CAFÉ RACER 76: PopBang Classics

Hailing from the Gold Coast, this 1982 Suzuki GS450 has been a huge labour of love for the custom outfit PopBang Classics. I tried to think of a witty anecdote to sum up the amount of time and effort that has been put into this bike but basically you’d just say ‘a shitload, at it’s not even their bike!’

Justin is the man of the hour and explains the process of turning this ugly duckling into the ball room beauty the best. “ When this little bike got dropped off at PopBang, the first thought was ‘what the hell am I going to do with this?’ The owner had just bought it for $300 and it was a mess. It had the oddly mounted GS square fuel tank with added swastika’s! The very 80’s star shaped rims, A pair of homemade Z-Bars that looked like they had been run over by an 18 wheeler and then mounted. A set of rear shocks with no springs and a bird’s nest of wiring. So as you can imagine, a lot of it got put in the bin.

The direction from the owner was to make an all-black brat\bobber… and that was it. But I hate completely black bikes as it hides the details and they look like every other garage bike that’s been attacked with a rattle can. So I took creative control and that’s where the brass idea can from, leading to endless hours polishing nuts and cutting threads! Every part of this bike was either made, modified, polished or painted in house at PopBang Classics except for the custom seat pan that got covered by Gold Coast Truck & Auto Upholstery and the wheels were laced up by Ash’s Spoked Wheels.

The bike took 7 months to complete. Most of that time was dedicated to finding the materials and parts to make it just right. The whole bike snowballed pretty quickly once the ideas started flowing. I wanted it to be something different, something you look at and don’t just say ‘that’s a bobber’ or that’s a ‘café racer’ you sit back, stare and say ‘that’s cool…what is it?’ The point of the bike and PopBang in general is to not follow the general trends or fall into a category, but create something that will stand out and not look out of place in years to come.”