CAFÉ RACER 76

ANALOG YAMAHA SR500

Tony Prust of Analog Motorcycles has built his reputation with a raft of elegant, mid-capacity customs: the perfect bikes for barhopping and cruising around town. This 1979 Yamaha SR500 has more of a raw edge though, and a name to match—‘Bruto.’ It was commissioned by Mark Wator, who wanted a machine for evening and weekend rides, with a seat big enough for two.

“Mark liked some of the ‘raw metal’ builds he’d seen,” says Prust. “With that in mind, he let me loose to do as I pleased—within his budget, of course!” Prust rebuilt the motor to factory specs, and hooked it up to a custom stainless exhaust system from Dime City Cycles. The SR has also been completely rewired, with juice coming from a Ballistic Performance 4-cell EVO2 battery.

The front end is now from a GSX-R—and the sportbike calipers now clamp onto aftermarket wave rotors, fed by stainless brake lines. The rear end is kept planted with Gazi Suspension Hyper Lite shocks.

Prust completely reconfigured the upper half of the Yamaha, modifying the frame to take a custom seat pan and relocating the rear tank mount to level out the lines. The tank itself has been tweaked to do away with the stock fuel inlet, and the paint is clear coat over raw metal—with distressed black accents and gold pinstriping.

Controls and gum grips from Dime City Cycles are matched to clip-ons, and LED strips handle the lighting duties—there’s even a strip integrated into the headlight. Finally, on went the rubber—Shinko 705 series dual sport tires fitted to powdercoated rims.

“The Bruto has been the hardest Analog custom to part with, to date,” says Prust. “I wanted to ride this one for a few seasons before I handed it over.” And it’s not hard to see why.

Head over to our Archives for coverage of previous Analog Motorcycles builds, and follow the Analog Facebook page for sneak peeks at their latest work.

from BIKEEXIF

Dani Pedrosa feels the Sepang heat as Marc Marquez works on giving feedback

from TWOWHEELSBLOG

For the first time since 2013 MotoGP testing started Dani Pedrosa was of the top of the timesheets as title rival Jorge Lorenzo left him more than three tenths adrift, leaving the Repsol Honda rider meditating on the Sepang heat and how to improve on corner entry and planning tomorrow’s final day of testing.

“I’m satisfied. Today we were able to put in a lot of laps and we focused on testing things out with the front and rear suspension,” said Pedrosa. “It was a hard day, due to the high temperatures, but despite the heat we completed various tasks that we had scheduled in. Now we have to recuperate ahead of the final day tomorrow, in which we will continue to improve the bike.”

Marc Márquez finished fourth on day 2 and was a little more than three tenths of second from his veteran Repsol team mate and just 0.085s from Cal Cruthlow who is on a Yamaha satellite bike without all the updates that the factory M1 riders have.

“It was a pretty good day for us. Today we did something that is a little harder for riders, which is trying out a lot of things to give information to the technicians. It’s tough, but it is an important job when it comes to deciding which way to go with the setup. We did a good job on the 64 laps that I rode today. Now we have to compile the data and prepare as well as possible for the final day of the test in which we will continue to put the laps in and look for the best direction to follow this preseason,” said Marquez.

Jorge Lorenzo very satisfied, Rossi not 100% happy

from TWOWHEELSBLOG

During today’s second day of official testing at Sepang Jorge Lorenzo stopped the clock in 2’00.282, but it wasn’t this singular lap that became the new benchmark for the Sepang 2 test (Casey Stoner’s 2012 Sepang pre-season lap of 1.59.607 seems to be still a mirage) but it was his pace that was scary or as team mate Valentino Rossi quaintly put it, “The difference today was Lorenzo, especially his pace: 2 00s, 00, 00, 00, 00… F**k!”

The reigning World champion was able to go under the 2.01 mark 18 times compared to Pedrosa who did it only three times, or Cal Crutchlow’s one hot lap, so the fact that he hasn’t yet touched Pedrosa’s 2.01.100 best lap during the first test becomes less relevant, and tomorrow Lorenzo is planning a race simulation and that’s when we’ll see how more he has hidden up his sleeve.

“The track was much better than yesterday, which surprised me a lot right from the beginning. That allowed me to be stronger right from the beginning so we’re very satisfied with the improvements we’re making with the settings. On top of that, I feel stronger as a rider than the first Sepang test so I’m very satisfied,” said Lorenzo who believes that a second came from the improved tarmac conditions and the rest was a slightly improved acceleration and better riding from himself.

Valentino Rossi was a lot less happier regarding the gap that separates him from the two front runners. After having to use his 2012 spec machine yesterday following an electrical issue, he also had technical issues today, the Italian worked to increase grip and traction on the only bike that he had available, but the modifications made him lose in bike balance on worn tires and that will be step he’ll have to work on during the final day of testing.

“I’m happy, the feeling is quite good. Today was a very long day; I did more than 60 laps because we had a lot of work to do. We continued to work to increase the rear grip and traction, especially when the tyre has a lot of laps on it. We found something but we are still not 100% happy, as we lost a little of the balance in the bike. Tomorrow the target is to improve the traction without losing the balance and then the bike will be very good,”commented Rossi