CUSTOM BIKES OF THE WEEK

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A glorious Thruxton R from Down & Out Cafe Racers, a dynamite Ducati from Iron Pirate Garage, and a classy BMW R100 from Kevil’s Speed Shop. These are the machines that spun our wheels this week.

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Ducati 750 SS by Iron Pirate Garage In last week’s best custom bikes selection we were introduced to Iuri Castaldi and his crew from Iron Pirate Garage of Empoli, Italy. Their custom Buell XB9 was arguably the most talked about bike from last week’s selections. Well, get ready to have Iron Pirate on the tip of your tongue again as they’ve now released The Kraken.

Working from a Ducati 750 SS, the Kraken takes post-apocalyptic themes to an entirely new level. The intricate trellis of the rear subframe is an absolute work of weld porn, putting the upright cylinder of the Ducati’s motor on full display—and creating an almost flat ‘bone line.’ The yellow divide line wraps completely around the bike, creating a simple yet beautiful visual break.

The bespoke tank bucks tradition and features a horizontal strap at its tip, just above the emblazoned phrase, “The rougher the seas, the smoother we sail.” In another unique twist, the exhaust finishes with two, equally horizontal pipes flanking the underside of the frame. We suspect they are loud enough to actually wake the Kraken. [More]

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Triumph Thruxton R by Down & Out Cafe Racers Triumph’s new Thruxton R is an entirely impressive bike. It sets a new standard for factory cafe racers and, thanks to Triumph’s accompanying line of ready to bolt-on parts, can be easily customized by most shade tree mechanics.

But what excites us most of all is seeing what professional builders will do with the new high-performance platform. Partnering with Barbour International and Triumph UK, the lads from Down & Out Cafe Racers pulled the wraps off ‘BIT2’ at London’s Bike Shed show this weekend.

The front fairing is a custom aluminum unit that moves the headlight to a side-mount position, and features a Barbour/Triumph button grafted into its housing. The seat is upholstered in Barbour waxed cotton, and tucks under the hand rolled aluminum tail.

Up front, the wiring has been tucked in and hidden to accommodate lowered gauges, new switchgear and aggressive upside-down clip-ons. Oh, and yes—the rubber has been fattened up too, in true D&O style. [More]

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Harley-Davidson XG750R When you envision riders gettin’ sideways around a dirt oval, the Harley-Davidson XR750 is the bike they’re riding. So ubiquitous is Milwaukee’s machine with the sport, the 44-year old platform is still being used today… but maybe not tomorrow.

Built using Harley’s Street 750 as a base, the new XG750R is the long awaited evolution of The Motor Company’s only racing effort outside of the quarter-mile. The new XG750R is powered by a modified version of the water-cooled 60-degree, V-Twin 750.

To handle the extra abuse, there’s a collection of go-fast parts including titanium intake valves, CP Racing pistons, Carrillo rods and a trick two-throat throttle body—which boosts the motor to 110 hp. Vance & Hines tackled almost all of the development with the XG, hence the signature placards on the high-mount exhausts. A Showa suspension set-up and chain-drive round out the major changes. Now, if they’d only crank out a couple of street-legal versions… [More]

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Triumph Trident by Oldscool Mechanics Drop the name Dave Degens or Dresda Autos around any Ace Cafe aficionado and you’ll surely raise an eyebrow or two. Degens is synonymous with the cafe racer scene, and Triton builds specifically—so you know the bike will be special without even seeing it.

This Triumph Trident cafe racer comes to us from Antwerp’s Oldscool Mechanics [sic]. Their hands are deft at tuning vintage racers, so Bernard, the owner of the Triumph, knew he’d get a high performance machine. But to make everything work the way Bernard wanted, a custom frame needed to be built. And this is where Dresda comes in.

Dave Degens was tapped to craft a frame specific to Bernard’s proportions—one that would also get the most out of the Oldscool-tuned Trident. As Bernard puts it, the build took “a lot of sweat, swearing and time.” But the efforts obviously paid off. This is a sublime cafe racer built in the truest of Old Sc(h)ool ways. [More]

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BMW R100 by Kevil’s Speed Shop When it comes to bespoke builds on a vintage BMW base, few builders can deliver the fit, finish and fancy of Kevil’s Speed Shop of Devon, England. Shop owner Kev Hill has always had the keenest eye for detail, and that continues with this new R100 build, ‘Quartz.’

