Category: Trackers

Custom Bikes Of The Week: 15 April, 2018

Post author By Matt Neundorf
Post date April 15, 2018

The best cafe racers, scramblers and trackers of the week
A Ducati Monster tracker ready for the Superhooligans, a monstrous Indian Chief-powered cafe from Germany, a gorgeous Honda built for Steve Caballero by Denton Moto, and a heavily patina’d Honda CB450 from … Nepal.

Indian Chief cafe racer by Detlev Louis Motorrad
Indian Chief by Detlev Louis Motorrad Indian has its engine game on lock down: everyone loves the performance of the 100-horsepower beast in the Scout, and the looks of the gorgeously finned Thunder Stroke 111. To further bolster that point, the huge European parts dealer Detlev Louis Motorrad has taken an Indian Chief and built a bruiser of a cafe racer dubbed Engina.

It’s more than just a pretty bike. Out of the box, the Thunder Stroke delivers 119 ft-lbs of torque, which is plenty impressive. But after a new set of cams were swapped in, airflow was redirected, the heads were re-touched and the ECU was flashed, engine specialist Ulf Penner dug up an incredible 70% increase. Engina now develops about 125 horses and could probably shred the Earth’s mantle with an angry right wrist.

Indian Chief cafe racer by Detlev Louis Motorrad
All that could have been done to a stock Chief if they wanted. Instead, an all-new lightweight frame was welded together, a USD front end was fitted up, and a Wilbers rear shock was bolted onto the swingarm. A set of custom Kineo wheels was laced up and big, beefy Brembos were enlisted to scrub speed. Detlef Stüdemann and Martin Struckmann are the wrenches behind this madness and their hard work has been rightfully collecting awards since its debut at Glemseck 101 last September. If you’re headed to Wheels and Waves later this year, keep an eye (or an ear) out for it. [More]

Ducati Monster tracker by Behind Bars Customs Just over a week ago, Ducati announced their partnership with Lloyd Brothers Racing to run a Monster-based racer in the American Flat Track Grand National Series. And while the 821-powered bike being piloted by Steve Bonsey looks the business, so does this tracker from San Diego based Behind Bars Customs—which tips a hat to Paul Smart.

Built using a 1995 Monster 900 as its base, the plan was to have a streetable machine that would split lanes and loft the front end on a whim. Of course, also being able to handle its own amongst the Superhooligans at the dirt oval sounded like a good idea too. So it’s more than just lipstick and mascara going on here.

With a frame, swingarm and engine lying in separate spots in the shop, the team went to work on putting together a tighter and faster package. The frame received some additional gusseting up front to eliminate twist when going slideways, and a matched set of 19-inch Dubya wheels were laced up to balance stance. The Duc’s original tank has had its voluptuous love handles shaved down to match the width of the trellis frame. Which, let’s be honest, will always look a stunner in Sea Green. [More]

Steve Caballero’s Honda CL175 racer Just over a year ago, I was at Willow Springs for a track day with some Californian friends. And while I was prepping a loaned XSR900 for tech inspection, I saw a childhood hero unloading a 1944 flathead, with a jockey shift no less. Steve Caballero’s love of motorcycles has been well documented, but I was still blown away by how he muscled that old Harley around Big Willow.

Steve probably wanted something a little more lithe for the upcoming AHRMA season, so he’s partnered with Texas-based Denton Moto to create this Honda CL175 called Cabracer360. But unlike most customers commissioning a build—especially celebs located out of state—Steve was involved in every aspect of the project.

Steve Caballero’s Honda CL175 racer
The 1969 CL175 donor was completely stripped and the engine was fully rebuilt, complete with an overbore to a more boisterous 209cc. New Keihin carbs were fitted to a set of shorter intakes, and a race-derived Cappellini oil pump was installed. On the handling end of things, the suspension at both ends has been modernized, and new clip-ons and rearsets deliver a proper racer’s tuck. And that tuck is shielded by an exquisite piece of fiberglass, courtesy of Glass From The Past.

Hopefully, next time I make it out to Willow Springs I’ll have the chance to see Steve and the Cabracer360 in action. Until then, these shots will have to do. [More]

Scrambler Ducati by Eastern Spirit Garage The votes are in for this years Scrambler Ducati Custom Rumble contest. The winners won’t be announced until World Ducati Week in July, but we have a feeling that this cafe’d version from Eastern Spirit Garage and Ducati Poland will take home top honors in the dealer category.

Credit the extensive use of negative space for making our mouths water around here. The relocation of the oil cooler and subsequent deletion of its bulky, plastic guards delivers a long-necked look that immediately draws the eye. ESG’s head wrench Sylwester Matusiak then created an excellent balance point by cleaning up the rear triangle, which helps showcase the Duc’s L-Twin and that gorgeous work on the exhaust.

Scrambler Ducati by Eastern Spirit Garage
The bodywork is equally impressive: the lines on the tail unit match those from the tank near perfectly. The new headlight bucket, held in place by an elegant set of ears and complete with frenched-in gauge placement, is spot on for the overall style. And the candy-apple red and gold colorway is classically inspired. [More]

Honda CB450 by RS Moto Nepal surely isn’t one of the first places that comes to mind when speaking about custom motorcycles. Raajib Sayami, the man behind Kathmandu’s RS Moto, aims to change that—and with builds like this CB450, he’s well on his way.

Although he has his work cut out for him—Nepalese laws prohibit modifying motorcycles—Raajib decided to throw caution to the wind and fire up the grinder anyway. The rear subframe has indeed been chopped and a new hoop welded up. It’s topped by that oh-so-controversial material, wood, for the seat. But the wood for this saddle actually has er, roots, as a religious artifact in Nepal. That gorgeous, dark top sheet was given shape by adding Canadian maple ply, so a little sacrilege certainly won’t hurt the cool factor.

