Many of you have likely seen Walt Siegl’s “Bol D’Or” custom MV Agusta Brutale 800 with a retro-flare. It is an amazing piece of work, and the basis for today’s post, which brings you a glimpse of the David Yurman Forged Carbon Moto by Walt Siegl.
Actually the first model from Walt Siegl’s Bol B’Or line, we are just seeing this motorcycle now because it comes with a twist: it has forged carbon parts, crafted by jewelry maker David Yurman.
A lot can be said about forged carbon, enough worthy of its own article, but the tl;dr version is that the composite material is set to replace traditional carbon fiber parts – in a big way.
Instead of woven sheets of carbon fiber cloth, made rigid by a plastic, forged carbon consists of randomly arranged nanotubes of carbon that are impregnated with resin and then forged together with tremendous heat and pressure.
The result is a single-piece composite that can take on complex shapes, supposedly at the fraction of the cost of traditional carbon fiber layups.
Engineered through a joint-venture between Lamborghini and Callaway Golf (strange bedfellows indeed), you can expect to see this technology trickle into other consumer goods in the next decade or so. This is where the David Yurman Forged Carbon Moto comes into play.
Yurman is the only jewelry maker to get approval from Lamborghini and Calloway to use their patented forged carbon process, and he contributed his skill set to this Walt Siegl custom, by making some of the components (top triple clamp, rearsets, fenders, etc).
The choice in forged carbon parts shows the diversity of the material, from body panels to load-bearing structures.
Since you can drill forged carbon (but not tap) without reinforcing the hole’s perimeter with metal, there is a plethora of applications for this new material in motorcycles. We’re barely scratching the surface here.
For an added bonus, forged carbon is a very pleasing material to look at, and the random configuration of the carbon nanotubes means that every piece is visually unique.
When you add that to an already attractive motorcycle design, well…checkout the hi-res photos yourself.
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