Old Glories by AEM Factory

Once upon a time… shall we?

When social media weren’t even a thing, there were online discussion forums and, one very popular here in Italy for Ducati lovers, was called DucatiMonsterClub, DMC in short. That’s where this all began without even knowing back then, early 2000s!

Our (now) CEO and Head of Design Alberto Mantegazzini was a member of that forum and, spending countless hour discussing good old Monster tuning, customizing options and various other ideas, in October 2004 he started a topic called “A.E.M. (Anonima Elaboratori Monster)” which, roughly translated, sounds like “Anonymous Monster Tuners”. Believe it or not: IT’S STILL ONLINE, he’s the OP!

They spent a lot of time talking about what parts existed and where could be found and, trust us, choices other than Ducati Performance catalogue, were little to none, internet wasn’t much of your friend for online shopping.

Stuff like exhausts were not difficult to find, but available cnc parts were just a few and very “primitive” so, in this scenario, something sparked inside Alberto who picked up 3d design almost as an hobby. His skills grew quickly and his first projects were ambitious already, triple clamps and rearsets, back then those were basically the “holy grail” when modifying a Monster, together with a set of forged wheels, literally unicorns in that era that required a hefty amount of money if you wanted to put your hands on them. Soon after he realized there was an opportunity and around 2006/2007 he was quite known in the community: people started asking different parts, tailored to their taste, one-offs basically.

But AEM Factory didn’t exist yet, it was him designing at home and a local workshop that would machine his parts. The little snowball started rolling: it was an exciting time because Tamburini series were iconic already, first single-sided equipped Monsters had just been introduced, the bikes were uber-successful and, the global interest around the Italian powerful naked was growing more and more.

Other brands now very popular, were either moving their first steps, often converting already existing machining workshops to motorcycle parts’ production, or didn’t even exist; but it was around 2010 that all of them actually began their adventure as full time Ducati aftermarket parts manufacturers, and that’s when AEM Factory was founded too.

History time is over, let’s take a look at some old glories… unfortunately quite a lot of pics went lost forever because documenting everything wasn’t an habit (Instagram? What?), but we succeeded finding some of them buried in some sub-sub-sub folders of our hard drives.

Summer 2010: the craziness of this bike was through the roof, you would never guess what kind of literally handmade mash-up this was! An old Multistrada butchered&welded frame/swing-arm assembly, insane racing forks and brake setup, Hypermotard 1100 modified carbon fairings, custom full titanium exhaust and a squeezed 1098 SBK engine with completely redesigned intake. For this feast of custom parts and precious materials, we adapted an highly adjustable set of Hypermotard 1100 rearsets with eccentric regulation system and a complete sprocket kit, that was our most requested part already, hard anodized, a finish very appreciated in the past for its racing look. Every now and then we still offer some parts in that color as custom option, we call it RS – Race Spec.

November 2013: our first time to shine, EICMA – International Bike Exhibition.

We brought two bikes there to show the world what we could offer to customers: a Diavel Carbon and a Monster 1100S, and in our fashion, we flooded the booth with colored aluminum parts, carbon fiber and titanium. The Diavel had elegant custom airbrushed graphics too, but the Monster 1100 in that lifted position on our desk stole the show; we were still a relatively small brand but this bike caught everyone’s attention. Alberto, once the bike assembly was completed with our catalogue’s parts, as a self proclaimed “Porsche addict” and driver, had the idea of merging his two biggest passions, Italian bikes and Stuttgart-made cars: as a funny tribute to the Porsche 917/20 “Pink Pig”, our “Monster 1100 Purzel” was born. And, no need to say, full carbon see-through fairings were used instead of OEM plastic ones: we loved the final result so much that these pink memorabilia are still on display inside glass cases here at our factory.

On the technical side, we got a set of forged magnesium wheels from Marvic, Öhlins FG-R/T43 forks with mono-block Brembo calipers, Ducati Racing 4-springs dry slippery clutch with magnesium crankcase covers, a complete titanium custom under-tail exhaust and a few other bits here and there. But AEM Factory range for this bike was very complete: you can see slanted triple clamps kit, our adjustable rearsets, our trifecta caps’ kit, aluminum brake/clutch levers and, if someone wouldn’t have stolen them overnight, a set of bar-end weights. Well visible on the hallway side there was our lightweight sprocket kit (go configure one for your bike now!), once again completely upgraded with titanium hardware. What a beast!

In the following picture you can see the very first version of what later became our famous titanium brake/clutch fluid reservoirs. In this early stages of development, they had a no-frills-stripped-down aesthetic, they had a different size, no colored bezel and push-down cap.  Now completely revisited, and available for all Ducati bikes both made from titanium and aluminum too.

November 2014: EICMA here we go again! Following 2013 success we decided to show again the Diavel Carbon and a racetrack-ready 1199S owned by a friend we fully customized for him. Unfortunately we can’t find other detailed pics but those who came to visit for sure can remember how crazy good both bikes were!

Clicking on the links you can see what parts we still offer for these two glories of the past, quite a few actually: Diavel – SBK 1199