Source: BikeEXIF –
Naked, supermoto, streetfigher, café racer, super-naked — whatever you want to call it (we’re leaning toward super-naked) — this 2008 KTM RC8 that recently rolled out of Deus Ex Machina’s garage is stark, uncompromising, and muscular. Where the stock RC8 is a fully faired superbike, albeit with some snarling angular character, it’s a race bike through and through. It’s more of a fencer — a scorekeeper, so to speak. “The Scrappier,” as our featured bike is known, is a cage fighter — less about the numbers and more about the experience.
When the bike landed in the shop, the intention of Michael “Woolie” Woolaway, Deus’ in-house builder, was to turn this track-ready superbike into a ’roided out supermoto with Deus’ unique custom flavor. This was no easy task, as the geometry and purpose of a superbike is vastly different than a supermoto. A supermoto is almost always built from a dirt bike base with ample suspension travel and often a small displacement engine. A superbike does one thing really well: accelerate and maneuver on tarmac.
A supermoto has to do everything well — or as well as possible given its “jack of all trades, master of none” lot in life. Supermotos are like the ADD kids of motorcycling. This didn’t stop Woolie from stepping up to the plate.
While the name of the bike is The Scrappier, it’s not the hodgepodge bin bike that the moniker might suggest. You’ll find no scrap parts, bargain junk, or misplaced components here. No, we’ll have to jump to the word’s secondary meaning to find out what Woolie and crew were thinking when they named the bike: “determined, argumentative, or pugnacious,” says the dictionary. We agree — it’s like a fighter throwing off his gloves.
At 151 hp, the 1150cc V-twin engine is putting out enough horsepower to punish any road it may meet. And though the RC8 may seem a peculiar specimen for a supermoto iteration, the critical acclaim for its stunning all-around performance begs to differ. It likely won’t be seeing 30-foot tabletops anyhow — though with the right rider we wouldn’t be surprised if it sprouted wings just to prove a point.
Though The Scrappier is an animal, some of its more brutish and jagged design elements have been smoothed out, giving it a more sensual yet somehow equally aggressive aesthetic. The tank, radiator shrouds, and tail were all handmade out of aluminum. Where the tank is a nod to more classic shapes, the other bodywork only vaguely echoes this ethos, instead opting for a more organic look that is no less contemporary than what it replaced.
The seat is a standout feature that, at first blush, seems startling and a bit awkward with a space between the frame and the base of the seat. But once your eyes adjust, the lines start to work, and the two springs become a complementary visual element. The “poison apple” paint features multi-layer approach that transitions from red to dark purple to black depending on the environment, bringing to mind the way its supermoto kin adapt to their varied terrain. The result is familiar yet fresh, radical yet restrained.
The Scrappier is a figment of its former self, but its heart is still in there somewhere, beating like a carnivorous hummingbird tearing from one gas pump to the next. Where supermoto is a mix of road racing, motocross, and flat track, we get the feeling this supermotard cousin won’t be doing much mud wrestling. But so what if The Scrappier has an aversion to getting dirt under its fingernails? With a bike this cool and capable, who’s keeping score?
This article first appeared in issue 024 of Iron & Air Magazine, and is reproduced here under license.
Words by Gregory George Moore | Images by Nevin Pontious