Honda CB450 by RS Moto
The tank has been hand painted, sanded down and touched up again by a local artist to create a faux-patina that I think suits the bike’s overall look. The exhaust was hand built to work with the original header pipes, and the suspension has been Frankensteined by mating the fork tubes of a SR400 with the CB450’s lowers. In the rear, new shocks were ordered and shipped from Dime City Cycles, of all places. [More]

Honda CB450 by RS Moto

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Street Cred: Suicide Machine’s stripped-down Street 750

Post author By Chris Hunter
Post date April 11, 2018

There are some builders who seem to have the Midas touch: everything they create turns to gold. Aaron and Shaun Guardado are in that exclusive group, crafting beautiful racers and customs when they’re not tearing up dirt tracks—or running the Suicide Machine Company business out of Long Beach, California.

After Harley released the XG platform, the brothers were inspired to pay homage to the road-racing lineage of the famous XR750TT—and also showcase the XG750’s performance potential.

“We set out to turn the tame, street-cruising XG750 into an aggressive, lightweight hard cornering racing machine,” says Aaron. “It’d be a no nonsense, bare bones build.”

If there’s a Harley that ever symbolizes the ‘art of speed,’ this is it. But the only concrete plan Aaron and Shaun had before firing up the grinders was to use a trellis-style frame.

“This style is usually associated with Ducati, and Ducati is synonymous with performance—so it was a good direction to start out in.”

A friend with a genius for engineering helped with the design, and laid out a frame with geometry numbers from both the XR750 and the Ducati 1098. “With the modeling and dimensions outlined in SolidWorks CAD software, we could get started on the actual building of the bike,” Aaron says.

“We could have had the tubes CNC-bent and notched, and assembled it like a kit, but for this first bike we decided to manually construct it.” So Aaron and Shaun hand bent and notched each of the tubes for the frame out of 4130 chromoly—choosing the material for its low weight and high strength.

The frame tubes were tacked up and welded within a week. The design included the rear suspension (and single-sided swing arm) from the Ducati 1098, so SMCO bolted on a carbon fiber swing arm from Blackstone Tek. It’s two full kilos lighter than stock.

“We paired this swing arm with BST carbon fiber wheels and Öhlins suspension,” says Aaron. “The shock itself needed to be custom built, because of dimension constraints and weight differences between the 1098 and XG750 platforms.

“Öhlins were a huge help in this, and we ended up with a modified BMW S1000RR upper, with a standard 1098 lower mount.”

With the rear end suspension locked down, SMCO installed a set of shortened Öhlins FGRT301 forks, clamped in new triples trees with a custom offset.

“Seeing the frame modeled on the computer doesn’t compare to seeing it on the ground with engine and suspension in place. It was now almost a motorcycle, and one that you could throw a leg over and imagine speeding down the road.”

Designing the bodywork took time. Each piece started as a cardboard template that was transferred to aluminum sheet metal, hand cut, and bent and fitted as needed. “Even making the number plate was a complex task,” says Aaron. “It’s 13 individual pieces welded together to form a single part.”

Having a Harley power plant in a trellis frame is unique, so the boys didn’t want to hide the lines. The gas tank was designed after the frame had been completed, and fits between the frame rails and engine.

“It was such a tight fit and unconventional shape, we had to come up with a creative solution to access it,” says Aaron. “So we made the engine mounts removable with billet tube clamps from Camburg Racing. You unbolt the two mounts and the engine will drop, or the frame can be lifted up to remove the tank.”

Another challenge was mounting the fuel pump assembly inside the tank. “We couldn’t track down an aluminum mount to fit any surface of the tank, so we took a chunk of aluminum and machined our own with the manual mill.”

After the major bodywork pieces were completed, one crucial component was still missing: an air intake. “Although small, it took imagination and engineering to get right,” says Aaron. The result is a two-piece design equipped with an integrated K&N filter element.

Like everything else, it fits seamlessly without interrupting the lines of the motorcycle. “It was a challenge to hide most of the hardware and the wiring harness,” Aaron admits. But SMCO have pulled it off: this XG750 looks clean and minimalistic.

It helps, obviously, that it’s a show bike that’s ready to race. So it doesn’t need the regulatory clutter of a street bike. But the XG750 is water-cooled, so Aaron and Shaun had to find space for a radiator and coolant hoses within the trellis frame.

They’ve chosen a Ducati Hyperstrada radiator, hung from the frame in the same way the engine is. “We were very mindful in routing the coolant hoses so they fit nicely within the lines of the bike,” says Aaron. “So we machined an aluminum ‘junction block’ for the hoses, which also houses the thermostat and OEM temp sensor.”

The cooling system was a minor challenge compared to the electronics—which were needed for the fuel injection system and ECM. And the open frame didn’t give much space to hide electronic components. “We needed to find room for a battery, plus the sensors, relays and harness, which are typically stored under the seat area. Which we didn’t have much of,” says Aaron.

The solution was to store these components in a belly pan. “It was an afterthought that turned out to work better than we could have planned. We broke out the cardboard templates and extended the skid plate into a full blown belly pan.”

SMCO went with a compact Speedcell Lithium Motorsports battery pack, weighing just less than 1.6 lbs. They also opted for a Motogadget MotoScope Pro display with a mount from Kraus Motor Co. “It shows speed, rpm, voltage, temp and lap timing and interfaced with the stripped down OEM harness and sensors easily.”

With the XG750 nearing completion, it was time to tackle the exhaust system. “It’s something that can really make or break a bike. It should complement the other components and flow nicely with the overall lines without ‘taking away’,” says Aaron.

