There's long been a British tradition of building specials, bikes that combine the very best available in engines and running gear into mouth-watering hand-crafted street bikes. At the forefront of British special builders are people like Steve Dobby who appears to have dedicated himself to building something just a little faster, just a little sharper handling than anything else, and is prepared to make only the slightest nod in the direction of legal requirements to pursue his goal.

Steve has owned a string of big Japanese bikes and claims an undying fondness for the GSXR1100, of which he currently owns one example used as a hack. His real love for the past two years has been this unique Spondon framed Ducati 916, which I managed to photograph on the day it left to meet its new owner to make way for Steve's next project (of which more later).

Steve bought the bike as a running project from Glyn at Gleve Engineering in Huddersfield. Gleve Engineering specialise in supplying and tuning Ducatis for the racetrack, and have strong links with Spondon Engineering. The bike is more or less unique as, at the time of writing, Spondon have only supplied three frames to take the big Ducati V twin; the other two are race bikes and are not road legal, and one of those is in France. So you are looking at what is probably the only road legal Spondon Ducati 916 in the world.

To make things even more exclusive, the frame was originally made to take one of the older air-cooled 900 V twins, and getting this engine to fit required some imaginative engineering to shoehorn everything in (the rear cylinder head has only 3mm clearance between it and the frame). The engine itself is actually something of a hybrid, being based on a Ducati 906 Paso bottom end with 2 valve 916 cylinders and heads. The compression ratio has been raised by skimming the heads (but Steve wouldn't disclose by how much); Gleve Engineering ported and polished the heads, and were also responsible for the one-off stainless steel exhaust system with carbon-fibre end cans. Carburation is by a single downdraft Weber carburettor with choke sizes of 50mm and the whole plot is cooled by Spondon's own hand-made alloy radiator.

The Ducati 888 wheels are suspended at the front by 42mm Marzocchi MR1 forks in 916 yokes, and at the rear by an Ohlins gas shock in Spondon's own swinging arm. Braking all round is by Brembo Goldline calipers, the front 916 discs are floating and the size of dinner plates. Though I didn't get chance to ride it this thing it obviously stops as well as it goes.

All the way through, this bike shows great dedication to keeping weight down whatever the cost. The fuel tank is hand beaten from aluminium, and the replica 916 fairing and 888 seat cowl, as well as more obvious items like the front mudguard, are all specially made from carbon fibre. In the quest for even less weight, some of the engine covers have also been replicated in carbon fibre; check out that lovely clutch cover.

Steve, a paint sprayer by trade, applied the gorgeous fire-engine red paint and computer cut graphics to the tank and bodywork, and has since invested in huge quantities of metal polish to keep that beautiful alloy frame as gleaming as you see it here. His helmet is sprayed to match, and bears the legend "Mad In England", usually interpreted as a spelling mistake but actually quite an accurate representation. Although not used as daily transport, Steve does ride this bike hard and it is no stranger to the Isle Of Man. His liking for performing burn-outs, wheelies and stoppies outside the local pub is legendary, and he has the dubious reputation of being one of the few people to break a Spondon frame when he cracked a top suspension mount after a particularly impressive stoppy.

The other great love of Steve's life are his Land-Rovers, and he didn't feel the bike was complete without a touch of Land-Rover to make it feel like his. Check out the tail lights, housed on a special one-off mounting made as a favour by Steve's mate.

As a fairly recent convert to Spondons, Steve now feels like he has discovered the Holy Grail and, given the slightest provocation, will wax lyrical for hours about finding ultimate motorcycle nirvana in a mixture of limitless power and ultra light weight. Watching him effortlessly lift the back of the bike with one hand, then listening to the deep roar of the mighty vee-twin as he took off into the late afternoon traffic I could see his point...

And next for Steve? The Ducati was sold on the day I took these photos to finance his next project, a Spondon GSXR1100 in a full race frame with a motor tuned to produce somewhere in the region of 170 b.h.p. The bits are in his shed now and he's promised to keep me posted as work progresses. Watch this space.

Rod Gibson