YAMAHA SR250 BY MOTO-MUCCI

Two years ago, Dave Mucci scored a king hit with his Honda CX500 custom—one of our most popular bikes of all time. And now he’s back with another build, a lithe Yamaha SR250 with clean lines, thoughtful details and a natural palette. It’s Dave’s first frame-up design, where every detail, control and finish was paid its due attention.

The lucky client was Dave’s girlfriend Kara, who was ready for her own wheels after a year on the back of the CX500. “Within two days of her saying she wanted a bike I‘d tracked down the Yamaha, took it for a test ride, handed over the cash and was riding it home in the most cramped manner possible,” Dave reports. He’s 6’3”.

Dave has focused on a light and nimble theme. All extraneous parts were removed or relocated, to free up the frame as much as possible. To tighten up the core of the bike, the large stock fuel tank was switched out for the tank of a Honda CD175. “My intention was to make some new badges for the tank, but after blasting them and finding a gorgeous brass finish underneath, I decided to run with it. They were too pretty to toss aside.”

The tail of the frame was shortened and hooped to give more overhang over the rear wheel, and a custom pan and seat were made to match. Some meaty Bridgestone Spitfire tires (120/90-18F & 150/80-16R) were chosen to contrast the overall petite aesthetic. The stock fenders were trimmed down and the electronics were relocated to the battery box under the seat.

Simple POSH mini switches were installed, along with a new mini gauge, a simplified throttle, a Bates-style headlight and CNC’d bar end mirrors. One-inch tube stocks were welded to the rear of the frame to discreetly integrate the LED turn signals, and the horn was hidden behind the headlight.

A minimal amount of paint was used. The frame was brightened up with a light silver and the tank, wheels and battery box were sprayed with matte light aluminum paint. To give the bike some warmth most of the hardware was nickel plated and brushed. New knee pads were made from scratch and wrapped in the same distressed Oxblood vinyl as the seat and grips, with a light tan contrast stitching. “Rod’s Designs knocked the upholstery out of the park as always,” says Dave.

Dave’s now looking to move into sharing a larger industrial space with likeminded creative folks of different backgrounds. “For me, building custom motorcycles is the unification of my two passions, design and wrenching, and I intend to push towards making this my sole venture. With the acquisition of a new space will come the kickoff of the new company, a new build (a Honda Dream 150) and a focus on items that will reflect a bit more of my industrial design background.”

It’s worth keeping an eye on Dave Mucci’s progress, and you can do that via his website right here.

Photos by Patrick Daly.

from BIKEEXIF

1973 HONDA CB350 CUSTOM

Not all new wave customs are fair weather bikes. This long, low Honda CB350 K4 comes from inside the Arctic Circle—or, to be more precise, from the small city of Rovaniemi in Lapland, northern Finland. The average annual temperature is a smidge above zero °C, and there’s snow on the ground for 175 days a year.

That didn’t deter industrial design student Timo Karinen though. He worked on the bike in a friend’s warehouse—heated, we hope—and fabricated the metal in a workshop at his university.

Why a 1973 Honda, rather than the BMW GS or KTM you might expect to find in such a hostile climate? “I really like the classic look of these bikes,” says Timo. “How the engine looks, and the symmetry of the exhaust pipes on both sides of the bike.”

In the spring of 2012, Timo bought the CB350 in original condition and rode it for the whole summer under the midnight sun. “I did a few longer trips, and realized that the bike was definitely a ‘keeper.’ Surprisingly, I was very satisfied with the power and speed from that small motor.” So Timo decided to dismantle the old Honda right down to the nuts and bolts, and treat it to a complete rebuild.

The biggest problem wasn’t the actual building—it was finding time to work on the fabrication while at university. “I had to sneak in to the metal workshop, because the university strictly forbids any personal work or crafting. I later found out that there was a teacher at the university doing the same thing, sneaking in to the workshop to make motorcycle parts!”

Timo rebuilt the motor with overbored pistons and rings. He also removed the starter and modified the original exhaust header tubes, adding db-killers to muffle the sound. “I didn’t have a lathe or milling machine available, so I made all the parts using hand tools. I’m not the biggest fan of bolt-on parts, so I made as many parts as I could, like the throttle control and tail light.”

Timo has shortened the frame but extended the swing arm by 80mm. It’s given the bike a new and eye-catching stance that really works, longer and lower than the original. The seat foam is covered by leather from an old jacket, and sits on a new metal pan. (It’s pretty good for a first attempt too.)

The Honda has had a complete rewire and the battery is now under the seat—just ahead of a sleek bobbed fender, and behind the repositioned horn. “There’s is not a single button or switch on the handlebars, and I love that,” says Timo. “It’s a huge difference to the driving experience of newer bikes, which have complete overkill when it comes to handlebar controls.”