The trellis frame and aluminum bodywork are very angular and geometric, so having a swoopy exhaust wouldn’t fit the build. An angular exhaust sounds contrary to common sense, but after a several mock-ups the final design works perfectly.

It’s a full stainless system, starting with 1½-inch headers, which step up to 1¾ before going into a collector. The system terminates with a 2¼-inch Burns Stainless reverse megaphone, ordered to spec.

It’s all incredibly high quality work and the finishing details are top shelf too: Brembo brake calipers front and rear, paired with Brembo T-Drive rotors and RCS hand controls mounted on full carbon fiber handlebars.

For even more weight savings, SMCO have upgraded the Ducati 1098 cush drive to a Superlite Hyperflex billet alloy sprocket carrier. The throttle is a MotionPro Rev2 assembly—with interchangeable throttle cams—to give a smooth, fully customizable power delivery.

Aaron and Shaun also fabricated the foot controls, using RSD prototype components that they cut up and mixed and matched.

The very last item fitted was a custom seat from Saddlemen. “They did an amazing job on the fit and finish,” says Aaron. “They built a carbon fiber seat pan which is paired with top quality leather. It really brought everything together without standing out on its own.”

Paint is something that the brothers prefer to outsource, so Pete Finlan from Hot Dog Customs added some discreet pinstripes and branding.

“We set out to build a motorcycle that paid homage to Harley’s racing heritage,” says Aaron. “At the start we didn’t really have a grasp on what the final product would be. It wasn’t a fully mapped-out build, and a lot changes were made as we went along.”

“But it worked out, and worked out well. It could have come out looking a million different ways, and this is just one of the ways. It’s not right or wrong, it’s just a product of our combined imaginations.”

We’d say it’s very right indeed.

Suicide Machine Co. | Instagram | Images by Jose Gallina

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Don’t Call it a Bitsa: Hello Engine’s Triumph 750 TT Tracker

Post author By Wesley Reyneke
Post date March 16, 2018

Work on motorcycles long enough, and you’ll amass two things: a pile of leftover parts, and the wisdom to know which of those parts go best together. Hayden Roberts has hit that level, and this candy-coated vintage Triumph dirt tracker is the result.

Hayden restores and repairs vintage British machines under the moniker ‘Hello Engine.’ Originally from Birmingham, England, he escaped to the Californian coast in the early 2000s; “about 40 years too late,” he says.

“I quit my real job to start rescuing old British bikes a fair few years ago and currently work out of Ventura County, CA. I put this bike together an hour at a time between customer jobs over the past three months.”

So what is it, exactly? “The goal was to make a mid-60s TT bike,” Hayden explains, “something you’d see racing at Ascot. But with the late 750 five-speed, which was the best motor Triumph made.”

Hayden started with a 1965 Triumph competition frame, “because the head angle was steeper than the later bikes, and it had the best geometry for that kind of racing.”

As for the motor, he specifically wanted the torquey parallel port 750cc Bonneville power plant from the late 70s. “I stumbled across one of these motors on Craigslist,” he says, “while getting a sandwich in a town a couple hours north of us.”

The 750 came with a left side shifter, since Triumph switched their well-known right side shifter over to the left in 1975. “But all proper bikes shift on the right,” says Hayden.

“So, with a little machining and intermingling of earlier parts, I put the shifter back where belongs.”

He also lightened and balanced the crank, switched out the factory cams for a set of TT ones, and threw in a couple of higher compression pistons. Other upgrades include a battery-less CDI ignition and a set of Amal Mk2 carbs.

The exhaust ports have also been modified: they now accept clamp-on pipes, rather than the traditional push-in types that can come loose.

The actual exhaust system is a pair of TT pipes that Hayden had lying around the workshop. “Over the years I’d stockpiled a fair amount of spares and castaways. As any shop would tell you, old chrome piles high and is pretty much useless in any restoration project. So I used as much as I could in this build.”

Other salvaged parts include the 1966-model slimline gas tank, the oil tank, a set of folding competition pegs and a late 60s rear drum brake. The oil tank’s been modded with an outside filler, and the pegs fitted with replacement Bates rubbers.

The rims are shouldered Akronts from the 70s, laced up with stainless spokes from Buchanan’s. The front drum brake hub is from a 500, which Hayden points out is a fair bit lighter than the 650 unit. “Both drums have been turned and the shoes matched, so they actually stop,” he says.

The front’s held up by a set of Ceriani forks, re-valved and sprung to match the bike’s weight. A new set of NJB shocks do duty at the rear, with an authentically basic aluminum fender capping things off.

Up top are wide N.O.S. handlebars, a Tommaselli Daytona throttle, and new grips. A pair of Tommaselli headlight ears have been repurposed to hold a number board, rather than a headlight. The only lighting anywhere on the bike is a small Harley marker light, mounted on the left for use as a tail light.

“No turn signals are needed on pre-73 bikes in California,” explains Hayden. “Headlight? I’ve never found a headlight I like the look of on a street tracker so I don’t use one. Just don’t ride at night, I guess. It’s got a historical license plate so the law is a little open to interpretation.”

That Bates-style seat looks like another refurbished part, but it’s not. It mimics the Bates competition seats of the 60s, but it’s been designed to match the frame’s lines better, and is better padded than the original. Hayden uses the same seat on all his desert sled builds, using seat pans made for him by Evan at Iron Cobras.

The glitter vinyl it’s wrapped in probably won’t suit everyone’s tastes…but this is Hayden’s bike. “I’m just a fan of bright bikes,” he says, “and this was a good excuse to throw a bunch of metallic paint at something. From the 1970s Rolls Royce palette: peacock blue frame and regency bronze tank.”

