The L’Avventura by Walt Siegl Motorcycles is a new low-volume production bike, designed from the ground up to be highly competent both on and off the asphalt. With a kerb weight of 345 lbs, a tuned 1100cc Ducati L-twin, and state-of-the-art suspension, the L’Avventura is more than capable of wiping the floor with many high-end production adventure bikes.
Meet Walt Siegl
Walt left art school at the age of 19 and found work in a train yard in France, over the course of the next few years the young Austrian was trained up as a toolmaker, and worked in this capacity in Germany and Italy.
It was whilst working at an Austrian steel company that he was transferred to Moscow – where he joined the Austrian Foreign Service. He was so adept at his new career that he was given a coveted transfer to New York in 1985 to promote contemporary Austrian art and culture for the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Decades after first arriving he left New York in 2007 to move with his family to a picturesque old mill town in southern New Hampshire, and he began building motorcycles as a full time business. His famously elegant custom motorcycles are now in demand around the world – with 60+ having been delivered to customers from Australia, America, France, Canada, and further afield.
Walt is one of those rare custom builders you wish you could place in a head designer position at a marque like Ducati or Harley-Davidson. The motorcycles that roll out of his New Hampshire workshop look like production motorcycles from an alternative reality where design and engineering are more important than inexpensive mass-production or the need to appeal to the lowest common denominator.
The Walt Siegl L’Avventura Production Bike
The L’Avventura was designed from scratch to be Walt’s interpretation of the perfect adventure motorcycle. As with many of his builds, it’s powered by a comprehensively rebuilt, air-cooled 1100cc Ducati L-twin with ample torque and excellent reliability.
A new trellis frame is a beefed up unit from a Ducati Hypermotard, coupled to a new alloy swing arm, a crash cage around the front of the engine, and an alloy bash plate that’s tougher than Keith Richards.
The bodywork is full Kevlar, it was designed and produced at Walt Siegl Motorcycles specifically for this model. Walt wanted it to be modern, but also to evoke the spirit of the adventure rally motorcycles of the ’80s and ’90s. There are twin Hella LED headlights up front, the left headlight is a contrasting yellow that’s hidden behind a Hella cover unless it’s needed.
Up front there’s a hefty Showa inverted fork with weight specific internals and a 26 degree steering neck, at the rear there’s a 13 degree double-sided swing arm bolted to an adjustable Öhlins monoshock. Wheels are 21″ at the front and 17″ at the rear, both clad in knobby tires, with front and rear Brembo brakes.
Holding adequate fuel can be a tribulation for some adventure bikes, so Walt designed the L’Avventura with twin aluminum fuel cells, one in the traditional location and one within the subframe – the total combined capacity is 6.5 gallons (24.6 litres). The two cells are connected with a quick disconnect line that’s designed to be large enough to drain fuel from the primary to the secondary when you’re filling up at the gas station, so you don’t have to wait for it to glug down before topping it off.
Seats on adventure bikes are more important than on many other motorcycles – as you’re likely to have your tail parked on it for long periods of time over varied terrain. Walt designed the seat on the L’Avventura with ample width and a modern foam compound, then upholstered it with a grippy waterproof vinyl to stop riders sliding, and allow them to shift their weight forward or backward as needed.
The large GPS unit on the bike is centrally located above the gauges, and it can be removed to provide you with directions when you’re on foot too if needed.
By the end of this year, Walt Siegl Motorcycles with have four production bikes – the Leggero, the Bol d’Or, the L’Avventura, and a new (still top secret) superbike that they’re now putting the finishing touches on.
If you’d like to read more about the L’Avventura to order one for your next adventure you can click here to visit Walt Siegl Motorcycles.
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Hat Tip – Asphalt and Rubber
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
