Gannet Design is a studio and shop headed up by Ulfert Janssen, a German-born designer who previously penned cars for a decade at Renault and Nissan. The Switzerland-based outfit is routinely commissioned by major moto marques (and various fashion companies) to build one-off versions of production motorcycles. Gannet Design often teams up with other renowned shops to help execute its vision (most recently Gannet tag-teamed a stellar Royal Enfield Himalayan with the Wrench Kings). For this Guzzi project, Gannet called on Fuhrer Moto, which is run by Stefan Fuhrer, former lead race wrench of Forward Racing’s (Moto2) Dominique Aegerter and Dynavolt Intact’s (Moto2) Tom Luthi. For this particular Guzzi custom, Janssen and Fuhrer joined forces to create what they’ve dubbed the “Rhapsody In Blue”, with the former responsible for the design and the latter tasked with turning said design into tangible metal.
The build started life as a 2016 Moto Guzzi V9 Roamer, which was stripped down to the chassis and then modified to give the bike a more aggressive, forward-leaning stance. Next, a custom aluminum tail section was drawn by Gannet then hand-formed by Fuhrer, before finally being tacked onto a custom subframe and capped off with a bespoke brown leather saddle. The 853cc longitudinal V-Twin was converted to a carb setup fed through beautiful, one-off slash-cut pipes, while burnt fumes are now ejected via a custom set of exhausts terminating in modified Leo Vince GP Pro mufflers (which you can listen to here).
Other highlights include CNC Racing foot-pegs, top-shelf clip ons and levers, IMA triples, Jetprime racing buttons, a smattering of Motogadget bits, Daytona gauges, custom 18” spoked Kineo rims (with custom aluminum covers in back), Ohlins suspenders fore and aft, and a number of one-off odds and ends like the blue cylinder covers. Practically every inch of the build has also received professional paint or powder coating (or anodization), with the main livery being comprised of a “rare mixture of scrubbed and high gloss shine with a thick layer of clear coat”. Also, I suspect the race number on the tail (42) may be in reference to the year the orchestration for the build’s namesake was released, but that’s just a guess.
Once complete, this cafe’d Roamer made appearances at a number of sprint races (Monza and Glemseck 101) and went on to receive full write-ups from outlets like DesignBoom, PipeBurn, VisorDown, and MCN AU, just to name a few. If you spend time looking at motorcycles on Instagram, you’ve almost certainly come across this bike. Like all Gannet-designed bikes, the entire build is extremely well-calculated and boasts top-notch fit and finish throughout. Of course, like all of Gannet’s customs, it’s far from cheap.
You can find this custom 2016 Moto Guzzi V9 Roamer from Gannet Design and Fuhrer Moto, entitled “Rhapsody in Blue” for sale here on TheBikeShed in Burgdorf, Switzerland with a price of €45,000 (or $50,750).