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This scary TZ750 flat track racer is also street legal

This Yamaha TZ750 flat track racer is also street legal
When we were talking to Brad Peterson about his XR750 street tracker a month ago, he let slip that he also had a TZ750 in his garage. And it too was street legal.

An explosive Yammie two-stroke with classic flat track good looks is too hard to resist, so we just had to show it. But we’re not sure if we want to ride it: Brad may have balls the size of church bells, but we don’t.

This Yamaha TZ750 flat track racer is also street legal
The TZ750 was one of the most extreme flat track racers of all time: it was banned after one race win in the mid 70s, and Kenny Roberts would hit 145mph going down the straights.

Steve Baker was another rider who wrestled with the TZ750. “One of my buddies showed me a picture of Steve Baker’s original dirt tracker, and said that a TZ750 would make a crazy street tracker,” Brad recalls. “That one picture, which is still pinned to my garage wall, started this adventure.”

This Yamaha TZ750 flat track racer is also street legal
This TZ750 is built around a replica of a Champion Racing frame. And it’s not any old replica: the original Doug Schwerma design has been replicated and built by Jeff Palhegyi, a man with a very solid reputation in the twin worlds of motorsport and Yamaha tuning.

“I don’t have enough luck to ever come by one of the original six Champion-framed TZs,” Brad admits. “So putting together a replica is as good as it’s going to get for me.”

This Yamaha TZ750 flat track racer is also street legal
Nestling in that frame is a 1977 TZ 750D motor built by Scott Guthrie Racing, a company that has set over 380 land speed records. (This particular TZ motor owns several records itself, in other vehicles.)

The ‘D’ spec motor got a 30 horsepower boost over its three predecessors, and in stock formed pushed out 120 hp. This one has been outfitted with Lectron carburetors and has been gas flowed and tuned specifically for street use.

This Yamaha TZ750 flat track racer is also street legal
Those glorious expansion chambers are again Jeff Palhegyi’s work. He’s topped them off with a pair of tiny mufflers from TZ Mike.

“I’ve found you can’t sneak around on it much,” Brad says. “It’s an angry beast of a bike that makes an enormous amount of noise and leaves a trail of two-stroke smoke like you can’t believe.”

This Yamaha TZ750 flat track racer is also street legal
Like many flat track machines, this TZ750 is running Yamaha YZF-R6 forks, mated to the frame with custom triples. An R6 donated its brakes too—including the front caliper, and the front rotor (with a custom disk carrier).

Santa Fe Motors supplied the 19-inch rims (shod with Dunlop rubber) and there’s a quick-change rear hub, alongside another R6 caliper and rotor and Race Tech shocks.

This Yamaha TZ750 flat track racer is also street legal
The bars are from Flanders, one of the oldest names in the bending fraternity, and are graced with brake and cylinder masters from Brembo. The Scitsu tach and temperature gauges are original, though.

The discreet lighting from Baja Designs is required to make the TZ street legal. “It’s a total loss electrical system,” Brad explains. “Can’t remember when I charged the battery last. Crazy long life!”

This Yamaha TZ750 flat track racer is also street legal
The low-profile bodywork is by First Klass Glass. Brad painted it himself—in the Yamaha Canada red colors of #32 Steve Baker, of course.

“It’s legit street legal,” he adds. “Title, lights and all. Race bikes and motors are originally sold without titles, so I spent a lot of time working through the processes to get it to the street.”

This Yamaha TZ750 flat track racer is also street legal
The TZ750 has no starter, but it will bump start in less than six feet. “Once I figured out the right spark plug to use, it’s crazy how easy it starts. Originally Yamaha recommended two plugs—one for warming up and a second for racing—but I found a happy medium.”

The TZ might be legal to ride on the street, but the power band is akin to a light switch. “When the revs hit about 7,000, it lights the back tire up violently—and at the same time lifts the front wheel, pulling hard all the way to 11,000,” says Brad.

This Yamaha TZ750 flat track racer is also street legal
Brad lives in the same town as Steve Baker, who’s still a regular at the small local flat track. And there are plans in the works to get Baker and the TZ750 together in Canada on a 1/2 mile this summer.

We reckon Baker is a brave man, but it should be epic.

Images by John Meloy and Pierre Robichaud.

