Salty Speed Co CB400

Micah from Melbourne, Australia spent a year at Bible School on the South Pacific island of Venuatu with a $500 CM185 as his sole transport. The two-wheeled flame that had been burning since childhood was reignited and Micah scoured the web looking for his dream machine. Salty Speed Co. and their #2 CB400F build got Micah’s heart racing enough to put in an order, the brief; black brat.

A few weeks later, a not-so-good-looking 1975 CB400F was bought blind and delivered to Salty’s Wollongong HQ on Australia’s East Coast.

Matt from Salty has got Brats dialled in. Nothing over-fancy, just plain slicked-out cool. To get the look this good, obviously a complete strip down was required. The usual rear loop and de-tabbing sorted the frame out whilst a slim battery box was fabricated to hide electricity under the seat. The rear fender is original but shortened and the front came from WM Japan, held by a custom bracket.

Aluminium clip on bars with internal wiring for the Posh switchgear keep the cockpit looking super neat, leaving the Dime City tapered bearing top clamp to show off its machined handsomeness. A DCC mini speedo is all the instrumentation required and the Nissin master cylinder offers a bit more bite to the rebuilt front calliper should the needle get too far round to the East side.

Firestones were one request put in at the beginning of this build, so here they are, wrapped around powder coated rims and hubs with new stainless spokes. The seat base is custom with a wafer of neoprene rubber for comfort and a plain stitched leather cover. A coat of paint has rejuvenated the rear shocks and rebuilt internals for the front end with powdered fork legs adhering to the black theme. Dutchys Motorcycle Spray Painting did these parts and the fuel tank, and no, our own Dutch has not been moonlighting, I don’t think…..

The motor was deemed to be in good health and needing only a thorough service but while out of the frame was given a coat of wrinkle finish black paint. The MAC ceramic coated black 4 into 1 exhaust and pod filters help with acoustics and breathing, with the carbs requiring a rebuild and re-jet to 85 mains for smooth running.

Fed up with chasing wiring faults on forty year old looms, Matt now fits new set-ups from Spark Moto which are simpler and better made than the originals, and completely customisable. A reg/rec from Rick’s Electrics deals with the current and sends DC to the 8 cell Antigravity battery hidden under the seat. The Bates headlight is mounted on a water-jet cut bracket.

There you have it, a recipe for a clean and good looking Brat. I’m not very good at following instructions so if you’re the same get in touch with Matt and order from the menu knowing a side order of cool is on the house.

Follow Salty Speed Co here on their Bike Shed Page or Instagram, Facebook and their Website.

via The Bike Shed

Woolf 'Babe' Barnato, Gentleman Driver

On the face of it, Woolf 'Babe' Barnato was the perfect gentleman driver: hugely wealthy, entirely extrovert, brilliantly sporting and not a little arrogant - but, in ancestry at least, he wasn't quite so top drawer as he at first appeared.

Barnato's millions dated back barely one generation to his father, Barnett, the son of  a Jewish shopkeeper from London's East End. As soon as he was able, Barnett – or Barney, as he preferred to be called – changed his surname to Barnato, emigrated to South Africa and famously made a vast fortune out of the country's newly emerging diamond business. But, while sailing back to England from Cape Town in 1897, he vanished overboard with the result that the then-two-year-old Woolf inherited the majority of the family fortune.

A keen and able sportsman

Big and beefy, Barnato Jnr. grew up to be a keen and able sportsman with a drive to excel. His first venture into motor racing occurred in 1921, when he signed up to compete in the Brooklands Easter Meeting with an eight-litre Locomobile he had imported from America. He came third in the 100-mile Long Handicap, giving him a taste for racing that saw him drive a Calthorpe in the Whitsun meeting, followed the next season by Malcolm Campbell's old Talbot. For 1923, Barnato changed to a Wolseley Moth and, in 1924, established a class record at the wheel of his eight-litre Hispano-Suiza – the car that immediately preceded the start of his celebrated allegiance with Bentley, following the acquisition of a prototype, short chassis 3 Litre fitted with a boat-tail body by Jarvis of Wimbledon.

The Barnato-Bentley deal

 

He used the 3 Litre to win several major Brooklands races and, partnered by John Duff, set a new 3 Litre 24-hour record averaging 95.03mph in 1925. It was then that W.O. Bentley persuaded Barnato – who loved a gamble – to sink close to £100,000 in to his ailing car company on the condition that he could have the pick of the firm's products for his own use, plus a guaranteed place in the works team. But Barnato's place behind the wheel was entirely justified because, in W.O.'s opinion, he was one of the best drivers of the period, who rarely made mistakes and, importantly, always obeyed team orders.

It was this, combined with the famous Barnato grit, that helped him win Le Mans at his first attempt, together with co-driver Bernard Rubin, despite having to nurse their 4½ Litre across the finish line with a cracked chassis and no coolant. He repeated the victory the following year as part of Bentley's legendary one, two, three, four, adding a third win to his tally in 1930 after a protracted battle with Rudolph Caracciola's Mercedes. But by 1931, the Bentley business had become untenable and Barnato's advisers warned him off further investment in the company, which subsequently passed into Rolls-Royce hands – in which, fortuitously, Barnato had recently bought sufficient shares to merit a place on the board of Bentley Motors in 1931.

Bentley versus Blue Train

His subsequent racing career was largely limited to sponsoring and building competition cars, although he famously used his driving skills to beat the Blue Train from the Cote d'Azur back to Calais in his Mulliner-bodied Speed Six saloon. Having survived both World Wars – as an Artillery officer in the first and an RAF Wing Commander in the second – Barnato died at the young age of 53, following a thrombosis brought on by a cancer operation. He has since gone down in history as, perhaps, the most quintessential Bentley Boy of all.

 

Photos: Getty Images / Bonhams / Bentley

This article is part of the 'Gentleman Drivers' feature series that is presented and supported by EFG Bank.

Gentleman jet ski: Strand Craft V8 Wet Rod

While yachts can be timeless icons of style (think Wallys), jet skis have always been designed largely or even solely with performance in mind. Until now, that is. Strand Craft from Newport Beach has designed a jet ski that melds style and speed…

Despite its vast length (it’s nearly 16 feet long), the Strand Craft V8 Wet Rod is fast thanks to its lightweight carbon body and 300HP 5.7-litre V8, capable of propelling the jet ski up to 65mph. The gent’s jet ski also has a waterproof storage box, an ice-cooler under the seat and, if requested, a sound/navigation system. Personalisation stretches to different colours and materials, such as wood for the decking. In other words, it’s the perfect mode of transport for a jaunt in the Med. 

Photos: Strand Craft USA

You can find modern and classic yachts in the Classic Driver Market.

une promenade ?