Thomas Parrish started building custom vehicles about 15 years ago, working with cars and trucks, which is where he learned most of his fabrication skills and techniques. Without support from the crop of internet how-to sites that exist these days, Thomas learned a lot from his mistakes.

Four years ago Thomas felt like he was burnt-out on four wheeled machines and turned his attention to two. He started out with a couple of mildly customised sportsbikes before moving on to building a custom chopper. After 400 hours spent over two years Thomas had a beautiful bike that he was very proud of, but he missed the handling and performance of his sportsbikes, so he decided the new cafe racer scene would give him the freedom to build something that didn’t fit into any specific category and would allow him to build bikes with the performance to match their looks.

This is Thomas’s most recent build, a 2007 Ninja 650R. “I bought this bike with the intention of selling it. It was cheap, and I needed something to ride alongside my girlfriend as she learned to ride – all of my other projects were too far from being done. So I got to work on the bikes major issues, seriously controlled myself, and this is what I came up with.”

“It would have been nice to add a wider back tire, make my own exhaust etc. etc., but I just wanted something respectable. I didn’t want to spend my whole summer fabricating, I just wanted to ride, and not on a wanna-be sportbike looking high handlebar dork machine! So this is what I came up with, hope you like it.”

It’s not easy to capture any of the old school cafe racer aesthetics on some modern bikes, with their complex frame shapes and major components in strange new places, and this 2007 Kawasaki must have presented some big issues, but the overall essence is clearly present: A shortened rear-end with a single seat, designed with a nod to some classic shapes, simplified instruments and minimal lighting, with clip-on bars hunkering down around the tank, ticking all the right boxes.

Purists in the cafe racer and the sportsbike scenes may or may not approve, but we applaud bold machines like this, that in many ways reflect the approach of builders like Radical Ducati and Shed X, taking modern machines and stripping them back to basics with half and eye on the future and half and eye on the past. What we can be sure of, is that this bike would be fantastic to ride.

Thanks to Thomas for sharing with all of us here on The Bike Shed. See more from Kustom Research on their Website or Thomas’s Blog, or you can email him HERE.

from the Bike Shed

SOUND OF SINGLE BY KINGSTON CUSTOM

The biggest cafe racer event in Europe is the Glemseck 101. It’s held in the ancient town of Leonberg in southern Germany, some ten miles west of Stuttgart. Every year, hundreds of motorcycles descend for a petrolhead celebration of speed and style.

The highlight of Glemseck is the informal but hotly contested sprint series, which attracts some pretty unusual racers. And this year, one of the most oddball builds was this Porsche-engined Yamaha SR, built by Kingston Custom. The top half of the motor comes from a 911 Turbo.

Why the Porsche connection? “It was an idea—a challenge—and it worked out,” says Kingston’s Dirk Oehlerking, an accomplished mechanic. “It’s wild and extraordinary and with a unique presence.” Dirk is a former German national enduro champion, and if you think you’ve seen his name around these parts before, you’re right. We featured his radical BMW R75/6 bobber six months ago.

‘Sound of Single’ is a showcase for Dirk’s inventive engineering skills, rather than slick finishing. The Porsche 930 metalware is mated to a 1979 Yamaha SR500 bottom end; engine capacity has risen by about a quarter to 609cc.

There’s a standard Porsche piston inside, with fuelling coming from a 40mm Mikuni carb, up from the stock 34mm. Breathing is aided by a K&N air filter and Norton exhaust. The wheels are now 19″ front and rear, carrying Metzeler rubber.

The standard SR500 fork has been cut down to lower the machine, and a shorter rear shock fitted. The rear drum has been swapped out for a disc, and most of the visible metalwork is custom, right down to the pegs. The bike tips the scales at 126 kg (280 lbs), some 32 kg lighter than a showroom SR500.

So it’s not the sort of custom you’d use to ride to a café on a Sunday. And it’d probably give a TÜV inspector a heart attack. But I reckon it’d be one helluva thrill ride down the drag strip.