This Yamaha TZ750 flat track racer is also street legal

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2 stroke motorcycles BikeExif cafe racer Custom Motorcycles Other Motorcycle Blogs

Café Express: Freeride’s Montesa Cota 247 cafe racer

Montesa Cota 247 cafe racer conversion by Freeride Motos Racing
If you’ve ridden a two-stroke, you’ll know how addictive the power rush (and sound) can be. So we have a soft spot for anything that smells pungent and goes braaap—especially if it’s got a bit of history and a side order of style.

Montesa bikes tick all the boxes: the Spanish manufacturer was hugely successful in motocross and road racing from the sixties to the mid-eighties. Its Cota 247 model was also popular with trials riders—but who’d have thought a trials bike would make a great little café racer?

Montesa Cota 247 cafe racer conversion by Freeride Motos Racing
Proof comes from the small village of Graulhet in southwest France, which is home to Pierre Dhers and his company Freeride Motos Racing.

Pierre specializes in the repair and maintenance of classic bikes, and prepping machines for vintage racing series. But he’s also very good at creating sharp-looking, quirky customs—like the Honda CX650 scrambler we featured a few months ago.

Montesa Cota 247 cafe racer conversion by Freeride Motos Racing
“Although this Montesa was a trials bike originally,” Pierre tells, “our client wanted it transformed into a sport model. He was inspired by racing history, when Montesas skimmed around the circuits of Spain and the world in the 70s.”


It’s one hell of a transformation. At just 192 pounds (87 kilos) dry, the original Cota 247 is a nimble handler so weight reduction was not a priority.

Montesa Cota 247 cafe racer conversion by Freeride Motos Racing
At the core of this build is the engine, a punchy little 247 cc number that puts out 20 frisky horses in stock form.

Pierre has given it a full reconditioning, with new bearings and seals, and even a new crankshaft. He’s also tweaked the stock exhaust system and intake, and fitted a big bore piston kit from Italkit.

Montesa Cota 247 cafe racer conversion by Freeride Motos Racing
The original Amal carb has been upgraded to a Mikuni VM26 with a free-flowing BMC filter, and there’s now a Powerdynamo electronic ignition to keep the timing nice and regular.

After many ours of fettling and polishing, the motor looks as good the day it left the Barcelona factory in 1972.

Montesa Cota 247 cafe racer conversion by Freeride Motos Racing
Right above is the fuel tank from a Malaguti Olympic, a 50cc moped from the 1970s. It’s an inspired choice: in this context, the chiseled lines look amazingly contemporary and completely change the vibe of the Cota.

Pierre has added a custom fiberglass rear cowl to match, plus discreet aluminum fenders. Midwest Aero Design shot the intense red paint, and a fresh coat of satin black epoxy helps the frame fade into the background.

Montesa Cota 247 cafe racer conversion by Freeride Motos Racing
Pierre has modified the frame to suit the new lines, and also given it a thorough overhaul. “I cleaned up the welds with new TIG welds—for strength, because the originals are poor quality.”

The new rear cowl is covered in a racy black suede that extends over the seat pan, applied by Kabuki 
Sellerie. We haven’t heard of that French shop before, but they obviously know what they’re doing.

Montesa Cota 247 cafe racer conversion by Freeride Motos Racing
Since this Cota tips the scales at less than 200 pounds, full Öhlins superbike suspension would be overkill.

So Pierre has overhauled and cut down the original Betor forks. Now fitted with shorter springs, they’re hooked up to 18-inch period-correct Akront wheels using a hub from a 1960s Montesa Impala street bike. There’s a matching Akront out back, cushioned by new YSS shocks.

Montesa Cota 247 cafe racer conversion by Freeride Motos Racing
Converting a trials bike to a café racer involves a multitude of smaller details too. Pierre has created dozens of small parts—including new mounts for the tank, seat and repositioned footpegs—and adapted Tarozzi aluminum linkages for the foot controls.


He’s built new clip-ons too, adapting them to the stock Cota 247 top yoke, and installed a Domino throttle and Amal brake and clutch levers.

Montesa Cota 247 cafe racer conversion by Freeride Motos Racing
The little Montesa is now ready to hit the streets. And we don’t know whether to applaud the new owner for his unusual choice of steed, or feel slightly jealous.

This pocket-sized café racer is unlikely to break any lap records at Paul Ricard, but it’ll rule the roost at the traffic light Grand Prix. More of this braaaple sauce, please!