The name stems from the stunning champagne-gold-and-gunmetal stripes adorning this impeccably clean cafe racer. The rear subframe has been modified in typical fashion to deliver a straightened support for the CAD-designed aluminum tail, and the rear shocks have been upgraded to Hagon units. The tuck-and-roll seat is finished in brown leather and sports an upswept rear, peeking just over the top of the tail, to provide extra comfort and support.

The top yoke is a custom billet unit—complete with the shop’s signature engraved on the top. It permits a switch to clip-ons, and there’s also a KSS fork brace to shore up the handling. If you like what you see, and have a R100 donor kicking around, Kev’s crew is happy to build you a Quartz of your own. [More]

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CUSTOM BIKES OF THE WEEK

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New BMW cafe racers from Diamond Atelier, a brutal Kawasaki Z1-R from AC Sanctuary, and the very rapid Tamburini ‘T12 Massimo’ track bike. It’s hard to pick a winner this week.

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Diamond Atelier Mark II Series Tom Konecny and the crew at Berlin-based Diamond Atelier have cracked the code of ‘making it’ in the custom world. The workshop is only three years old, but has nailed the essential mix of eye-catching builds, great photography and smart marketing.

They’re now wisely moving into limited-edition production runs, rather than reinventing the wheel with every bike. The first run will be ten bikes based on pre-1995 BMW airhead 2-valve engines, called the Mark II Series. Buyers can choose 800cc or 1,000cc engines and three levels of customization, with prices starting at €20,990 ($24,000). Form an orderly queue, and no pushing please. [More]

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Kawasaki Z1-R by AC Sanctuary Every now and then we like to remind ourselves what a true performance build is, so we hop over to the AC Santuary website. It’s mostly in Japanese, but then again, no-one used to buy Playboy for the words.

This new Z1-R resto-mod is bike porn of the highest order, starting with a strip-down to every last nut and cylinder head bolt. The frame is reinforced, the suspension is from Öhlins’ top shelf, the 17-inch wheels are from OZ Racing, and the brake system is a mélange of the best parts from the Brembo, Nissin and Sunstar catalogs.

The blueprinted and balanced motor has all-new internals, a phalanx of Mikuni carbs, and a full titanium Nitro Racing exhaust system. Guaranteed to put hairs on your chest. [More]

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Bultaco Mercurio by XTR Pepo The Mercurio 125 is almost a footnote in motorcycling history: It was just another one of the many nondescript small bikes that zipped around the streets of Europe in the 1960s.

This Bultaco is something special though, as you would expect from Pepo Rosell. For starters, the motor is now a Pursang 250 unit, bored out to 370cc and fitted with a substantial Keihin 39mm carb. The very serious-looking exhaust is from a Bultaco TSS 250 race bike.

There’s a Suzuki GSX-R600 clutch to handle the sudden burst of power, and a modified Yamaha SR500 swingarm to keep the back wheel planted. The front end is from a Cagiva Mito 125 EVO sportbike, grafted on to the heavily modified frame. The tank is basically all that’s left of the original Mercurio, and we’re betting the riding experience will be very different too … [More]

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Tamburini ‘T12 Massimo’ It’s now just over two years since Massimo Tamburini passed away. The creator of the Ducati 916 and MV Agusta F4 has left big shoes to fill, but he’s also left us a parting gift.

His final project has just been released, a track-focused superbike with an SBK-SpecBMW S 1000 RR power unit. The frame is small-diameter trellis tubing, the bodywork is aerospace-grade carbon fiber, and the styling is right on point.

The T12 weighs just 340 pounds—155 kilos—and the prototype is ready to go into production, overseen by Massimo’s son Andrea. Cycle World has the story.

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Honda CB750 by Redeemed Cycles Bob Ranew is the classic case of a guy who’s turned his passion into a business. He knows a good build when he sees one: He was one ofClassified Moto’s first clients, commissioning several bikes from John Ryland.

These days Bob builds his own bikes as a hobby under the Redeemed Cycles banner, and this 1975 CB750 caught our eye. It’s more of a resto-mod than a radical custom, but it’s also a beautifully judged build—with just the right stance and a select number of upgrades. The cost? A very reasonable $800 for Bob’s time, plus the parts list. Bargain. [More]

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CUSTOM BIKES OF THE WEEK

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An insanely fast Honda CB1300, a Ural sidecar that holds no less than four people, and a sneak peek at the latest Wrenchmonkees bike. Meet the machines the revved our engines this week.

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Yamaha Yard Built XSR900 by Wrenchmonkees When Wes reported back to us onYamaha’s new XSR900 he called it a “Brute in a suit—a well balanced machine that was bucket loads of fun.” Wes did have some aesthetic niggles though, namely a pair of plastic warts—electronic module boxes—festooned to the XSR’s minimalist frame.