Head over to the Kingston Custom website to see more of Dirk’s very creative builds—including some that you could easily ride on the street.

from BIKEEXIF

Ryca CS-1 – Suzuki S40 Cafe Conversion

BY PAUL CROWE

Ryca CS-1 Suzuki S40 Cafe Conversion

Would you be interested in a nice, brand new, lightweight, single cylinder cafe racer? You're probably thinking, why bother asking, no one is making them, but maybe you're just not looking in the right place. Former NASA engineer Casey Stevenson of Ryca Motors had the same idea, he wanted a lightweight single to cruise around L.A. but finding few options he figured he could design his own, something with a Japanese single cylinder engine and a sort of modern cafe style. Then he saw the Suzuki Boulevard S40, the little belt drive cruiser, but he didn't see cruiser, he saw something else hidden right there, in plain sight.

Ryca CS-1 Suzuki S40 Cafe Conversion

The S40, previously called the Savage, has been around for over 20 years but you can still buy them new. His idea was to transform the Suzuki with his own custom made parts and accessories, creating a kit in the process enabling anyone with basic tools to build their own urban thumper. The CS-1 features a 650cc single with 5 speeds, good looks and up to 60 mpg.

Here's how Casey describes it:

For the prototype, I started with the tank. The bottom was chopped off, re-welded, and the entire tank was lowered with custom mounts. I made a tank plate to cover the cavity where the stock speedometer was located, which now houses the keyswitch and indicator lights.

I then lowered the front forks and brought up the rear with longer shocks to level the tank and establish the horizontal line that follows through to the seat and side covers. This brought the rake and trail down a good amount, and I realized there was no need to build a custom frame like I had originally planned. The stock frame is narrow and kinda disappears into the background, making everything seem very sleek and light.

Ryca CS-1 Suzuki S40 Cafe Conversion

For the seat, I chopped off the ends of the stock tubes and made a metal seat assembly that attaches to the existing mounting points. The entire piece is isolated from the frame with neoprene rubber to reduce vibration and can be adjusted depending on the weight of the rider. The cafe seat was made from fiberglass.

I really like the belt drive of the stock S40, so I had the rear hub re-laced to a larger 18" rim. A custom battery box was created which doubles as a mounting point for the electronics, and fiberglass side covers were designed to match the contours of the seat and tank. The exhaust was modded to fit the reverse cone muffler, and I created a foot-actuated lever from the stock shifter to replace the heavy stock decompression solenoid. Custom speedo/tach brackets, belt guard, sidestand mount, and license plate bracket were fabricated.

For the rearsets, I designed a one-piece bracket assembly: left and right cantilevers cross-braced horizontally with tubing, all TIG welded together. The bracket attaches to existing motor mounts. New grips, clip-ons, and air-filter complete the package. The Ryca CS-1 cafe racer is born!

I work with some talented guys at my shop, and everything (excluding re-lacing of the rear hub) is done in-house. We can build you a CS-1 from a new or used Suzuki S40, or you can build one from our kit which includes:

-Low profile tank and indicator panel
-Tank mounts
-Fiberglass seat and seat mount assembly
-Rearset bracket
-Battery box
-Fiberglass side covers
-Mini tach and speedo mounting brackets
-Belt guard
-Sidestand relocation mount
-Decompression lever rod and linkage

Here's what we offer:

New Motorcycle
Everything is factory fresh. All custom components are new. The engine and chassis are from a brand new bike with zero miles.
$9500

Low-Mileage Motorcycle
All custom components are new. The engine and chassis are from a low-mileage used bike in excellent condition.
$8000

Conversion
You bring us your S40. We make it awesome.
$5500

Kit
The kit is for the do-it-yourself home builder and includes the custom parts made by Ryca. All components can be attached at existing mounting points. No welding required.

Parts are primed and ready for paint: $3200 Parts are painted and clearcoated: $3600

Ryca CS-1 Suzuki S40 Cafe Conversion

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Casey says this is the first in a planned series of bikes. If they can do a small run, instead of only one or two, the prices could come down. The idea is to invest profits back into the company and sell more bikes for less.

I like the direction they're going here, start with an existing bike and transform it into a bike not available elsewhere. Sweet looks, nice price, I like it. If the CS-1 looks good to you, give Casey a call at Ryca Motors.

Link: Ryca Motors

from http://thekneeslider.com

grand lit !