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Filed under: Aftermarket, Motorcycle

Roland Sands, champion motorcycle racer and founder of Roland Sands Design, is turning his wrenches and sketchpad loose on the Ducati Desmosedici RR – the very rare and expensive street version of the MotoGP racer.

At $72,500 apiece, Ducati’s entire North American run of 500 bikes sold out in five hours. One of Sands’ customers has three in his collection, and one of those is getting a flat-track makeover.

The bike in question has zero miles on it, so performing this transformation is an act of sacrilege in the eyes of the Ducati faithful. The tear-down and fabrication process on the Desmo is only just underway. The final product will be either an amazing machine gone nuclear-hot or a trashed masterpiece. We can’t wait to see how things turn out.

[Source: Roland Sands Design]

Roland Sands working on custom Ducati Desmosedici street tracker originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 12 Mar 2011 16:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Government/Legal, Safety, Technology

So, now that we know it is legal for the FBI to place GPS trackers on cars without a warrant, the next logical question is, how often does it happen? We can’t say for sure, but the recent experience of 20-year-old U.S. student Yasir Afifi leads us to believe it’s taking place more often that we’d like to think.

Afifi, who is an American citizen born here in the States with an Egyptian father, brought his Lincoln LS sedan to a mechanic who put it up on a lift. There, underneath the car, was an odd cylindrical tube connected to a device with an antenna. It wasn’t a bomb, but it was a tracking device.

A friend took pictures of the device and put it up on the interwebs… which led to a gaggle of police officers and FBI agents showing up at Afifi’s apartment complex in California asking for their device back… sternly. “We’re going to make this much more difficult for you if you don’t cooperate.”

A tad worrisome, no? Says Afifi, “It seems very frightening that the FBI have placed a surveillance-tracking device on the car of a 20-year-old American citizen who has done nothing more than being half-Egyptian.” We agree… but it apparently doesn’t violate the 4th Amendment.

Turns out Afifi has nothing to worry about. “You’re boring,” said an unidentified agent. This is one of those rare cases where being boring is a rather good thing.

[Source: Wired via Engadget]

Report: Student finds GPS tracker stuck to car, FBI asks for it back originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 08 Oct 2010 15:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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