With the Yard Built program back in full swing, it was only a matter of time before the XSR900 was given some pro-builder polish to clean those things up. Enter longtime Bike EXIF favorites, the Wrenchmonkees.

As with any build to come out their Copenhagen garage, the Wrenchmonkees did more than simply scrape the barnacles off the Yammie. It’s murdered out in matte black, and fitted with K-Tech suspension, an SC Projects exhaust and Borrani wheels. The brute has shed its suit for a pair of combat boots and a tactleneck. We’d love to share more information on this bike right now, but ‘MonkeeBeast’ is making its debut, as you read this, at the Bike Shed Show in Paris. Don’t worry if you’re not there in person though—you’ll get the full skinny in a feature in a few weeks. [Wrenchmonkees]

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Honda CB1300 by Yamamoto Racing If you call Canada or the United States home, chances are your only exposure to a Honda CB1300 has been on the internet. If you’re lucky, you may have a friend who knew a guy whose cousin imported one through the grey market—but Honda’s Super Four has never been sold in North America.

Sadly, that isn’t changing anytime soon. So we’ll simply tease you with this CB1300SF track day weapon created by the skilled hands at Yamamoto Racing of Iga-shie in Japan. Built as a test mule for a line of performance parts, this Super Bol D’Or has also crushed the record at Suzuka’s 8-hour Spec-A endurance race. Twice.

It’s those Spec-A parts that make this bike move so fast: Like the 4-into-one exhaust, rearsets, and radial-mount brake supports. There’s also a new upper and lower cowl, hot-rodded engine internals and a quick-shifting race transmission. All can be installed on your own Super Four…should you live anywhere other than North America. [More]

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Ural Tourist by Kevil’s Speed Shop If you’ve ever had the pleasure’ of riding a Ural, you’ll know they can be an extremely quirky machine to handle. These Siberian sidecar sleds buck to the right under acceleration, and yaw to the left the moment the twistgrip is rolled back. There’s never a dull moment, but the upside is transportation for three. Or four, in the case of the 2007-spec Tourist 750 here.

The client had a simple wish: To be able to transport his family of four up the Jurassic Coast in England on holiday. To make that dream a reality Kev Hill, the English BMW expert, has cut, grafted and fitted a rumble seat onto to the rear of the sidecar. Ingenious in its design, the second-row seat simply unfurls when needed, and disappears when not—held in place by a set of leather straps crafted to match the newly upholstered seats. [More]

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Kawasaki KZ650 by Magnum Opus Based in Wilmington, North Carolina, Magnum Opus Custom Bikes is helmed by Ezio Covelli—a man with a growing resumé of impressive builds. His latest custom work is this turbocharged Kawasaki KZ650, which made its debut at the Handbuilt Show in Austin, Texas last week. Its period-correct alterations have me all kinds of impressed.

Starting with a standard 1978 son-of-Z1, Ezio wanted build a bike that would slot somewhere between the Z1 and the bonkers Z1r-TC Turbo in performance terms. So the factory mill was overbored to fit a 70s-vintage MTC 803cc kit. Then a period-correct American Turbo Pak kit, the same brand used on the Z1r-TC, was fitted on top. Currently the bike is running at around five to six pounds of boost during the break-in period, but Ezio figures she’ll handle ten pounds of spool once all is said and done. That’ll deliver about around 110 horsepower in a bike with the handling characteristics of a sprightly 500. [More]

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Honda CB350F by Kinesis Moto The worst thing that can happen to a custom build is to over-do things. Function becomes stymied, and the soul of the motorcycle—its rideability—is lost to superfluous frippery. This is a lesson Jeff Gittleson, the man behind New York’s Kinesis Moto, takes very seriously.

“Simple, lightweight and distraction free” is how Jeff describes his 1973 Honda CB350F cafe racer and I’d say he’s bang on. Stripped of redundancy, Jeff wanted to highlight the Honda’s inline-4 engine over everything else. So everything except the mill was scaled back in design and streamlined. The front disc brake was swapped for a lighter, more elementary drum unit, which thanks to the CB350’s 50-lbs weight loss has more than enough bite.

The front end was lowered 1.5-inches to straighten the CB’s spine and a custom tray was welded into the new subframe. This houses the minimal remaining electronics, which can be easily accessed by lifting the gorgeous one-piece leather wrapped seat.

The result is a playful juxtaposition: the complexities of a small displacement inline-4 with the barest essentials of motorcycling, finished in a fitting shade of white. [More]

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