all I really needed was a motor and a couple of wheels.
‘This build was pretty easy. If you try and retro fit existing parts onto another bike it can be really difficult but if you build the parts yourself, it’s much easier. The welding and metal fabrication makes sense to me, it comes naturally. Mind you, saying that, there’s about 600 hours in this build.’
Inevitably, the bike isn’t exactly user friendly. ‘I’ve only ridden it round the block – it’s like jumping on a 1920s motorcycle. It’s crazy. But I didn’t make it so it was easy to ride. It’s good fun though – with the carbs up high you can just about hear the induction roar, but the noise from the pipes pretty much drowns that out.’
This is Edi’s fourth build and he’s got no plans to sell it for the time being. ‘I’m hanging on to it for a while – I’ll take it to a few shows and see if I can win a prize with it. But it might be my last build for a while, as the beginning of this year has gone really well and I’ve got a couple of commissions. So I could be doing this full time.’ We can’t wait to see what he does next…