We happen to like the combination—but even if you don’t, this is one sorted vintage racer. On top of the serious diet it’s been through, Hayden reckons it’s punching out about 20 percent more horsepower.

And almost all the work you see here was done in-house, including the motor rebuild, head work, wheel builds and paint. Even the heads on all the stainless steel fasteners have been turned down on a lathe to remove their manufacturer markings. “The only thing we didn’t do was polish the aluminum and paint the stripes on the top of the gas tank,” says Hayden.

You could technically call Hayden’s new sled a bitsa, but that’d be unfair. It’s a combination of Triumph’s greatest hits; a shimmering delight that makes us wish we were in California right now.

Hello Engine on Instagram | Images by Scott G Toepfer

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Fast cat: Mule’s Panther-framed Triumph T140 tracker

Post author By Chris Hunter
Post date March 5, 2018

Regular readers will need no introduction to Richard Pollock. Better known as Mule, the irascible Californian is opinionated, blunt, and probably the best builder of tracker-style bikes in the world today.

Pollock is entitled to his opinions. If you were planning to write the textbook on how to create a high-performance street tracker, you’d save time by analyzing the components of (and thinking behind) a Mule build.

This silver dream machine is Mule’s latest creation, and powered by a hot-rodded Triumph T140 engine. Like many Mule bikes, it’s grounded in the present but with a nod to the past: the frame and swingarm are rare Panther items, crafted in British Columbia in the mid 1970s.

“The bike arrived—as so many do—with a list of simple, desired upgrades,” says Pollock. “In the end, the only parts we retained from the donor were the swingarm and the main frame loop, both of which got multiple repairs.”

“The other request was a less than one-year turnaround. No!” Three years and an entirely new bike was the result.

Fine-tuning the frame was only the start of it. Pollock has installed a 1973 Triumph T140 engine, which puts out considerably more than the humble 54 hp it achieved in factory spec. The 750cc parallel twin has been built by Charlie Barnes of Branch-O’Keefe, one of the best performance engine builders in California.

As well as the usual internal magic, Barnes replaced the standard 30mm Amal carbs with 34mm Mikunis. For the other end, Pollock enlisted the services of Mark McDade for a full custom exhaust system.

Modern electronic ignition helps deliver the power smoothly, but the gear changing is decidedly traditional. The T140 was the first Triumph twin with a left-side gearshift, but on this machine it’s been moved to the right side. The pegs are Mule’s own design, fitted with Bates rubbers.

A tracker needs to be good in the twisties, so Pollock has installed a set of 43mm Showa adjustable forks from one of Buell’s better handling bikes, the M2 Cyclone. They’re held in place by triple clamps from Barracuda Racing, lightened and black anodized. A pair of Hagon shocks suspends the rear: simple coils, nuthin’ fancy, but you can guarantee they’ll work.

The bike rolls on a fine pair of Sun rims, 19 inches of course, built up with spokes and nipples by the legendary Buchanan’s of Azusa, California. The front hub is from a 1978 Yamaha XS650, with Mule’s own custom bearing carriers, and the calipers are from a 2007-spec Triumph Bonneville.

There’s a Barnes-style hub at the back with Mule’s own adaptors, and Brembo has supplied the calipers—along with both front and rear master cylinders, which are hooked up to Crown Performance lines.

The rubber is from Goldentyre, and despite the chunky flat track tread pattern, it’s DOT legal.

The new bodywork has that lean, unfussy tracker look and sits on the old frame just perfectly. The tank is a Storz unit originally designed for the Harley Sportster, and the seat/tail section is a modified Ron Wood Rotax tracker design.

There’s a custom pad from Saddlemen and, just under the rear frame loop, an LED brake light. The side panels are especially neat, with covers to protect the substantial cone filters.

The headlight is another Sportster part—tucked in nice and tight against the fork tubes with the help of a modified Joker Machine mount—but the stainless bars are Pollock’s own design.

It’s all finished off with a low-key lick of paint applied by SBKPaint, one of California’s best paint shops and a specialist in fiberglass prep.

We’re betting that this Triumph is a long way off what the owner expected when he first contacted Mule. And it’s hard to imagine waiting three years for a bike to be built. But it looks like the result was worth it, doesn’t it?

Like they say, good things take time.

Mule Motorcycles | Richard Pollock Instagram | Images by Olivier de Vaulx

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This Board Tracker is Powered by A Lawnmower Engine

Post author By Wesley Reyneke
Post date February 14, 2018

Harley-Davidson isn’t the only manufacturer with roots in Milwaukee. Briggs & Stratton—known for their lawnmower motors—were founded in the Midwestern city too, just five years after The Motor Company.

That makes them a century old. And what better way to celebrate, than with a hand-made board tracker sporting a hot-rodded Briggs & Stratton power plant?

This amazing machine is the work of Jeff Wolf, who’s been building custom bikes and hot rods as a hobby for the past forty years. Jeff operates as Wolf Creative Customs out of his home workshop in Culver City, California and his son—who has his own surfboard shaping business—is usually roped in to help with designs.

Jeff’s specialty is gas-powered bicycles and one-off parts; board trackers like this one are his favorite. “I’ve always been fond of the timeless board track racer style,” he tells us, “and wanted to do something different.”

“I told myself this will be my last small cc build before I venture in to the big cc builds. After building just about every power plant I could fit into a bicycle frame, this one would have to make a statement.”

Jeff started with a custom frame, whipped up from scratch by his friend Richard Helmutt in Arizona. Richard supplied the frame complete with a custom-made, built-in fuel tank.

