samedi 19 janvier 2013
DUCATI ST2 CUSTOM BY RADICAL DUCATI
I’ve made this comparison before, but Radical Ducati is to motorcycles what Skunk Works is to aircraft. The Spanish garage has been taking stock Ducatis and turning them into two wheeled missiles for years now and as such they’ve earned a deserved reputation as the single greatest custom Ducati garage in the world.
This bike started life as a stock Ducati ST2, the ST2 was built between ’97 and ’03 and had a 944cc L-twin cylinder engine, a 6 speed transmission, a tubular trellis frame and a weight of 212kgs. This heavily customised version of the ST2 looks like a totally different animal, the original bike was a sport tourer but this Radical Ducati version is a track based monster capable of teaching even new, production bikes a few tricks around the track.
The sheer number of custom, hand made elements on this bike is mesmerising. If you’d like a list of mods and to see some more pictures of the bike, click the link here to visit Radical Ducati.
CAFE RACER BY GOINGS MOTO
Chad Goings, owner of Goings Moto, recently set out on his own after doing an internship at Radical Ducati in Madrid. From a cafe racer perspective, an internship at Radical is the exact equivalent of a budding aircraft engineer doing an internship at Skunk Works – The intern in question is going to learn some incredible things and may or may not get a chance to pass the sound barrier.
This bike is Chad’s first foray into building cafe racers with his own two hands, he’s gone for a minimalist approach which we always love and he’s chosen to build a Honda CB550 – which is easily one of the most “cafe-able” vintage motorcycles in the world.
The bike arrived in the workshop with a pre-fitted Benjies Cafe Racer tank and seat, Chad decided to keep them in place and develop the bike around them – he added a custom, curved sub-frame and an eye-catching alternator cover that has been CNC milled to bear the CG logo.
After rebuilding the engine thoroughly he set about reducing unsprung weight, this led to the rear drum cover getting drilled and any remaining elements of the bike that weren’t utterly essential were tossed. The finished bike is a case-study in 21st century cafe racers – it’s clean, quick, minimalist and has the look of a motorcycle that’ll never go out of style.
Alfa Romeo TZ1: The 'baby GTO'
Yes, ‘baby GTO’ and ‘little jewel’ are epithets often given to Alfa Romeo’s 1,570cc GT car of the early 60s. Just over 110 were built and, like its big brother from Maranello, it became a dominant force on the race track. It also looked fabulous.
The TZ (‘T’ for its tubulare chassis, ‘Z’ for Zagato) superseded the already successful SZ series of customer racing Alfas. It was, though, a very different car.
Despite being revealed in its final form at the 1963 Geneva Show, the car had been under development since the late 1950s. Early prototypes included a roadster with hard-top and a coupé that was similar to the final version, yet carried rectangular lights.
The engine was Alfa Romeo’s trusted 1,570cc, four-cylinder DOHC unit from the Giulia, slightly canted-over in its installation to lower the bonnet line. The familiar TZ power-bulge covers one cam cover. With twin Weber carbs, a twin-plug head and tuning by such specialists as Virgilio Conrero, the little motor pushed out 160bhp. A 5-speed gearbox was standard.
Zagato produced the body and interior trimmings, and the car was assembled by Carlo Chiti’s Auto-Delta (later ‘Autodelta’) organisation for Alfa Romeo. Chiti, the generously proportioned engineer who had masterminded the ‘shark-nose’ F1 cars for Ferrari, had left the Maranello company in 1961.
Its hand-beaten, streamlined aluminium bodywork, coupled with a tubular frame weighing just 62kg, meant that despite its modest engine size a TZ was a very fast car. (As an aside, the last three TZ1s built had glassfibre bodywork by Balzaretti and Modigliani of Milan – a saving of 25kg.)
The little cars soon saw action on the track. In October 1963 TZs finished first to fourth at Monza — their debut — and for the next few years the 1300–1600cc class at Le Mans, the Nürburgring, the Tour de France Automobile and the Targa Florio was usually a TZ benefit. It was a useful rally car as well as a successful racer.
Famous drivers to have won in TZs include Lorenzo Bandini, Giancarlo Baghetti, Consalvo Sanesi and Roberto Bussinello. Nowadays, the cars are highly prized in historic racing, being eligible for the Le Mans Classic and the modern Tour Auto, as well as occasional invitations to race at the Goodwood Revival.
The TZ1 you see here was built in March 1965 and, in period, spent most of its racing life in France. Now available from Classic Driver dealer William I’Anson, the impeccably prepared racing car has a thoroughly researched history and has also made the odd concours appearance at events such as the 2011 Salon Privé.
