Tom’s XJ550

Inspired by the likes of the Wrench Monkees and Cafe Racer Dreams (clearly a man of good taste) Tom Nadin decided to take his skills as a Design Engineer and turn this ebay-sourced Yamaha XJ550 into a stripped-down badass little Brat-style custom. He wanted the bike to be clean and simple; not ‘too showy’ and no bling. Good man.

The bike isn’t Tom’s first build, having put together a Ducati Sport 1000 for his dad and Triumph Thruxton for himself, which was recently sold after being featured as MCN’s bike of the day.

The XJ550 was stripped down on the weekend he picked it up and the forks and wheels were painted black. Turning his attention to the tank, Tom decided to fill-in the tank logo to provide a bare canvas for the Ford Polaris Grey paint. The tracker-style number 3 decal celebrates the bike as being his third build, and is lacquered-in.

The satin black painted frame was cut short and a loop welded at the back to accommodate the seat, which was made by a local car trimmer and covered in Jaguar MKII red vinyl. The shed-made aluminum battery box also hides all the electrics.

Finally, to get that brat-style low-profile at the front that runs from the tank across the top of the bars, Tom swapped out the original clocks out for a pair of mini-speedo and rev counters.

It’s a lovely, simple, clean, Japanese brat-style middleweight, and as much a credit to Tom’s good teaste and sense of proportion as it is to his bike building skills. In his own words; “I enjoyed the build immensely and the bike gets looks everywhere it goes, probably due to the amount of noise it makes!” Top work fella, and thanks for sharing with all of us at The Bike Shed.

FROM the bike shed