Freeride Motos Racing | Facebook | Instagram

Montesa Cota 247 cafe racer conversion by Freeride Motos Racing

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2 stroke motorcycles BikeExif Custom Motorcycles Deus Customs Honda motorcycles Other Motorcycle Blogs Trackers

Deus builds a wild street tracker for Dani Pedrosa

Dani Pedrosa's Honda CR500 street tracker motorcycle
Building a custom bike for a motorcycle racer is a tall order. And the stakes are even higher when your customer is one of the fastest riders in the world.

Dani Pedrosa hung up his MotoGP leathers at the end of last year, with 54 wins to his name. That makes him the seventh winningest racer in GP history, tied with Mick Doohan.

Deus builds a street tracker for Dani Pedrosa
This mental Honda street tracker is Dani’s retirement present, built by Michael Woolaway in collaboration with Red Bull.

Woolie is the head wrench at Deus in the USA, and he’s big on machines that go fast: He’s currently a prepping a Ducati Hypermotard for his second entry into the Pikes Peak hill climb.

Dani Pedrosa and Michael Woolaway of Deus Ex Machina USA
Dani spent every single one of his 13 years in MotoGP with Honda, so picking a suitable donor was a no-brainer. Woolie settled on one of the most ballistic machines Big Red ever made—the CR500.

He didn’t want the whole bike though: he was just after its monstrous single-cylinder, two-stroke power plant. So the team sourced a complete 1985-model CR500, and yanked out the motor. It’s now housed inside a completely bespoke chromoly frame, built by master frame builder Jeff Cole.

Deus builds a street tracker for Dani Pedrosa
The CR500 wasn’t just known for being crazy powerful—it was also near impossible to kick start. Woolie did some research, and then decided to raise the port timing.

“The porting was done by Jim Wood,” he tells us. “Jim’s an old-school motor builder, and still has his notes from the days when he did more than two hundred porting jobs of this type.”

Deus builds a street tracker for Dani Pedrosa
Woolie then moved the kickstand mount nearer to the left foot peg, to give 5’ 2” Dani a solid platform to stand on when kicking it. But after bruising his left foot arch (right through his trials boots), Woolie started searching for a better solution.

In the end, he added an automatic compression release to the cylinder head to solve the problem.

Deus builds a street tracker for Dani Pedrosa
The engine rebuild also included the addition of coils, so that Dani can run lighting. Woolie also fitted a set of old hand-sandcast HRC engine side covers, and installed a hand-made radiator from Jeff Johnson.

Lectron came to the party too, with a special custom-built carb “that laughed at the idea of being affected by altitude.”

Deus builds a street tracker for Dani Pedrosa
The chassis spec is equally impressive. It includes Öhlins forks, held by adjustable triple clamps from Davie Durelle. Jimmy Wood rebuilt the forks, and built a custom Race Tech shock according to data Woolie supplied. The wheels are 19” laced units, built by Dubya in California and wrapped in street legal dirt track rubber.

Deus builds a street tracker for Dani Pedrosa
Next up, Woolie hand-shaped the Honda’s new tracker-style bodywork from aluminum. The number board, tank and tail section are all his work, and take inspiration from classic American flat track race bikes. The seat pad’s a custom job from Saddlemen, and has The Slide King’s number stitched into it.

It’s a good look, and if you’re digging it, Deus have just released a poster to celebrate.

Deus builds a street tracker for Dani Pedrosa
Every last part on Dani’s new runabout is top shelf, from the custom exhaust system, down to smaller parts like the handlebars, controls and brakes. And since the project started with a fresh frame and motor, all the bits and pieces in between (like the brake mounts) are hand made.

Deus builds a street tracker for Dani Pedrosa
The level of finish is high and the livery is beautifully subtle. All the right elements are present: Dani’s number up front, Red Bull’s logo ghosted onto the tank, and Honda’s wings on the tail section.

Deus builds a street tracker for Dani Pedrosa
But it’s the combination of that beastly motor and a competition-spec chassis that has us impressed…and a little terrified.

“This bike is a bad little bike,” Woolie agrees. “It’s not intended for the average rider, as she is a bit of a weapon.”

“But when you’re building a bike for Dani Pedrosa…”

Deus Customs | Facebook | Instagram | Michael Woolaway Instagram | Studio photos by Scott G Toepfer, outdoor shots by Red Bull

Deus builds a street tracker for Dani Pedrosa