Finally, you will see references to ‘TZ’ and ‘TZ1’ – what’s all that about? In October 1964 Elio Zagato presented a new version, the ‘TZ2’. In doing so, earlier TZs should now be referred to as 'TZ1's. The TZ2 was an even more desirable car – that we will tell you about another day.
| Related Links For further details on this car for sale, please visit the Classic Driver Marketplace You can also see other cars from William I'Anson in the Classic Driver Marketplace And for more of Tim Scott's fantastic classic motor racing photos, visit www.fluidimages.co.uk |
Text: Steve Wakefield (ClassicDriver)
Photos: William I'Anson Ltd / Tim Scott
"ED" Norton Café Racer
1971 Norton Commando re-built cafe racer by Kim Boyle using several custom components from the best names in the field. Images via The Return of Cafe Racers and BCM Blog (the latter featuring the Jose Gallina's shots above).
by Inazuma Luke
Honda GL200 Café Racer - 'Dolores'
Sometimes we receive bikes that have something more capitivating than stunning looks. Something more powerful than the number of horses they output. Something more impressive than the number of hours that have been spent building the bike. They have a great story. A story that is more fundamental to the build than any other part on the bike. This is one of them, and this story starts like many others on this site, person buys rusty old donor bike for next to nothing and decides to resurrect it into a beautiful little café racer. This is where the story differs from others. This time the owners Dad had seen the start of the project and had heard of the plans his son had for the bike, but unfortunately due to cancer, he didn't know whether he will be alive when the bike was finished. But this is the kicker, the day before his father dies he says to his son "your bike will be amazing, and I'll see it from the sky". So this is the story of a bike built in memory of a father who unfortunately didn't get to see his sons dream of owning a custom motorcycle...
The name of the owner is Arya Pratama and the name of the bike is 'Dolores'. Arya named the bike 'Dolores' because it means pain or sorrows in latin, and under the circumstances it has been a very painful time for him. First of all, Arya enlisted the skills of his good friend Rio from twenixmotorcycle in Jakarta, Indonesia. Rio has a great reputation as a custom builder in his local area. "Arya asked me to build a classic café racer and it should look like a greyhound dog" Rio says. "The bike is 1994 Honda GL 200, here we call it a Honda Tiger. When I saw the bike for the first, damn this bike is so ugly! It had a wrecked rear frame, oil leaking everywhere and many other missing or broken parts." Arya paid $400 for the bike, which still seems like a lot of money in Indonesian standards.
"I started customising the rear frame to make it straight" says Rio. "Then, I changed the front fork from broken upside-down forks to the original front fork. I then pplaced 18 inch rims for the front and rear wheels, with 4.00 tires. I then used clubman bars to give it the classic look. The head light, tail light and the turn signal are all aftermarket parts."
The gas tank, seat, side cover, front fender and exhaust of the bike have been hand made from sheet metal by Rio. "All fully made by hand, using hammer and iron" he says. "Because it's not easy to find special tools for customs here, like english wheel etc." The engine has been sandblasted to make a raw texture and then finished with black paint and polished fin edges. The Number 7 on the seat hump was one of the finishing touches –choosing the number 7 because it has always brought him lots of luck.
This little café racer gave us a smile just looking at it, so we're sure Arya hasn't stopped grinning riding it around the streets of Jakata. We're also sure Arya's dad has got an even greater smile looking down from the sky admiring his sons dream bike. We'll leave you with a quote from Arya "I'm so satisfied with this build, finally my dream has come true, my dad would be very proud."
from pipeburn
DSR Honda GP 250R Cafe Racer by Darrell Schneider
There are many people in the world who think and work for concepts such as creativity and inspiration. Someone just refuses to awaken a creative flair, others just watching what happens around, sometimes allowing himself momentarily distracted from everyday life, but there are people who live on this and generating unusual ideas and awakening into new talents. The latter, Darrell Schneider of DS Restorations allowed himself after 25 years experience of restoration cars and switch to take the motorcycle on which he previously could just ride in them periodically pouring gasoline.
As a start Darrell decided to build around Cafe Racer crossover CRF250R. To come up with the motorcycle design, he literally searched through all of Google and down, looking at hundreds of different designs from famous artists such as Ron Woods, Roland Sands, Richard Pollack & Marcus Motos. He designed a new motorcycle that was called DSR GP 250R Cafe Racer.
CRF250R four-stroke motocross engine Darrell sat in an aluminum frame-house, which he, along with all the associated elements of the motorcycle, such as the frame, seat, battery case, the frame trim tank and tail, very own metal. RaceTech Suspension and Front suspension got on perfectly cast as the rear shock from an expert on motorcycles for mud racing Durelle Racing – together they keep the bike on the 17-inch wheels Sun, wearing tires Michelin. As for the exhaust, it is installed on a motorcycle titanium system from Arrow Special Parts, has lost one of the cans – Darrell just do not like how “fat” looking bikes with dual exhaust behind.
Let the result looks unusual, but it was such a mixture of various styles and technologies, expressed in Cafe Racer DSR GP 250R Cafe Racer is creativity, which we mentioned at the beginning of the note. Darrell did not wish to stop here and continue to develop the talents!
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