Day Trippers

Day Trippers from Staghead Moto on Vimeo.

Kaffeemaschine 10: A Yamaha to yearn for

So far, motorcycle customiser Axel Budde has based his café racer creations on Moto Guzzis – but his 10th ‘Kaffeemaschine’ began its life as a Yamaha…

The donor Yamaha SR500 was given its radical transformation into a desirable café racer under Budde’s ‘Kaffeemaschine’ label, with support from Hamburg-based marque specialist Kedo. “Although the SR has been around for more than 35 years and all possible customisation styles exist, I've only seen a few SRs coherently given the café racer makeover,” says Budde. His company not only fashions a new aluminium tank and seat to complete the conversion, but also puts around 250 man-hours into perfecting the smaller and more intricate details. The final result is named ‘Mezzomille’ (meaning ‘half-thousand’), and mimics the style of the late 1970s.

Classic motorcycles can be found for sale in the Classic Driver Market.

What colour is Hyundai’s i20 WRC? / De quelle couleur est la Hyundai i20 WRC ?

It’s a question many people have been asking since the car was unveiled in December. Blue? Grey? Blue-grey?

The car’s colour is officially known as ‘Hyundai i20 WRC Blue’, but don’t try asking for it in the Korean brand’s dealerships. It doesn’t exist. “Not yet,” notes Hyundai-Shell WRT’s spokesperson. “Later, it will be used for the Hyundai range’s high-performance models.”

Although you can’t choose this shade for your new i20, you may still spot one on the road: “All our company cars have been painted in the same colour as the rally cars. At each European round of the championship, there will be a dozen or so for team members, the crews, etc. It works out cheaper than to rent a quantity of cars each time.”

Some colleagues see the colour as grey, others blue. Jérôme, for example, plumps for ‘lilac blue’, but Autosport’s David is certain it’s ‘powder blue’, while German writer Christian says ‘Frangfrage’, which means a question that doesn’t have a correct answer. Certain wittier observers (no names!) suggest it’s an undercoat the team is using until it gets round to applying the definitive finish…

That said, a quick survey among the photographers and cameramen reveals that the colour stands out well in pictures. “It gives the cars a dynamic stance. We haven’t had any negative feedback.” The only problem is that it’s almost impossible to have unity of colour across the whole team. For example, the stylist in charge of the team’s clothing has yet to find an exact match for use with fabrics...

The livery of the Hyundai i20 WRCs is the work of the Hyundai Motor Europe Design Center (HMEDC) led by Jochen Werner. Along with the trucks and motorhomes, the third car which is due to run under the ‘Hyundai Motorsport N’ banner from Portugal onwards will feature the same shade in order to ensure a clear, coherent visual signature.

Depuis sa présentation officielle en décembre dernier, beaucoup se posent cette question. Est-ce un bleu ? Un gris ? Un bleu-gris ? Et d’ailleurs comment prononce-t-on Hyundai ?

La teinte s’appelle officiellement « Hyundai i20 WRC Blue ». Mais ne la cherchez pas dans le nuancier du constructeur, elle n’existe pas. « Pas encore », souligne le porte-parole du team Hyundai-Shell WRT. « Ce bleu devrait être la couleur des futurs modèles haute-performance de la marque Hyundai, qui se prononce comme on veut mais surtout pas Hyund…aîe ! Ca, c’est du passé. »

Donc pour l’instant, impossible de commander une Hyundai i20 de ce coloris chez votre concessionnaire, mais il en existe néanmoins quelques exemplaires qui circulent : « Toutes nos voitures de fonction ont été peintes aux couleurs des voitures de course. Sur chaque rallye européen, nous en acheminons une dizaine par plateau pour les membres du team, les pilotes… Cela revient moins cher que de louer des véhicules sur place. »

Certains parlent de bleu, d’autres de gris. Jérôme voit un bleu-lilas, David, d’Autosport, est sûr qu’il s’agit d’un « powder blue ». Notre confrère allemand Christian assure que c’est « Frangfrage », une question à laquelle la réponse ne sera jamais la bonne. Les plus moqueurs (dont on taira les noms) pensent qu’il s’agit d’une couche d’apprêt en attendant la peinture définitive…

Il n’empêche qu’après un rapide sondage auprès des photographes et vidéastes professionnels, cette couleur passe plutôt bien. « Le résultat donne un style assez « pêchu ». Nous n’avons pas eu d’échos négatifs ». Seul hic, il est quasi impossible d’avoir une unité de couleur dans le team. Par exemple, le styliste chargé de confectionner la ligne de vêtements n’a jamais pu retrouver la teinte exacte.

La déco des Hyundai i20 WRC a été confiée au département Hyundai Motor Europe Design Center (HMEDC) et au designer Jochen Werner. La troisième Hyundai i20 WRC engagée sous l’entité Hyundai Motorsport N à partir du Rallye du Portugal sera elle aussi peinte de ce bleu-gris – de même que les camions et motorhomes - pour avoir une signature visuelle cohérente.

RYCA CS-1 CAFE RACER KIT

The Ryca CS-1 is a bolt-on cafe racer kit for the Suzuki Savage that’s been in steady production for just over 10 years, the bike has become something of a cult classic in the USA and Suzuki dealers are now getting onboard to produce them in-house, selling right off the showroom floor.

The CS-1 project started when Casey and Ryan, the founders of Ryca, realised that the Suzuki Savage cafe racer they were building was something that a huge number of people would be interested in building for themselves, if they could simplify the process and create an easy to assemble kit.

A few months later the Ryca CS-1 Cafe Racer rolled out of the garage with a fully catalogued build process and blueprints for the slew of bespoke parts required to build it. A website was created and before you know it, orders began to roll in. Skip forward a few years and there have been hundreds of Ryca kits sent to all four corners of the globe, Casey and Ryan have been featured on Jay Leno’s Garage (video available above) where an initially skeptical Leno was converted to an enthusiastic brand ambassador by the end of the clip.

With pricing starting at $2,795 for the Cafe Racer Kit and decent, secondhand Suzuki Savages selling for somewhere in the region of a few hundred to just over $1,000 – the Ryca CS-1 is a highly affordable motorcycle for those who aren’t shy of pulling out the tool kit and getting their hands dirty.

With the stock 650cc single-cylinder engine producing approximately 35 to 40hp at the rear wheel the Ryca CS-1 is a bike that will more than happily keep pace with modern traffic, and with a wet weight of well under 400lbs it’s a nimble, great handling bike well suited to urban environments.

Click here to visit Ryca.