The forks look retro, but they’re actually brand new and sourced from the bicycle manufacturer Felt. Jeff wasn’t totally happy with the functionality though, so he added brackets to accommodate a mountain bike shock from DNM. He now has rebound and compression adjustment, and a lockout feature.

The wheels are 26” units, also from Felt. Jeff radial-laced the front to an off-the-shelf billet hub, and the rear to a one-off hub. There’s only one brake; it’s out back, and features a cable-actuated hydraulic caliper on a hand-made bracket.

The brake’s hooked up to an inverted lever, mounted to a set of hand-made stainless steel bars. The other end’s sporting an internal throttle, with a pair of hand-wrapped leather grips (made from an old belt) rounding out the cockpit. For a seat, Jeff modded an existing chopper pan, mounting it on a small shock to take the edge off.

And then there’s the motor: a 208 cc Briggs & Stratton flathead ripped out of a Junior class dragster. “It’s a class of racing within the NHRA,” Jeff explains. “The Briggs & Stratton Flathead Raptor is the choice of motors, making anywhere between eight and 45 horsepower.”

Jeff rebuilt the motor using a billet head, flat top piston, billet connecting rod and a re-ground custom cam with heavy-duty springs.

The head’s been ported, and there’s super light billet flywheel with adjustable timing too. The reduction drive system is from Sportsman Flyer, and has been modded to run with a Bully centrifugal clutch—so there’s no need for a hand-operated clutch.

A hand-made stainless steel intake is hooked up to a 22 mm Mikuni carb, and the exhaust is a modified Hooker header with a stainless end piece. All in all, the little 208 cc motor’s good for an incredible 60 mph (100 kph) with the current gearing. And because the bike still has working pedals, separate from the motor, it’s registered as a moped in Cali.

Pore over the Jeff’s handiwork a few times, and you’ll notice a number of discreet custom-made aluminum parts—all designed, built and polished in-house. Valley Customs handled the paint, shooting the tank in a classy black coat with a pair of silver Wolf logos.

Though it’s a small cycle, the detail is impressive (just take a look at that plumbing under the tank). We know Jeff’s itching to move onto bigger bikes, but we certainly hope he has a few more petite racers like this up his sleeve.

After all, he should have a lot more time on his hands soon. “I’m getting close to retirement from my day job,” he tells us, “and look forward to doing more of this work.”

Wolf Creative Customs Facebook | Instagram | Images by Jimmy Ban

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More fun than a month of Sundays: KLX 150 by Deus Bali

Post author By Chris Hunter
Post date January 11, 2018

Kawasaki KLX 150 beach tracker by Deus Bali
If you’re after a job in the motorcycle industry, Deus Bali has got to be one of the best places in the world to work. The ‘Temple of Enthusiasm’ is headquartered in Canggu, a resort village on the south coast of the island, and within riding distance of excellent surf beaches.

The Deus guys in Indonesia have been churning up the beach sand for a few years now, so they know what makes a good beach bike. Heavier motorcycles will bog down too quickly, and while it’s hilarious watching your mates somersault over the bars, someone is eventually going to get hurt.

Kawasaki KLX 150 beach tracker by Deus Bali
So the Canggu crew wanted to build a lightweight bike to skim across the heavy sands at low tide. A bike that makes it easy for you to put your left foot down, crack open the throttle and slide round. Something with a bit of a flat track vibe. So they built this heavily modified Kawasaki KLX 150.

“Indonesia doesn’t have a flat track fraternity at all,” says Deus’ special projects manager Anthony ‘Ano’ McInerheney. “There is no knowledge base out there. There’s also a 250cc ceiling on bike size. Above that ceiling, the price goes from already expensive to absolutely insane.”

Kawasaki KLX 150 beach tracker by Deus Bali
With that all in mind, the Deus crew went out and bought a Kawasaki KLX 150 straight off the showroom floor.

“Our mates thought us a little crazy,” says Anthony. “But what they might have forgotten is that the KLX 150 is strong and nimble, with a smooth power band. It puts out enough HP to keep it pinned the whole time. A KLX 150 might not be what you’d ride at home, but in Indonesia it’s readily available. And that was halfway to making this bike exactly what the doctor ordered.”

Kawasaki KLX 150 beach tracker by Deus Bali
Photoshop is your friend when designing a bike, Anthony reckons. “Take a pic of it stripped-down. Scale it and drop in the wheels you want, the tires you can get, and put the handlebars on. Start playing with shapes for the tank and the tail.”

“Before long, you can come up with the goods to feed to the guys in the garage.” Or as it’s called in Indonesia, the Bengkel.

Kawasaki KLX 150 beach tracker by Deus Bali
It’s in the Deus Bengkel that Arwin, Koko and the other lads work their magic. “They were excited to get their hands dirty on a project both new and different. The side stand was barely down before the bike was stripped,” says Ano.

Card templates were passed back and forward, but as soon as the silhouette was sorted, the Bengkel Boys grabbed their tools. “They’re basic at best—a hammer and a massive block of ironwood, no English wheel here!”

Kawasaki KLX 150 beach tracker by Deus Bali
Surplus parts were cast aside, and the existing subframe was chopped off and redesigned. In fact, the whole geometry was tweaked to make the KLX 150 happy to slide.

“We threw away the 21 and 17 inch wheels, replacing them with a pair of 18 x 2.5 rims,” says Anthony. “Then we cut and repositioned the gooseneck to level the whole bike out.”

Kawasaki KLX 150 beach tracker by Deus Bali
The tires, surprisingly enough, are road-biased rather than knobbies. “They don’t rut the beach up, but they slide beautifully on hard-packed sand.”

The high and wide bars are a tracker style item from the Japanese Hurricane brand, and fitted with Scott grips. “This combo turned out to be great for grabbing on to while jamming the front tire to the right!”

