If you follow the Bike Shed at all you’ll know that we’re big fans of Auto Fabrica. Bujar & Gaz are young guns with an engineering background, blending style with substance on builds that make CGI renders look untidy. They tweak familiar components and reposition chassis parts by a few mm to get the angle right here, and the lines right there. Boring parts are re-built, re-shaped and re-finished. They seem to live in a world where practical building skills meet purist design. …And so the story continues with the Type 4.
This bike is Auto Fabrica’s second stab an at SR250 so they had to move the game on one more notch. Bujar tells us the rest, on behalf of himself and co-conspirator, Gaz:
“The idea for this build was to really focus on an evolution from the previous sr250, the Type 3, this meant that we didn’t want to use the standard parts but create a new design aesthetic with one-off items. As an evolution it meant that we wanted to increase power from the engine and raise the levels of craftsmanship. SR250′s are such a simple and light bike that it reminds us of the fixed gear bicycles that we ride. So, ‘light, fun and fast’ was the brief.”
“In the concept and design stage of the build we were focusing on keeping a lightweight feel to the whole bike. The main objective, as our previous builds, is to try to and achieve a complicatedly simple design language on every aspect of bike. We really wanted to achieve a small, fat-tyred, street-machine that could be chucked around the streets of London or hit some-off road turf on occasion”
“We liked the idea of creating a unique tank for this build as we had a few ideas circulating on what style and image we wanted to go for, it had to be a simple shape with enough tension in it’s lines to not look too old school. The knee indents on the tank were originally intended to be much bigger but when this was mocked up with styling tape it was evident that it detracted from the cleanliness we wanted, they were added but at a smaller scale. The knee indents helped lift the tank’s weight off and meant you can grip the tank better with your knees when going around the corner.”
“Another feature we decided to add is a bead in the aluminum which faded out smoothly into the rest of the top surface. This was the first product we hand beaten and finished using a FJ Edwards English wheel, previously unused in a barn in Essex, where it had been used to make aircraft parts, and now in our hands, helping us build motorcycles.”
“The tank dictated what the seat and it’s size should be as we also didn’t want a super skinny uncomfortable looking seat. Naturally following the frame and using the same stitch pattern we have used on all of our builds so far, the finishing was left down to black suede fabric with an orange triangle graphic to finalize the colour palette. The triangle detail is an AF trademark, we add this on all of our builds as it adds an interest to the seat which sometimes can be overly complicated. It also adds a nice addition of a accent colour.”
“The suspension has been upgraded with new OEM forks and aftermarket rear shocks. This helped us achieve a decent side profile line and have a nice curved flowing line from headlight to the kick section of the seat.”
“The stainless steel pipe is starting to become a signature touch in our builds, we really wanted the pipe to be a bit different to using 90 degree pre cut sections, this meant the pipe had to have double curvature in order to clear sections of the frame and engine yet give the intended design. The pipe was finished off with another small addition we keep using which is the 3 pie cut sections right at the tip of the pipe to add a bit of interest and direct exhaust gas which ever direction required.”
“The Grips are our usual touch of using saddle leather accompanied with a double cross hand stitched pattern, the switch gear consists of two stainless buttons on the left and a integrated starter kill switch on the Domino throttle assembly.”
“The wheels had to be upgraded from the original, this included a full stainless spoke re lace with a TLS up front and 18″ DID rims front and back.”
“The type 4 is another step in which we see ourselves going, producing truly unique parts and pushing a design language which reflects the craftsmanship and good design ethos. We are continuously working on sketches and Alias modelling to generate new and exciting ideas which will reflect in our future builds, we have learned a great deal on this build which has set us up to really push it on the following high ends builds we have in the pipeline”
Yes again Bujar & Gaz tick all our boxes here at the Bike Shed, with a properly designed and executed build, showing class and put together using solid engineering. See more of their bikes on the Auto Fabrica pages on the Bike Shed, or follow them on their Webpages and Facebook or contact them by email.
via The Bike Shed
