A modern-retro masterpiece

The crew at Roland Sands Design build some dream-worthy bikes. We’ve had a blown up poster of their RSD Desmo Tracker in the Bullitt garage for nearly a decade now. RSD does an amazing job on any of their builds but taking some fast Italian bikes and making them look even cooler, seems to be something they nail every time. Enter the RSD MV Agusta Dragster 800 RR. They taken an already quick and sexy bike, and turned it into something truly lust-worthy.

RSD MV Agusta Dragster 800 RR

Words below from Roland Sands Designs

Commissioned builds are always fun and challenging. It’s a subtle dance amalgamating styles, input, design, and vision. Ultimately it boils down to communication and trust. Depending on the client’s style and or level of care, you can lean on one harder than the other. Luckily RSD has collaborated with this client on previous projects, and they’ve all been positive, so we felt confident to take liberties with the overall look and design.

This build started life as a 2015 MV Agusta Brutale Dragster 800RR and straight from the Varese factory the Brutale is designed to shred. 800cc of howling triple-cylinder goodness jammed in a compact GP like chassis. As with all our performance builds, maintaining a fully functional machine, and improving that performance are paramount in our process. With the MV Dragster, our goal was to bring a classic aesthetic to the platform while maintaining the MV’s racer spirit.

“The RSD MV Agusta Dragster 800 RR was made to eat asphalt and look good doing it.” – RSD

We began by replacing the top triple clamp and standard upright handlebars with a set of clip-ons more apt to manage canyon carver duties. The subframe was hand fabricated with Chromoly-tapered tubing, the same tubing used to construct BMX bikes. The one-off subframe also set the stage for the rest of the bodywork. We set a beautiful straight line through the bike, which maintained the new aesthetic from front to back. The shape of the entirely handmade aluminum gas tank was built in the spirit of championed MV racers of the past. However, we added a modern twist by replacing the typical twist off gas cap with a modern, quick fill style endurance racing fuel filler.

The front light was ditched in favor of a modern minimalist café style light and complimented with a handbuilt aluminum shroud following the lines of the tank and tail and capturing that racer essence. The radiator shrouds were also fabricated out of aluminum and then re-popped in carbon. A custom set of Roland Sands Design forged racing wheels were machined from blank billet aluminum using the standard MV hub design.

RSD MV Agusta Dragster 800 RR

The wheels were then covered in a Cerakote “Blue Titanium H-185” finish by Specialized Coatings. Specialized also coated MV’s trellis frame and custom subframe in the same “Blue Titanium” to match. Using MV’s hub design allowed us to take advantage of the beautiful architecture of the stock single-sided swingarm showcasing the intricate design details of the wheel while giving the bike an un-obscured splash of color.

RSD MV Agusta Dragster 800 RR
Performance details are continued with the Brembo nickel GP racing calipers front and back coupled with RSD radial masters on the controls. Bitchin Rich stitched up a custom grippier suede Café seat. GP suspension rebuilt the forks and coated them in a slick black finish replacing the stock red fork tubes, which no longer matched the bikes’ more subtle color pallet. The custom Aquamarine RSD wheels are wrapped in sticky Dunlop Sportmax Q4’s. At the moment, no one makes a full system for the Brutale, so our friends Zard fabricated the unique custom header and exhaust in full titanium, ensuring the MV would scream when commanded.

The paint process and color scheme presented its own set of challenges. Getting the design perfect and ensuring the lines were straight required an extra trip to Chris Woods shop in Santa Barbara. Chris applied the precise taped linework on the freshly painted base job. The team at Airtrix did a brilliant job with the detailing, somehow color matching the Cerakote “Blue Titanium” used on the stripes which were meticulously laid over eggshell white, giving the bike a sort of Lux-Race feel. They got us the bodywork back just in time to complete the project and make our deadline for the One Moto Show in Portland.

RSD MV Agusta Dragster 800 RR

The final product is an ultra-modern and performance-based take on a classic café racer and is as fun to ride as it is beautiful to look at. Unfortunately, this one of one masterpiece has already found its home and is being thoroughly flogged and enjoyed by its new owner. However, RSD is giving you a chance to own a bit of the same build quality and design superiority found in all of our hard parts and custom build projects with the limited edition RSD MV Dragster T-shirt.