KAWASAKI Z1A BY GRAEME CROSBY

If you follow the race scene, you’ll probably know the name Graeme Crosby. In the 1980s he won the Daytona 200, the Imola 200, the Suzuka 8 Hours, and the Isle of Man TT. And then promptly quit. He’s a national icon in his home country of New Zealand, and there’s a steady stream of visitors to his home and workshop in the rolling hills of Matakana, an hour north of Auckland.

Crosby might be retired but he’s as busy as ever, and age has not dulled his energy. He’s set up a bike building operation called New Generation Classics, and with the help of an ex-Britten mechanic, he’s turning out some very interesting resto-mods—like this 1974 Kawasaki Z1A built for a local enthusiast.

Given Croz’s connections to Suzuki and Yamaha, why Kawasaki? “Back in the 70s the Z1 broke all the moulds,” he says. “It opened the floodgates for many classic Japanese models. My plan was to marry new components to the old classic, with a modern front end and high performance brakes.”

Having seen the bike in the metal, I can report that the plan has worked. The classic lines appeal as strongly as ever—even that elongated tail unit—but this machine has just the right mix of old and new.

The front end comes from a ZX10, lengthened 50mm to match the original Z1 fork length and preserve the geometry. Crosby has designed new top and bottom clamps to accommodate the upside down forks, moving the tank back on the chassis a little. Streetfighter-style bars allow maximum leverage for the rider.

The swingarm is a classic Moriwaki alloy unit, designed to take a wide ZX6 rear wheel. (It still meant offsetting the front sprocket to get the chain alignment correct.) Moriwaki also supplied the titanium exhaust system.

The engine has been beefed up with a Wiseco big bore kit, plus cams, valves and springs from Yoshimura. Carburetion comes from a set of 33mm smoothbore Keihins, with a Dyna ignition controlling the spark. With no speedo drive to work with, Crosby has fitted an electronic speedo with a shift sensor into the existing Z1 instrument bowls, with an electronic tachometer to match.

Some things just shouldn’t be changed, though, and in this case, that means the color scheme. It’s the ultra-deep metallic green with yellow stripes from Kawasaki’s 1974 range, but given extra depth with an intriguing deep brown color shift that’s almost impossible to capture in photographs.

Crosby obviously knows his stuff, and as word spreads about his New Generation Classicsoperation, the commissions are rolling in. If you’re tempted by a piece of history revamped by a racer who knows what works, drop Croz a line.

This Kawasaki is one of a dozen machines making an appearance at The Vivian gallery this weekend for the New Zealand launch of our book The Ride. If you’re in the Land of The Long White Cloud, we’d love to see you.

via BIKEEXIF

East Belgian Rally 2013 - Ford Fiësta S2000 - Kobus/de Wild

A  very high speed stage in Belgium with one of the fasted dutch drivers of this moment, Hermen Kobus navigated by Erik de Wild.
Stage 10 of the East Belgian Rally 2013

The Impossible Journey - 1955.

With the glistening promise of two specially equipped Land Rovers, the expedition was up and running


On September 1, 1955 we took off from London. Two weeks later we were in Istanbul and heading to the Asian shore. By the time we had driven across 500 miles of desert from Damascus to Baghdad, the expedition had been on the road for nearly two months.



As undergraduates we had no money, no cars, no nothing. How about putting together an expedition to drive to Singapore? Crazy? Maybe. But why not?

It would be one of the longest of all overland journeys: halfway round the world, from the English Channel to Singapore.

On arrival to Pakistan’s cultural capital Lahore, an English-language newspaper heralded the expedition as “As a boat race on wheels”.

Next stop Delhi, then down the famous Grand Trunk Road to Calcutta. This was where the nursery slopes ended and the expedition really began.

While we had always planned to hit northern Burma in the driest month of the dry season, that year’s dry season had been the driest for at least a decade. It seemed that the gods who looked after Land Rovers and all those who travel in them were listening to our prayers.

Through Bangkok, Malaya and from there to Singapore. Six months, six days and nearly 16,000 miles, we pulled up and switched off, people clapped and cheered, flash bulbs popped, reporters buzzed out. We had arrived.

from Land Rover Owner 

Yamaha Star Bolt by JPD Customs

A little while back Yamaha gave one of their fresh off the factory floor Star Bolt’s to 10 custom bike builders. The brief was pretty simple, do whatever you want with it. Jeff Palhegyi from JPD Customs was one of the chosen builders. Over the years Jeff has created more than 60 individual custom Stars for Yamaha, but this was his first Star Bolt. After throwing around a few concepts, Jeff decided to turn the Bolt into a retro styled dirt tracker. "I have always been a fan of Dirt Track Racing and the Star Bolt ‘Dirt Track Concept' was a natural fit" he says. The bike may not have won the Bolt Build Off – that was awarded to Doc's Chops – but it did receive a lot of attention and is still one of our favourite Bolt builds.

Initially, Jeff and his team were just going to add dirt track wheels and bodywork to build this street tracker, after purchasing these items they figured out that the steering head was too high and the swing arm too long. Placing the chassis in the fixture they cut the top tube away from the chassis, along with that went the steering head down tubes and eventually the whole bottom of the chassis. 

After reworking the chassis, they realized that modifying the stock tank was going to work nicely. The stock tank was chopped down 2 inches. They also shortened the swing arm almost 3 inches and put everything together only to see that the shocks stuck out in the wind with the dirt track tail section. "Back out came the sawzall and the rear of the chassis was cut away, Geeze there was nothing left!" says Jeff. "I got on the phone with Penske and a custom dirt track monoshock was on the way. With all that done the tail was still not right, I sectioned it and added 2 inches, fabbed up a subframe, hand made aluminium side covers and number plates."

With the build deadline looming, Jeff still didn’t like the way the stock headlight looked and he also needed an exhaust."Burns stainless provided the cool ultra lite mufflers and a bunch of u-bends to build the exhaust. I went online and found the perfect size lights from KC and fabbed up the new aluminium front number plate. Yamaha R6 forks were used and we machined the retro TZ look carrier and front rotor, wheels are from Dave at Jupiter wheel, tires are Goodyear Dirt Track, seat was made by Howard McKee and the paint was laid on by our regular Benny Flores. When we were done, there was almost a complete Yamaha Bolt on the floor of the workshop, less the engine and electrical."  

The Bolt's simplicity really helped Jeff and his team achieve this stripped down retro dirt tracker. "I'll be the first to admit we got a little carried away with the fabrication work" he says. "It was great fun and that's what a bike build is all about." 

from pipeburn