Josh Allison is a believer in sticking to the original philosophy behind the cafe racer. Strip it right back to basics to make it go faster. Or to use his own words, to make it “haul ass!”
Josh is from Wyoming and grew up with plenty of wide open spaces to blat around on dirt bikes. From day one he was always either fixing them or making them look better, so when the off-roading started to hurt physically and financially, he decided to train as a metal fabricator and started building and customizing vintage bikes. And so was born Build & Destroy – named because, to use his own words again, he builds “bad ass bikes to ride the shit out of and destroy whilst having fun.” We doubt the owner of this beautiful little Honda would want to destroy it, but we get the idea.
The brief was to create a brat with a low, sleek, mean look, which Josh calls ‘bad attitude’. The CB360 was striped down to the frame and the back half was remade with a kick-up to match the DCC brat seat. The bike was given a lower profile and the cats-eye tail light was tucked under the rear for smoother lines. Two DCC blinkers are tied into the rear end, keeping it sleek but still fully functional.
The frame was finished off by cutting away all unnecessary brackets, smoothing it out and spraying it with a single stage gloss black. The front fender was bobbed and cut down to hug the front wheel and the gas tank was sprayed with a custom, gun metal silver metallic.
The front end was completely re-worked with DCC aluminum clip-ons, bar-end mirrors and grips. The original upper triple clamp had all the ugly brackets cut off and underwent many hours of intensive polishing, there’s no avoiding the elbow grease when it comes to making a custom bike that looks as good as this.
A DCC LED tach keeps the front end clean and classy as does the neutral light tucked away in the headlight bucket. Stock tires were swapped for an oversized rear and an old school tread on the front. Josh made the custom two-into-one exhaust himself and assures us it’s as loud as it looks. Red K&N air filters were added and the engine was finished off with an aluminum finish and a black jug.
Josh clearly knows what he’s doing. He focuses on making things by hand while staying true to the design and the history of vintage bikes. But he’s keen to re-iterate that Build & Destroy don’t just make bikes that look good, he makes bikes that you can “ride the shit out of”. Which is exactly what we say in The Shed. Well, kind of.
Thanks for sharing Josh. Can’t wait to see what you build next. See more from Build & Destroy HERE.
via The Bike Shed
