Custom built by Spirit Lake Cycles, this Ducati is an interesting take on what the Italians called the Multistrada, which translates to “many roads.” That reflects the broad capabilities built in by Ducati and Pierre Terblanche – their attempt at a touring bike you could hustle with. As MCN put it, “On face value, the Ducati Multistrada 1000DS shouldn’t work – monster trailie motorcycle dimensions and posture mixed with street brakes and tyres should equal boingy mess – but it does, thanks to clean sheet design and street calibrated suspension. Overall it slaughters other ‘upright’ motorcycles.”
Styling of the first generation was quite polarizing as the windshield/top of the front fairing rotated with the bars, though the rest of front fairing was stationary. But no one could argue with the performance – Cycle World called it the best sport touring bike of 2005.
It appears that Spirit Lake may no longer be in business, but here’s a video I discovered through The Vintagent about Ken Chan and Brian Sloma, the founders of Spirit Lake.
I’ve featured three other Spirit Lake Cycles builds over the years – a BMW R1150GS custom, R100R custom, and R65 custom.
Brian is currently offering up this bike for sale, noting that it has 27,000 miles and plenty of custom work: the fairing, exhaust, luggage racks, paint, and more. He adds that it “comes with hard side cases and possibly a second set of wheels with off-road tires if the offer is right.”
Find this custom Multi for sale in South El Monte, California for $5,000 here on Facebook Marketplace.