Kawasaki KLX 150 beach tracker by Deus Bali
The bodywork is all custom, and finished to Deus’ usual exemplary standards. The hand-built tank, side plates, headlight surround, and the seat and tail section were all hammered out of steel sheet.

Then the KLX 150 was reassembled, adjusted, and bashed and tapped still more until the Bengkel was satisfied. Then the Kawasaki was broken down again, this time to send the new metalwork to the paint shop to be prettied up.

Kawasaki KLX 150 beach tracker by Deus Bali
“Our beach tracking KLX isn’t your common garden variety flat track bike,” Anthony admits. “But this bike flies and slides.”

“It’s more fun than a month of Sundays when ripping along the water’s edge.”

Deus Bali | Facebook | Instagram | Images by Harry Mark

Kawasaki KLX 150 beach tracker by Deus Bali

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Desmo Flat: Home Made Motorcycles’ Ducati 750SS tracker

Post author By Chris Hunter
Post date December 11, 2017

Most custom builders are self-taught men and women: folks with a good grasp of mechanics and an ability to ‘learn on the job.’ Each build gets a little better than the last, and a reputation is forged.

That’s the path taken by Luca Caravà, who worked for Ducati before setting up Home Made Motorcycles four years ago. He worked behind the scenes at Borgo Panigale rather than on the factory floor, but he now has around 20 builds to his name. The hard work has paid off: Parts Europe commissioned this tracker-style build for their stand at the EICMA exhibition.

There aren’t many Ducati flat trackers around, but they usually look good—and ‘Desmo Flat’ upholds that fine tradition. It’s based on a 750SS, but with substantial mods.

“A few years ago, customer gave me his old, damaged 750SS,” says Luca. “It was a nice bike, but worth very little. The cost to repair it was bigger than its value.”

When the Parts Europe commission came in, Luca realized that the 750SS would be perfect. He dusted it off and started work—and then snapped an Achilles’ tendon while kickstarting a DR600.

It was big problem, but Luca had to work around it. He had only a month to get the tracker ready for EICMA. “I created systems that allowed me to work around my disability. It was a very hard period.” Luckily, Luca’s father was on hand, and pushed him around in a wheelchair while keeping tools and parts within reach.

On paper, the 750SS is a good starting point for a tracker-style build. It’s a light bike, at around 400 pounds dry, and with 64 hp and 62 Nm of torque, it’s got enough power to move quickly without aimlessly spinning the wheels. The bodywork is an acquired taste, but that’s just a good excuse to get rid of it.

The flat track essentials are all present and correct on Desmo Flat. Luca has ditched the stock Marzocchi USD forks and installed a set from a Yamaha R6, plus 19-inch Excel wheels from a Honda CRF. (That’s a two-inch increase from the standard wheels, and to get the back rim to fit, he had to modify the swingarm.)

The rear frame is new, and built to accommodate a pair of long-travel Bitubo shocks, instead of the standard Sachs Boge monoshock. The tail unit that sits on top of the new tubing is custom-made, along with the tank, and the angles suit the Ducati’s trellis frame perfectly.

It’s easy to spot the neat cut-out on the tank for the new K&N air filter setup; less obvious is the complete rewire, and the new box for the electronics.

Unlike a race-ready tracker, Desmo Flat has front brakes—with the 750SS’s twin front discs making way for an oversized single front disc.

The brake (and clutch) masters are from a Panigale, so there should be ample stopping power to test the grip of the Dunlop DT3 tires.

The engine gets a boost from a free-flowing exhaust system: it’s a mix of custom and off-the-shelf parts, with an Inox middle section and a Kerker muffler. (Kerker is a Parts Europe brand, and the company also supplied the bars, grips, seat pad, headlight and front faceplate.)

Luca’s Ducati is no buckin’ bronco pro flat track machine, but it captures the style with brio. And it wouldn’t be too hard to take off that front brake …

These days, you can pick up a rough-around-the-edges 750SS for a couple of grand, and a damaged one for less. Luca’s donor bike was only worth a thousand euros, which makes this a pretty budget build—and a pretty sharp-looking one too.

Maybe a secondhand Scrambler Ducati isn’t your only option for enjoying the dirt, Italian style.

Home Made Motorcycles | Facebook | Instagram | Images by Francesco Battistella

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Turning Granddad’s Harley into a Champion Flat Tracker

Post author By Wesley Reyneke
Post date December 6, 2017

Some people find it hard to hold onto a bike for more than a couple of years. It doesn’t take long before an itch sets in, and they find themselves window-shopping for the next set of wheels.

Canadian Ben Boyd is not like that. He’s owned this 1989 Harley-Davidson Sportster for a solid 23 years, since 1994, and not once has he considered shifting it. That’s because he inherited it from his late grandfather, Fred Boyd.

“Fred was a pretty big name in the post-war racing scene here in Vancouver, BC,” Ben tells us, “and was team mate to Trev Deeley—the guy who established Harley-Davidson in Canada.”

“Fred died when I was seven and I inherited this little Sporty. I’d been riding and racing MX since I was five, and used to sneak Granddad’s bike out well before I had a license. Heck, I even rode it to my first date!”

“After several years of injury-induced hiatus from racing, I’ve come back to it. I’m now racing flat track a fair bit, and won the North West Championship vet class this year.”

The Sportster’s evolved over time into this bona fide hooligan flat track racer. Ben doesn’t consider himself a pro builder though, but rather a hobbyist, wrenching under the moniker ‘Escape Velocity Cycles.’

“I’ve always worked on my own bikes and built customs,” he says, “but they’ve usually been scrappy street fighters and such. I thought I’d make this one pretty, and see what happens.”

