Maccomotors #4 “Big Zed Racer”

Jose & Tito have had a busy summer, but as well as the recent Dusty Pearl Triumph build they also found time to ‘knock-up’ this “BIG-Z RACER”. Based on Kawasaki’s trusty shaft-drive Z1100ST it’s a beast of a bike to turn into a cafe/brat, but they make a solid machine with plenty of punch and presence, and a great daily ride.

The donor bike had already been through Jose & Titro’s workshop doors at Maccomotors first build, but after the owner, Sandro, had a bit of a scare and decided to move on, the guys had a chance to recreate the bike in a new guise.

The subframe has been chopped – of course – to accommodate the brat/scrambler style flat seat while up front the bike uses new clips-ons with Beston grips, and a single mini speedo to monitor the big 1100 engine’s progress, while a Bates lamp lights the way after dark. The taillight is a Texas unit.

The OEM spoked wheels wear Metzler Lasertec tyres with a 130/90-16 rear and 110/90-19 front. Shortie fenders are Maccomotors own. The sober matte grey paint comes surprisingly from the Ducati colour chart, plus a little black and raw steel.

These big Zeds are big bikes, but the weight has it’s advantages, giving you a solid and planted ride, (great in the wet) while 1100 Kawasaki CCs provide plenty of grunt in all gears and mile-eating road manners. We’d recommned good brakes on a bike of this size, but Jose & Tito have taken care of it already.

See more on the Maccomotors website or on The Bike Shed’s Maccomotors page. Pics are by Isi Sellés, but never mind the virtual version – if you like the look of this bike it’s now for sale.

from The Bike Shed

agent provocateur

Jay’s GN250

It all went wrong for Jay Aldred when he rode his bog-standard GN250 over to his mate Alec’s place, as Alec happens to be one half of Old Empire Motorcycles, where bikes enter “The House of Assembly” and are never quite the same again. Inspired by what he saw at this sacred place, Jay new his GN was destined for a better life.

As a professional painter Jay usually spends his time at OEM adding to the general sarcastic banter while doing the odd paint job or polish, but as he describes it; “Alec decided to start attacking me with awesome ideas that would potentially alter the whole look of the bike, going from the look of a retired Blackpool donkey to a proper ‘ridden-everyday’ café/brat-trakker thing.”

“I started to get to work on the GN earlier this year, beginning with the stance which was nothing short of frumpy. I changed it by fitting over-sized vintage Avons to the standard rims (18 in the front, 16 in the back) stripping the forks and chopping the spacers by 2″ and lowering the forks a further 2″ through the yokes, which are kind of hidden by a pair of senior ace bars to take your eye off the fork legs sticking through.”

“A Dime City Cycles seat and grips were thrown on shortly afterwards to clean up the lines a little after removing the simply heinous original seat which was far to cruiser-like for the look I was going for. I’ve done a few obvious other small bits to try and get the bike looking totally different from the usually boring and generic looking GN.”

Hay still rides his bike all year round but like all good shed builds, it’s never finished, so he’s always meddling with various bits. His next plan is to do a 1940s Bomber themed paint job on the tank and side panels, which will certainly raise the bike’s game in terms of being a custom build, …although we’ll kinda miss the stickers.

“I think my favourite part of riding something that you do yourself is that its exactly how you want it and it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks of it.” Well said Jay. “The sound of the tulip exhaust can makes it that much more fun to ride, as its gone from sounding like someone slurping through a straw to the sound of someone machine-gunning a water buffalo.”

Jay would like to thank Dave C for the photo shoot at the Red Feather Club on the old 95th Bomb Group Airfield, near Halesworth (Jay loves anything to do with the 8th Air force in East Anglia during World War II) and Alec for the use of his tools at Old Empire MC.

from THe Bike Shed

TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE CUSTOM BY TON UP GARAGE

The modern Triumph Bonneville, released in 2001 to much critical acclaim, is based on the original Bonneville from 1959. Both bikes use a parallel twin, four-stroke engine and a healthy dose of classic motorcycle styling – that said, the new Bonneville is a totally redesigned bike built with 50 years worth of engineering experience, the newer versions have fuel injection and have become well-known for their reliability – not something that could ever be said for the originals.

This combination of classic, air-cooled styling and modern engineering has been a huge boon to the custom motorcycle community who now have a reliable, modern, British motorcycle to use as a starting point. We’ve seen some fantastic examples over the last few years on Silodrome, one of the stand-out Triumph builders is Ton Up Garage based out of Portugal who have quickly developed a reputation as one of the pre-eminent custom Triumph builders in the world.

This is the latest creation from Daniel and Pedro at Ton Up, it was a customer order from France for a guy who saw some of the team’s previous work. This new bike has all the hallmarks of a Ton Up build, the fit and finish is exceedingly professional, to the point where it now looks like an official production motorcycle.

During the build the engine was coloured black with a special high-temperature paint, the stock exhaust was kept and wrapped in brown heat wrap, a custom brown leather Ton Up leather seat has been fitted, a small black and copper headlight with a yellow lens was added and all indicators were replaced with low profile LED units.

The front and rear suspension has been replaced with new, higher performance Öhlins springs and a subtle brown and black paint scheme was added to the tank, fenders and crankcase. The finished bike has already been delivered to its very happy French owner and Ton Up are now taking orders for late 2013 and early 2014 delivery, if you’d like to see more of their work or order your own you can visit Ton Up Garage here.

All images courtesy of Joel Bessa.

via SILODROME