YAMAHA XS750 CAFE RACER BY UGLY MOTORBIKES

The team at Ugly Motorbikes have a habit of making their name pleasantly ironic, they invariably turn out motorcycles, like this Yamaha cafe racer, that are so beautiful they almost seem to pop out at you through the screen.

Brady and Chris at Ugly Motorbikes found the donor bike for this build in San Diego, the owner had given up halfway through a bobber conversion and the frame was covered with dodgy welds and bullet casings (they were used as frame plugs), the owner had also decided to weld on rebar hard-tail struts. If you’re anything like me, that last part made you slap your hands over your face and question the existence of god.

“We wanted to build a bike that would catch your eye first look, but will really draw your full attention on the second head turn. We’ve had people visit the shop and not notice the bike till an hour after BSing, with the common response being “Wait, what is this!” Giving this build the unofficial nickname – The Girl Next Door.”  Brady Young – Ugly Motorbikes

The Yamaha XS750 isn’t the most common choice for a cafe racer conversion, this one has had its frame re-worked and has a custom 3 into 3 exhaust set up that gives it a urgent, almost angry sound when being ridden properly. The forks have been internally lowered 1 ½ inches and a further 1 inch at the triple tree, the velocity stacks are custom engraved, the stop light is asymmetrical and the seat, grips, and foot-pegs are wrapped in Nigerian calf leather. The colour of this leather wrap works well with the fat-blue fuel tank and rear cowling, giving the bike a look reminiscent of the classic Gulf GT40s.

If you’d like to see more from Ugly Motorbikes check out our previous feature on their Honda CB650 cafe racer here, or visit their website here.

from SILODROME . COM

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Marco Melandri: We have to make the bike easier to use

Marco Melandri may have ended up third in the 2012 World Superbike standings but he was the first rider after BMW’s debut in the series in 2009 to bring the BMW S1000RR to victory, and he did it six times, at Donington Park, Miller Motorsports, Motorland Aragon, a double victory at Brno and then at Moscow.

For the 2013 season BMW has turned their factory effort over to BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK, but they will still continue to support the team with engine and electronic development.

Despite the six victories and five podiums in 2012, the Italian rider isn’t completely satisfied with the performance of his machine weekend after weekend, as he told the SBK website:

When works well it works very well, but that it maybe has a smaller window of perfection than some other machines. I think our bike is a very good bike but, like you say, the window to make it work and give you good confidence is very small. When you are inside this window you can be fast and it looks easy. When something is not perfect and you go out of this window you fight with the bike sometimes. I think this is the main place where we have to work, to make the bike easier. We knew this before the season, we know now. The first year was to try to understand what we have to do more on the bike. So for the first year, for sure we did more than was expected last season.”

When asked if he can repeat his sucess in 2013 with the new team, he said, “I think everything is a package. Rider, team, bike, factory - all together. For sure the rider may be on top and he must try to stimulate and push the team and give the right information. Then the team has to push the factory and the factory has to understand the information an what to do with the bike. I think it is always teamwork. Alone, the rider or team or factory cannot do this.”

Will Melandri be able to win the championship next season?

from Twowheelsblog