CAFÉ RACER 76

from TWOWHEELSBLOG

Marc Marquez’s huge crash during the second free pratice during the Italian GP where he lost control of his Honda at 337.9 Km/H (209.9 Mph) and according to Alpinestars (who supplies Marquez with his airbag leathers) suffered an impact of over 25g, the MotoGP rookie almost literally walked away from the horrific high speed incident with just a scraped chin and a crack in his humerus.

The Repsol Honda rider was able to continue for the rest of the weekend - albeit with some pain and weakness in his right arm - but his total crashes for the round added up to four, including the last one that saw him lose the second spot in the race with just three laps to go.

Following the race Marquez returned home to Barcelona and immediately went to the Hospital Universitario Quiron Dexeus to see Doctor Xavier Mir to undergo further medical tests who confirmed the initial diagnosis and verified that there are no other injuries.

Doctor Mir, Director of the Microsurgery and Surgery Department and in his role as part of the First Contact medical team that attends each Grand Prix, and was able to confirm the good condition of the Repsol Honda rider.

According to Doctor Xavier Mir: “Following the initial examination that we performed on Marc at Mugello, in which he underwent his first X-rays, we weren’t convinced about the condition of his right shoulder. Today we have performed some more detailed X-rays on him, which confirm that the injury at the upper point of his humerus is minimal – a small fissure. As such injuries can compromise the condition of tendons in the shoulder, we also gave him a Doppler ultrasound scan. This ruled out any broken tendons. What he does have is a small inflammation of the tendons, but this is something that can be treated in a matter of days with physiotherapy. The progress in the 24 hours following the injury was very good. At first he had some difficulty lifting his arm, but this has improved now. He now only has some issues raising it sideways, which again is something that with physiotherapy he will completely recover from in time for the Catalan Grand Prix

Each week we completely republish a story from a back issue of one of our publications. This week it’s Nick Eterovic’s Yamaha SR400 café racer from issue 04 of Fuel Magazine.
Story Nick Eterovic, Photography Luke Ray.

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In Japan, the Yamaha SR400 has long been a popular platform for custom motorcycles. The streets of Tokyo are an endless spectacle of inspiration for how this versatile bike can be modified into something unique – you can literally turn this bike into anything you like!
When presented with such a versatile canvas, you’re confronted with endless possibilities, so it’s handy if you have a clear vision of what you want to achieve. To me, the project has been just as much about the contemplation and possibilities as it has the actual build.
I immersed myself in sketching, planning and exploring design options before I decided I wanted to achieve a cross-continental blend of American hot rod and English café racer peppered with a Japanese inspired passion for the custom SR400. The final goal was to create a raw metallic cafe racer – the Tokyo Barracuda.
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I’d been watching the bare metal look evolve in hot rods, since first seeing cars like Jimmy Shine’s ’34 Ford Pickup, where the appeal lies in the beauty of the materials and in the fact that you can’t hide bad workmanship. This is closely related to the approach seen in ‘60s café racers where it wasn’t about flashy paint jobs but about modifying, fabricating and assembling a bike from a mismatch of parts with a goal of producing something not only unique but which performed better than any production bike. This is not to say that some of the production motorcycles from the English heyday era of the 1950s and ‘60s weren’t beautiful machines. You can see from these pictures the influence of the BSAs on my bike, especially one of my favourites which the 1967 C25 BSA Barracuda, an influence not only from a styling perspective but also lending its name to my bike.
Many of the other designs I explored are waiting in the wings as possibilities for future reincarnations. Among them are paint jobs inspired by ‘50s American Indy cars and classic hot rods in the So-Cal style.
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Eventually, it was time to get down to the build. I’ve got a space in a productive and inspiring workshop, surrounded by hot rods and classic cars in various stages of development, bikes, and a range projects on the go. It’s been the perfect place to while away the hours – it’s a space shared with like-minded guys who will offer up an honest opinion and some knowledgeable advice shared over a beer.
Setting yourself up with a strong workbench and finding an excuse to stock a tool cabinet is an equally fulfilling part of the process. To make room for the new bike I had to push aside my first motorcycle project, the restoration of a 1969 Honda CB175 K3. After struggling to finish this bike because parts were so hard to come by, I had a knee-jerk reaction to find something reliable that has lots of bolt-on options to shop for.
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This SR is a 2005 model, making it very dependable and almost new! But, while the bike remains mechanically unchanged from when it left the factory, little else of the original bike remains.
Characterised by being completely silver and having the distinctive raw aluminium BSA style tank, which gives an authentic ‘60s feel – the bike is light, narrow and reasonably well suited to being a city bike. I’d always pictured a bike that I could park on the footpath outside an inner city Chinese dumpling house in the small hours of the morning.
Aluminium Candy Rocket

I stripped the bike down completely, reassembling and re-wiring it with the new parts and configurations. The raw aluminium tank, clip-ons bars and rear set pegs were all bought from Japan, where custom items for the SR400 are plentiful. These were the first things to go on the bike, giving me a sense of how it would all come together. I hand-cut a number 5 for the tank and rode around with too many variations of mocked up stripes across the tank to count.
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Seven months and two night courses later, I custom made aluminium versions of the factory plastic side covers. Hand beating, welding and polishing my own stamp onto the bike. These, along with custom made bracketry, brought all the elements together, achieving the all aluminium look that I had wanted. The bike is also about 14kg lighter than it was originally.
I’ve got future plans including improving the ride and performance with a less restrictive stainless exhaust, pod filter and carbie kit, plus the addition of new suspension. And maybe a stripe!
Eventually I’ll strip it down and start again! Maybe I’ll even shape my own tank – everybody needs a project.
from http://www.fuel-press.com