This Is SBK, By Walt Siegl Motorcycles

We have drooled over Walt Siegl’s work before. First, it was the forged carbon Bol d’Or made in collaboration with David Yurman, which was followed by the Leggero model.

Our love affair ramped up with Walt’s Dakar-inspired Hypermotard, which was then followed by an even more adventure-ready machine built off the same platform, aptly named L’Avventura.

These bikes have helped to solidify Walt Siegl as one of the great motorcycle builders in the United States, and today’s addition only further bolsters that notion. As such, we bring you the simply named SBK models from Walt Siegl Motorcycles.

Two bikes, differing in their cores, the red SBK four-valve model uses a Ducati 1098 superbike engine, prepped by Bruce Meyers Performance; whereas the blue two-valve bike features a unique Ducati motor, which also started life as a Ducati 1098 engine, but has seen an air-cooled cylinder head grafted to its crankcase, again by Bruce Meyers.

Both bikes use a trellis steel frame (chrome-moly) made by Walt Siegl Motorcycles to accept both motor designs, along with a self-supporting rear subframe/tail section and 1098 swingarm and front fairing stays.

Other WSM-made parts include the carbon fiber bodywork, airbox, and intake tubes, as well as rearsets, and exhaust routing (with an SC-Project tip on the red bike, Arrow titanium tips on the blue bike). The windscreen is made by Custom Gustafsson.

Go-fast bits include Öhlins FGR superbike forks and TTX shocks; Brembo calipers with 330mm discs, radial master cylinders, and Spiegler lines; OZ Racing wheels with Dunlop Q4 tires; and a Ducati ECU with traction control, up/down quickshifts, and data acquisition.

With everything given an attention for weight savings, the bikes tip the scales at only 340 lbs – paltry sum for a motorcycle that is still street-legal…ish.

Of course what is really going to set WSM’s SBK builds apart from the crowd is Walt Siegl’s eye for design. The SBK models build upon the design language that this northeastern team has created with its previous motorcycles, and applied it to a fully faired superbike.

This means a design that draws links to the past, while still staying modern and performance-oriented enough not to be considered post-authentic. As we would expect, it is a stunning effect.

The only real complaint that we have with the SBK project is which bike to pick? Air-cooled or liquid?