~ Auto Buzz ~: CUSTOM & STYLE: Mad Jap Kustoms Ducati GT1000 Dale Yamada’s Unicorn is a V-twin “with a completely different character.”

Mad Jap Kustoms Ducati GT1000 static side view

Unicorns might be mythical, but don’t tell builder Dale Yamada. He has one. His isn’t a fairy tale beast, though. Yamada’s Unicorn is an all white, rigid-framed, Panhead-powered chopper that skews perceptions. Aboard this anti-chopper chopper, he has piled on more than 30,000 miles. With bedroll, camping gear and a jerry can of gasoline strapped to the sissy bar, he rides. And rides the bike hard. A former roadracer now better known as Mad Jap Kustoms, Yamada is based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Let’s just say he enjoys coloring outside of the lines. Over the last 10 years, he’s focused on constructing choppers from the frame up that evoke the 1970s. They’re painted in chemical-candy hues, and are powered by finely tuned Knucklehead, Panhead and Shovelhead engines. But when Tyler Knight showed up with a bone-stock 2006 Ducati GT1000, Yamada had an opportunity to revisit his go-fast roots.

Mad Jap Kustoms Ducati GT1000 on the road action

Knight wanted something different—a Ducati that couldn’t be put together using bolt-on parts. He’d asked around various shops looking for input but they all showed him the same catalogs. That’s when he heard about Yamada, and delivered the GT1000 to Mad Jap Kustoms. Yamada doesn’t have any catalogs. Everything is handmade and one-off. Like the gas tank. The original overpowered the stock Ducati, so Yamada started with a sheet of aluminum and cut, bent, hammered, and welded together a new one, followed by a tail section to hide the battery and electronics. The non-conventional muffler is Yamada’s middle-finger salute to normalcy. “Instead of using catalog parts, why not just put a big muffler box under the seat—there’s really no rhyme or reason to it except to make it a focal point,” Yamada says. “It’s something goofy that gives people something to talk about.” Inspired by the engine bay of turbo-powered cars, Yamada pieced together a twisted network of stainless steel tubing to connect the exhaust ports to the muffler. Instead of solid brackets, Heim joints support the structure. “I didn’t know if this was all going to work or how well the engine would run, but it sounds cool, and it doesn’t have any hesitation, bogging, or flat spots. It was a fluke. If it hadn’t worked out, I would have just started over and that’s part of the joy of building a bike.”

Mad Jap Kustoms Ducati GT1000 muffler box close-up

None of the frame rails were altered, and what’s surprising about the Ducati is how many components are stock: the brakes, clip-ons, hand controls, headlight, front fender, swingarm, engine (minus the belt guards), and wheels. Knight’s Mad Jap-modified GT1000 has been on the track, and on the highway. According to the Motogadget instrumentation, Knight just added another 500 miles after a road trip to visit family in Kimberley, British Columbia. Yamada, the Unicorn-riding chopper builder, says, “I love working on sportbikes, which is ironic, because all my builds are V-twin choppers. This Ducati is simply the ‘other’ V-twin, one with a completely different character.”