Over the years, Ben’s done everything from gradual improvements to full rebuilds on the Sportster, eventually setting it up as a street tracker. Then Super Hooligan flat track racing took off, and he decided to make it his race bike. “If you’re interested,” he quips, “I’ve got cutesy 35mm photos my mom’s taken of me and the bike over the 23 years I’ve had it.”

Though this Sportster is old, it’s packing a helluva punch. “The original motor was a hot-rodded 1200 cc four-speed,” says Ben. “It snapped its crank, on a road trip across America that didn’t get very far. Once it needed a motor swap, I kind of went wild on the build.”

There’s now a Buell X1 unit in there, running Andrews cams and S&S roller rockers. It’s also been converted from “the crappy Buell EFI” to a carb arrangement. The setup includes a Mikuni HSR45 carb, a Twin Tec ignition and a Hammer Performance intake.

The one-off exhaust mimics the lines of the original Buell pipe, but swings up-and-over the primary—to provide extra cornering clearance—and terminates in a ‘Max Race’ can from Cone Engineering. “It makes a futile attempt at providing back pressure,” says Ben. “Most of its ample power is high in the extended rev range.”

Super Hooligan rules dictate that a bike’s frame must remain stock from the rear shock mounts to the headstock. So racers need to get creative in order to fine-tune their bikes’ geometry.

Ben set the bike up right by installing a set of Yamaha R6 forks in custom Weiss Racing adjustable triple trees. The forks have been upgraded with Öhlins internals, and there’s a custom-built set of fully adjustable Öhlins shocks out back.

The matching 19” wheels are from an older Sportster, and are wrapped in Mitas flat track rubber.

Up top is a tank from “some god-awful chopper thing,” tweaked to lie flat for a smooth transition to the seat. The tail section’s an Airtech part, and hardly needed any trimming to fit. The rear of the frame’s been looped up to match it, and Randi at local upholsterer Aro Upholstery handled the seat pad.

With no need for lights, a speedo or switches, the cockpit is super-minimal. There’s a set of flat track bars from Vortex, a Motion Pro quick turn throttle, and a pair of purple Oury grips. The Sportster also hosts a mixed bag of smaller parts, including a billet sprocket cover donated by the crew at Speed Merchant after the OEM part broke at Dirt Quake.

This flat tracker’s legacy and enviable list of upgrades already make it a winner in our book. But it’s the zany ‘Lazer Zebra’ livery that really has us frothing. “AJ McAllister of Noice Paint laid down the wild teal-peach-pink double fade base coat,” says Ben, “and then meticulously applied the zebra stripes over it.”

“In bright sunlight you can see the subtle rainbow flake in the rich black of the zebra pattern. Being an old school sign writer by trade, AJ also hand lettered the text and number plates that bare Granddad’s number.”

“But there are some scrapes and dings,” says Ben. “It’s a true race bike. She ain’t no show pony.”

Escape Velocity Cycles Instagram | Images by Dylan Davies

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Fat Tracker: Untitled’s Stripped-Down Moto Guzzi V9

Post author By Chris Hunter
Post date November 18, 2017

It’s been a busy year for Hugo Eccles of Untitled Motorcycles. His Ducati Hyper Scrambler appeared on Jay Leno’s Garage, and his ‘Supernaturale’ Moto Guzzi custom won the coveted Design & Style award at the Quail Motorcycle Gathering this past June.

Moto Guzzi must have been paying attention because they recently commissioned Hugo to customize their V9 Bobber as part of their ‘Pro-Build’ program.

Untitled Motorcycles have an unusual cross-continent split: Hugo runs the San Francisco workshop, and Adam Kay the original London setup. They’ve been around since 2010, and feature regularly on EXIF and in the original bible of the modern custom scene, The Ride.

Hugo started by stripping the V9 Bobber down to the running chassis—frame, motor, and wheels—to see what lay underneath the panels.

“The V9 has a lovely Tonti-style tubular frame,” he says. “The rear of the frame, where it supports the engine, suggested the outline of a racing number plate, and that’s where the idea for a fat-wheeled flat tracker started.”

“I decided to customize the Bobber version because I like the fat-wheel look, and I wanted to retain the original 16” cast alloy wheels. The shaft drive also makes swapping the rear end tricky.”

Hugo mistakenly thought it’d be easy to find cool 16″ rubber. After three weeks of searching, he finally located a set of Heidenau K66 all-weather tires. “They’re actually scooter tires, but rated to 112mph and 639 pounds—so they’re adequately spec’d for the bike.”

Identical 140/70-16 tires are fitted both front and rear, and are interchangeable—in keeping with the flat track theme.

Hugo has cleaned up the V9’s frame, removing redundant brackets for the stock battery, airbox, and ABS. He’s also moved the rear suspension mounts forward an inch to accommodate longer Hagon 420mm (16.5″) shocks, and added a custom rear hoop to continue the flow of the frame and create a seat bump stop.

The Guzzi’s air-cooled 853cc motor is engineered for torque so it’s well suited to dirt. “I really liked the idea of creating a tension between the large transverse v-twin motor and a small body perched on top,” he says.

Inspired by the 1960s Hanna-Barbera character Magilla Gorilla—a large ape with a tiny hat—and taking cues from the lines of the Guzzi’s frame, Hugo designed a chopped-down, super-slim monobody that contrasts with the width of the transverse motor’s cylinders.

He got help from Nate Diepenbroek, a fabricator near UMC’s San Francisco workshop. “Nate and I worked together on the UMC-038 Hyper Scrambler, so we have a good working relationship: I create the design and the rough buck—usually from cardboard, foam and bondo—and Nate and I work together to translate that into metal.”