The bike is a great icebreaker with older Finnish riders, especially those who rode small Hondas in their youth. “In almost every parking lot I meet a guy who used to have this kind of bike, and is willing to share his stories.”

Despite the unforgiving Lapland climate, it sounds like Timo rides in all weathers. “The bike’s even pleasant to ride in the rain,” he laughs, “because I like to get my face and back wet!”

Hardy types, these Finns.

Images by Petri Teppo.

via BIKEEXIF

Kevils R80 Gunfighter

When it comes to BMW R-Series customs, right now Kevils Speedshop is nailing it. Every single time. While Kev Hill and his crew initially got some criticism for specialising almost exclusively in flat-twin Beemer customs it’s now clear that Kev’s masterplan of refining the art of the boxer twin cafe/brat/scrambler has paid off, with bike after bike rolling out of his workshop doors, each built to order and no two identical.

This latest brat-style build is 1978 R80/7, and like a few recent Kevils builds it uses a Honda tank, much like the recent Blitz BMW which was seen at the BMW museum. It’s a great look that many of Kev’s customers have wanted to emulate, and it really changes the overall balance of the bike’s design, giving more visual clout to the engine and slimming down the view from the seat.

The bike was Commissioned by Mads of Bergen, Norway who flies helicopters for the Norwegian Armed Forces. He popped into the workshop on his way home from RAF Culdrose where he is training in Search & Rescue.

As usual, Kevils have stripped and rebuilt the donor bike, and worked the bike up to a Brat-Style spec with a dark brown leather seat, Kevils tail light, wide bars wearing clear grips, fronted by a Motogadget multifunction mini speedo. The header pipes have been wrapped leading to twin black megaphone silencers. The wheels have been rebuilt with wire spokes and the rims wear Avon tyres.

The bike was airbrushed in a design inspired by the WWII Mustang P51, also called the Gunfighter, and the photos were taken at Reims Airfield in France on the way back from Glemseck 101.
   

It’s a great looking bike and a lovely evolution in Kevils’ line of boxer twin customs. See more from Kevils on the Bike Shed, or on their own pages, here.

CUSTOM BSA ‘LAZER DEATH’

You probably don’t know the name Maxwell Paternoster. But you might recognize his alter ego Corpses From Hell, one of the foremost motorcycle-influenced artists working in Europe today.

Paternoster’s style is edgy and unconventional, and it’s spilt over into his own personal ride—a unique custom BSA built up from spare parts and junkyards finds over the years.

“Being born in 1976 means I grew up with Japanese bikes,” he says. “Bikes that were ragged around the fields on their last legs by kids back in the day. Brit bikes were something the ‘old boys’ would poodle along on. I had no access to anything British back then, but would always gaze at the pictures in books and read all about them.”

Then Paternoster had a brief fling with a B-series BSA that was rescued from a yard. Bitten by the bug, he decided to build one for himself. “Lack of funds meant I’d have to use the ‘one piece at a time’ method … I know it’s been said many a time that you’re better off buying a complete-ish project, but I was convinced otherwise.” For the next year, the back of his car doubled as a shed and storage area for tools and bike bits.

It took Paternoster a year to build this bike, starting with the B33 engine and then the M20 rigid frame. The engine turned out to have a Gold Star-type magneto pinion, implying other good bits inside. Paternoster gradually uncovered a host of tuning mods, including a 500cc high compression piston, a polished conrod, lightened flywheels and an early Gold Star inlet valve.

On the timing side were a couple of covetable Gold Star cams, a 65-2442 inlet and a 65-1891 exhaust. “Seems like the engine was an iron lump done to an early ZB Gold Star spec.” Paternoster promptly ordered a new carb from Lowbrow Customs to unleash the performance.

To get rid of years of rust and grime, he dismantled the transmission and cases and bought 12 bottles of the cheapest vinegar he could find. (“I soaked the gearbox internals in my bedroom for about three days. It was pretty messy. I had to be extremely careful not to kick over a container in the night.”)

The tank is an early Wassell copy, the seat is home-made with gold leaf detailing, and the headlight is a vintage foglamp donated by David Borras of El Solitario MC.

The hardest part was fixing the recalcitrant clutch, an issue finally solved via a helpful tip online. “I changed the clutch lever for one offering greater leverage, pushing the clutch plates much further apart. So it’s now a fully working, road legal bike.

“It took a while and there is still a lot more to do, but at least it’s rolling!”

Images by Sam Christmas. Follow Maxwell Paternoster’s adventures via the Corpses From Hell blog or check out his art here.

via BIKEEXIF