This is the bike that started “GpMucci” in the early 2000s, this article is from 2014, re-paginated in 2024 on the occasion of the website redesign.

I bought this Africa Twin RD03 with all its markings.

It was in good mechanical condition but very used. I was looking for it exactly like this because I didn’t want to be afraid of using it off-road. I wanted to be willing to drop it down a hill or abandon it in the woods if I couldn’t get away with it. It’s been almost ten years and they really cost less than now. First I fitted her with a different exhaust.

One Saturday, after kneeing the tank twice, I decided to make some changes and took almost all of it apart.

Doing some research I discovered that the Transalp superstructures could be adapted quite well so I took the plunge.

I wanted something lighter than my Africa Twin, so I bought a Transalp 600 seat and tank, which to my surprise fit perfectly!

So I put it together just to try it out and see how it went.

Ugly ugly. But effective.

So I started working hard to finish it as best I could. They were the first jobs I did where I had to invent everything. It’s not easy, I realize that when you start everything is complex. I finished the saddle as best I could and had it upholstered by Tapezzeria Serra in Bologna, who made almost all my saddles from then on, and a friend of mine painted the tank for me.

The bike ran really well, there were parts that didn’t convince me.

The fork was not bad, certainly sturdy, but of cheap quality, and the skid plate which was too large compared to the actual dimensions of the engine was horrendous.

And then I had the radiators exposed, so I started doing further experiments and honing my construction skills.

I had a lot of fun with this version, I wasn’t afraid of destroying the radiators and the bike ran like a charm. I also fitted a long saddle.

I liked it a lot when it was slim like that, it was agile, light and fun.

But you know. It wasn’t definitive, so I started thinking about a Rally fairing that I adapted to the bike in a slim version.

First fairing, blue eyes spotlights. Fun bike.

Never happy and since they wanted to buy me all the parts of the bike I gave them away and did it all over again, with sturdier and thicker aluminum and a new fairing.

One summer I made her fat for a couple of trips, then I made her skinny again.

The bike ran in various configurations and with different riders and was really beautiful and fun to ride. He still lives and in the summer of 2014 he did 6000km of off-road driving in Iceland.

The weight of the bike in the final version stood at 178 kg, compared to 220 when I picked it up and it was a pleasure to ride.

Here are a couple of low definition videos of Bianchina in action, dating back almost 20 years.