SuperBike Magazine June 2020

53
When Winston Yeh first burst onto the
scene with his shop, Rough Crafts, he
quickly made a name for himself by
turning stock Harley-Davidsons into
dark and menacing bobbers. Since
then, the Taiwanese designer has spread his wings
and applied his sharp eye to motorcycles from a
number of other brands. But the real artistry lies in
the fact that whatever platform Winston’s working
with, his signature Rough Crafts style always pushes
through.
This time, he’s stamped his mark on a most unusual
donor: a 2018 Ducati Hypermotard 939. Anyone
who’s swung a leg over the Hypermotard knows
what a cracking ride it is. With 110 horses and 98 Nm
from its 937 cc Testastretta twin, decent suspension,
and a dry weight of just 181 kilos, it’s proper fun.
The thing is, it’s also tricky to customise. The Harleys
that Winston cut his teeth on are simple bikes
that are easy to take apart and reconfigure—but the
modern Hypermotard has a very distinct look, and
everything’s designed to fit together a particular way.
Still, when a customer brought in a Hypermotard 939
and asked Winston to modify it, he was keen to take
up the challenge.
His brief was twofold: give the Ducati the Rough
Crafts treatment, and lower it a bit at the same time.
“It was obvious that the 870 mm seat height was too
stressful for him,” says Winston, “especially in Taipei
city traffic, where there’s a lot of stop and go.”
“We still wanted the direction to reflect the Hypermotard’s
natural purpose—light, nimble, and fun.
A street tracker came to our minds—a flat tracker-styled
bike with regular street tyres and brakes.”
Winston went straight into Photoshop—fiddling
with ideas and fettling the bike’s stance virtually
until it looked right. The final design called for a 2”
drop in the front, and a 1” drop in the rear. To achieve
this, Rough Crafts installed a set of Öhlins FGRT207
upside-down forks, originally intended for the
Kawasaki ZZR1400, along with a new top triple from
CNC Racing. Öhlins then hooked the Ducati up with a
custom rear shock to complete the set.
The chassis upgrades didn’t stop there. Rough
Crafts installed a full Beringer brake set, an Öhlins
steering damper, and a set of carbon fibre wheels
from South Africa’s own Blackstone Tek. Even
though flat track bikes typically feature 19” wheels,
Winston knew this bike would be spending its time
on tarmac—so he kept the wheel sizes at a road-biased
17”, and opted for grippy Pirelli Diablo Corsa II
tyres.
Rough Crafts operates as something of a collective,
with Winston regularly outsourcing different
parts of a project to various talented craftsmen. For
the bodywork, he pulled in metal shaper and frequent
collaborator, MS Pro. The result was a new fuel
tank and radiator trim, designed to flow seamlessly
into each other and show off Rough Craft’s hallmark
scalloped style.
When it came to the rear half of the bike, Winston
had something else in mind. He called up David
Sánchez at BOTTPOWER in Spain, and asked him to
send over the company’s carbon fibre BOTT XR1 tail
piece. It turned out to be the perfect match for the