CAFÉ RACER 76

KLASSIK KUSTOMS - Jan X Schulte-Meyer.

‘86 Yamaha SRX600 – Dagger Cycles

Japanese Motorcycles make up a large part of the custom scene. CB Hondas of the 70’s are everywhere. 90’s litre bikes built the Street Fighter Scene and the modern machines from the land of the rising sun are turned into everything from modern café bikes to turbocharged drag strip warriors. The gap has largely been in the period of the 1980’s where the bikes were often square in design and down on power. But the SRX was the bike that caught Roby’s eye as a young man so now three decades later as the owner of Dagger Cycles in Biella, Italy, he took the chance to build the bike from his youth. A 1986 Yamaha SRX600 in less than great condition is the basis for this punk machine and Roby wanted it to be a visual smack in the face.

The engine was pulled from the frame and required a full rebuild which Roby did with absolute precision before painting the covers black and polishing the cases. The 608cc single cylinder 4 stroke punches out a healthy 45bhp and with a relatively low compression ratio it’ll do it all day long and pull from low rpms. To capture the thumper sound the exhaust is all stainless with a matching shorty muffler poking out from under the frame. Before the engine was bolted back into the frame Roby took the time to have the frame, swing arm and rims all powder coated black.

One of the features that first captured the attention of a young Roberto Polizzi was the fact the Yamaha was a lightweight machine with a three disc setup. It might be considered standard now but it was ahead of its time in the 1980’s. The front stock brake discs are kept with revised calipers and Brembo radial master cylinder while the rear is an overhauled stock system with braided hose.

With a dry weight of just 149kg the Yamaha pulls up in a hurry and now it’s been given the suspension to match. The front forks have totally rebuilt internals to both improve handling and match the lowered stance that saw Roby push the forks down through the triple trees. The rear was one of the last lightweight Yamahas to sport a twin shock rear, so Roby upgraded the classic look with better performance thanks to a pair of twin GAS shocks.

At this point Roby had himself a smooth running, great stopping, lightweight machine but the looks just weren’t for him. A bikini fairing from an MV with a small headlight starts the look with “Ignore Alien Orders” graphics on the right side, a hint at Roby’s way of thinking. The tank is stock but has been given a heavy flake paint job in Cherry Red with the Dagger Cycles logo.

The tail section is handmade from fibreglass in a matte finish and sporting some unique race graphics. The seat is a clever reworking of the standard item that fits up to the tank perfectly and is finished with custom stitching. While the rest of the body work like the side covers and oil reservoir were finished in matte black to blend more easily into the frame.

To get the riding position he was after Roby mounted the clip-ons in an inverted position that when viewed from front on gives a flat bar look. To reduce clutter the switch block is from an enduro machine and the speedo is all the visuals you need straight from an RD Yamaha. With a Brembo item on the right side clutch duties are taken care of by a Renthal lever and MX grips for your hands. The rear lights for roadworthy are round units integrated into the tail with bullet indicators to match.

Dagger Cycle don’t follow trends and Roby is unapologetic about that fact, they build what they like and if it doesn’t match what’s trending then even better! “Maybe the only problem it had is that it belonged to a period, the mid-Eighties, in which the classic shapes of the old bikes were changing into something new.”

“That bike was a little ‘messy’, but on another side, it was a good start for such a different project.” And different it is, a 1980’s Japanese machine, built by a Punk from Northern Italy, designed to look mean and shred the streets. Roby is not after your approval but he’s earning a lot of respect and the heavily tattooed, beard sporting builder has built an SRX to intimidate all others.

via PIPEBURN

Aston Martin Ulster spearheads Bonhams’ solid Goodwood sale

Last Friday, in the surprisingly quiet confines of the Bonhams tent situated just behind Goodwood House, auctioneer Robert Brooks brought the gavel down on 70 cars, achieving an impressive £17m all in…

World Record

As expected, the big hitters were Stirling Moss’s Porsche RS-61 Spyder, fetching a bang-on-estimate £1,905,500 (inclusive of buyer’s premium, as all listed prices are), and the Aston Martin Works Ulster LM19, which achieved £2,913,500 after an agonisingly long spell of tactical bidding, smashing its £1.6-2.2m estimate and earning a new World Record price for a pre-War Aston Martin in the process. Don't expect to see another offered for sale any time soon...

Perfect Porsche, perfect price

Several cars well exceeded their pre-sale estimates, including the Citroën SM from the collection of Rolling Stone Bill Wyman (£61,000), the matching-numbers Aston Martin V8 Vantage Volante (£306,140), and Richard Hamilton’s ‘perfect’ Porsche 911 S (est. 250,000-300,000), the latter fetching a staggering £393,500. And we can’t say we’re surprised – it really did look terrific in the metal.

