DucCutters: HyperKromo (Bill Johnson)

DucCutters Custom Italian Motorcycles

HyperKromo (HYPERKЯOMO)
Project By: Bill Johnson (azbill@DucCutters.com)
Special Thanks To: Ric Murphy for all his help with the project.

As my aging turbocharged monster reached a decade of service, I decided it was time to get a new Ducati to ride. I have had a wide variety of Ducati's, everything from superbikes, vintage singles, even a rare elefant and of course a monster. After multiple test rides I purchased a 2008 Ducati HyperMotard 1100S new from a local dealership. It was only the second model year for the HyperMotard and at the time there was very few aftermarket parts available and very few professionally customized bikes being advertised.

The stock HyperMotard was very nimble and fun to ride. It offered excellent braking and suspension, plus a comfortable riding position for riding in the city and racing through the desert canyons. The only mechaincal draw back was the bike was listed as 90 Horsepower and 76 Torque by Ducati, but the real numbers where 78 Horsepower and 66 Torque when I dyno'ed the bike locally. Cosmeticly I wasn't fond of the super-motard style headlight/front fender, to much of a duck bill look. At that point I had decided to maybe upgrade the HyperMotard with some of the features of my trusted TurboMonster, just to increase my enjoyment of the new bike.

Phase 1 of the project was to make a few cosmetic changes to the bike. The headlight/frontfender had to go. I replaced it with a "Future 1" headlight I was able to get imported out of Germany by a local aftermarket parts dealer. It gave the bike more of a Euro street-fighter look and provided better wind protection. Being a hardcore chrome kind of guy, I sent the subframe to a local shop to be chromed and the new headlight fairing and the stock side fairing to to chrome painted. That really changed the look of the bike! Ducati has had chromed bike in their line up since the 50's, so I didn't think they would mind. I then made a custom aluminium pop-up gas cap, to replace the sad looking stock cap that looked like it came off an old "Briggs and Stratton" lawn mower. I also made several other minor refinements as well, including knurled aluminum grips, fork sliders, steering dampener, gel seat, a chrome grenade rear brake reservoir, red ground effects lighting, some very nice Rizoma parts and a bunch of carbon fiber to acsent the chrome.

Click Here for "Phase One" production blog and photo's.

Phase 2 was to make some performance changes! I turbocharged the bike with Aerocharger 53 Series variable-area turbine and hand made custom black ceramic coated exhaust pipes leading to a Zard Penta slip-on. The turbo replaces the stock catalyst converter, located under the swing arm. The Samco SuperFlex silicone feed tube goes to a steel air box fitted with a custom aluminium heat sink. The hardware all came out nice, very compact. I made a custom carbon fiber dash to fit under the new headlight fairing that includes a custom DucCutters boost gauge Speed Hut made for me.

The orginial plan for the engine managment was to use a "RapidBike Mod 3 with their optional MAP sensor and o2 emulator". The RapidBike system should be able to manage both the fuel maps and adjust the ignition map. The system works, but unfortunately there's a major lack of support for it. Where I can guesstimate the setting and the bike runs well, none of the local dyno shops are willing to run the bike for proper tuning. The revised plan is to switch to a "PowerCommander 3 with there optional Hub and MAP sensor". Then upgrade the ECU to a custom mapped ECU done by TuneBoy of Austrialia (my friend Todd Patterson is working TuneBoy currently). The PowerCommander will be much more welcome at the dynos and they do offer some additional advantages like their LCD display.

Click Here for "Phase Two" production blog and photo's.

The name "HYPERKЯOMO" came from the name "Chromo" monsters Ducati produced in the 90's, combinded with the name HyperMotard (with spelling influse from the band "KOЯN").

Of course this project isn't done. I don't think any of my projects are ever actually done (just sometimes abandoned). I will continue to update the blogs with new information and photos as the project progresses.

As Seen On:
DucatiNewsToday.com