Crime pays

The £51,750 achieved for James May’s Porsche 911 3.2 Carrera confirmed our thoughts that its £28,000-34,000 estimate was more than reasonable, while the Ferrari 308 Vetroresina’s £60,000-80,000 estimate proved similarly conservative, the achieved £117,980 seeming to us, at least, a little more on the money given its condition. The Ferrari Enzo (est. £600,000-800,000) – recovered by the National Crime Agency and sold under the Proceeds of Crime Act – made £897,500, a strong price given its confusing back-story and dodgy owner.

A number of Series I Jaguar E-types sold well, one gunmetal Coupé surpassing its high estimate by £54,000. And we must admit, we were a little surprised at the £1,513,500 attained for the (t00?) outrageous Mercedes CLK GTR Roadster, a ’90s hypercar showing just eight (yes, eight) kilometres on the clock. What were we saying about ultra-low-mileage classics, again?

A solid sale

It wasn’t all rosy on the day, though, with several key lots failing to sell – take the sale's sole Mercedes 300 SL ‘Gullwing’, both the Ferrari 512BB and black Dino, and the ex-Autodelta Alfa Romeo 2000 GTAm, for example. While there were no ‘steals’ as such, we reckon the low-mileage, matching-numbers and highly original Porsche 930 3.3 was a good buy at £102,300, the buyer’s premium nudging it just over its lower estimate.

Shinola brings new life to Detroit design

Why start a watch-making business in Detroit? That was the question posed countless times to Tom Kartsotis when he founded Shinola in the crisis-ridden ‘Motor City’. But the experiment paid off, becoming a true American success story…

That’s where the phrase ‘you don’t know shit from Shinola’ originated...

For American soldiers in World War II, the dark brown shoe polish made by Shinola was standard equipment. Legend has it that one rebellious GI polished his commander’s boots with dog faeces instead, his action luckily going unnoticed as the commander proudly displayed his shiny boots. That’s where the phrase ‘you don’t know shit from Shinola’ originated and, despite the brand closing in the 1960s, the phrase lived on.

A new start in Detroit

Tom Kartsotis, who founded Fossil in 1984 as a college drop-out, creating a multi-billion-dollar lifestyle brand within 10 years, only knew Shinola from this old tale. The American brand had faded out in the ’70s but, in 2011, Kartsosis adopted the name Shinola and opened a huge brick complex in midtown Detroit, the once-thriving ‘Motor City’, where there was previously a research laboratory for General Motors. The company might be producing a range of very different products, but Kartsosis and his team remain true to the spirit of the original Shinola – as an iconic American manufacturer that began as a small company with big ideas.

Swiss instructors, American apprentices

Since the collapse of the American automotive industry, Detroit featured in the headlines primarily for unemployment, emigration, crime and decay. Amid the ruins, Shinola set up and recruited new employees to make its watches. Candidates were abundant, most having worked previously in the automotive industry. Watch experts were a little harder to find, so Shinola commissioned Swiss watchmaker Ronda to produce its movements and train its workers. Today at Shinola, not only are the intricate movements assembled, but the dials are painted by hand, too. Furthermore, the leather straps are produced in-house.

From watchmaker to design factory

The first timepiece from Shinola appeared in 2013 – a simple and robust watch available in two sizes. The company produced 2,500 pieces and they sold out within two weeks. Today, Shinola aims to build 150,000 pieces over the course of this year, with a series of watch ‘families’ named the Runwell, the Brakeman, the Rambler, the Birdy and the Gomelsky. But that’s not all – Kartsotis then moved into other aspects of design. Bringing in a proven partner, the Horween Leather Company, together they produce straps for Shinola’s watches, wallets, iPad cases and even American footballs.

Back to a bygone era

Even bicycles are assembled at its Detroit premises. Created in conjunction with Richard Schwinn in Wisconsin, they are signature Shinola, with trendy, easy-to-recognise aesthetics and robust functionality.

Shinola’s success harks back to a bygone era but, once again, the name carries prestige; and it has brought new life to Detroit. The Shinola brand has so far created 380 jobs in the vulnerable city (170 in manufacturing) and, more importantly, provided hope for the future. The brand has been well received in the rest of America, too – former president Bill Clinton is said to have 14 Shinola watches…

Handcrafted in Detroit

It’s not just buyers in the US delighted by the classic American success story. Shinola’s first European flagship store has just opened in London, and you can even buy its timepieces in Switzerland, the promised land of watchmaking. Production continues to grow in Detroit, with more and more products featuring in its range – even the famous shoe polish was reintroduced. Whether it’s used by the American military again is, however, another question….