Diepenbroek used the original tank tunnel but ending up moving the side-mounted fuel pump to keep the slim fuel tank design. A dry break receiver atop the fuel tank completes the flat track race look.

The fuel tank and seat blend together into a seamless monobody design topped with a narrow, vinyl-upholstered seat that matches the grey stripe on top of the tank.

Aluminum heat shields, designed as part of the monobody, protect the rider’s legs from the exhaust. It’s a custom stainless steel system that runs over the top of the cylinders and inside the rear of the frame. Perforated exhaust tips mimic the heat shield’s hole pattern.

The removable shields, built entirely by hand, were a task in themselves. “There are 438 holes. Each one was punched, piloted, drilled and reamed before being filed, sanded, sandblasted, and finally vapor blasted. That’s about 2,200 operations,” says Hugo.

“I’ve always had a soft spot for the iconic Guzzi v-twin and the V9 motor is beautifully made so I kept it in factory-spec and finish.”

All mechanical and control elements are finished in textures of black to create a visual separation with the metallic green bodywork: “It’s a bespoke color mix from Kandy Kolor, laid down by Jay at motojrefinish, that has an extraordinary flip-flop quality. The color constantly shifts from metallic yellow to metallic green,” says Hugo.

“I really wanted to specify a color that’s both modern and also uniquely ‘Guzzi.’ That led to the iconic 1971 V7 Sport with the metallic ‘Verde Legnano’ lime green tank and red ‘Telaio Rosso’ frame.”

Hugo originally intended to mimic that combination but then decided to use the green for both the body and the frame. There’s bright red on the underside of the frame, and on the kicked up rear—where it integrates with the custom LED brake/blinker array designed with Motobox.

“This was an opportunity to push the boundaries” says Motobox’s Josh Alvarez, who built a DTRA-style front number plate. It’s got integrated turn signals and a pair of 500 lumen LED spotlights that perform as hi/lo-beams.

Up front, there’s a full array of custom controls, including switchgear by Posh Factory, wired inside clip-on bars. “They’re modified Suzuki GSX-R handlebars, mount upside down and backwards, paired with Oury grips and Magura HC1 radial masters,” Hugo explains.

The stock top bracket was retained, but modified with a prominent start button replacing the original ignition block, and a tiny Motogadget LED display machined into the top surface. A Motogadget m.unit operates a keyless RFID module built into the seat.

It’s a less-is-more approach that been applied to the whole build. “I’m a huge proponent of Lotus boss Colin Chapman’s mantra ‘simplify and add lightness’,” says Hugo, and that’s evident in the result.

It’s a pared-down, minimalist take on the Guzzi V9, almost unrecognizable from the original bike. That seems to be something of a characteristic of Hugo’s style, judging by his earlier Ducati Hyper Scrambler build.

Hugo’s recently received a commission from Ducati USA, and a joint USA/UK project with Triumph is in the pipeline: “Adam and I are going to be building two custom Triumphs—one in San Francisco and one on London—but not telling each other what we’re doing. It’ll be an in-house competition!”

Untitled Motorcycles’ Fat Tracker is on the Moto Guzzi stand at the International Motorcycle Show at Long Beach California this weekend Friday 17th to Sunday 19th November.

Untitled Motorcycles | Facebook | Instagram | Images by Erik Jutras | Moto Guzzi USA

SPECIFICATIONS
Length: 203cm / 80″
Width: 71cm / 28″
Height: 104cm / 41″
Seat: 78cm / 31″
Weight: 174kg / 383lbs
Fuel: 9.8 litres / 2.6 gallons

BODYWORK
Custom-designed, hand-fabricated steel monobody
OEM fuel pump
Custom seat, upholstered in grip vinyl, UMC tag
Dry break racing fuel filler cap
Kustom Kolor ‘Verde Legnano’ candy paint, custom graphics

FRAME & SUSPENSION
Moto Guzzi V9 frame, modified and braced
Hagon 420-80STR Boxer shocks, 80mm travel
Moto Guzzi V7 Marzocchi forks, 130mm travel
Moto Guzzi 4.00 x 16″ cast aluminum rear wheel, shaft drive
single 320mm floating front disc with Brembo 4-pot caliper
Moto Guzzi 3.50 x 16″ cast aluminum front wheel
260mm rear disc and Brembo 2-pot caliper
140/70-16 Heidenau K66 tires front and rear

DRIVETRAIN
853cc air-cooled 90º transverse V-twin motor, shaft drive
Custom 16GA stainless steel exhaust system, perforated tips
Titanium exhaust wrap
Custom fabricated brushed aluminium heat shields

CONTROLS
Moto Guzzi V9 top bracket, modified
Suzuki GSXR clip-on bars, modified
Oury grips
Posh Factory switches, internal wiring
Magura HC1 brake and clutch radial masters
Goodridge Sniper brake and clutch lines
Race start button, integrated into top bracket
Motogadget Motoscope Mini LED display, machined into top bracket
Agostini rearsets, anodised to match frame

ELECTRICS
Motogadget m-Unit
Motogadget m-Button
Motogadget m-Lock keyless RFID ignition, integrated into seat
Antigravity XPS SC-1 lithium ion battery
Magneti Marelli MIU-G3 single-body EFI unit with filter pod
ABS removed
O2 sensors removed
Motobox custom-built LED tail light array with integrated turn signals
Motobox custom-built illuminated headlight panel with integrated turn signals
Twin Vision X Mini-Solo 500 lumen hi/lo spotlights

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Deus Stone Tracker: The first ‘official’ custom Z900RS

Post author By Chris Hunter
Post date November 16, 2017

Some new bikes are dropped into the market and left to fend for themselves, but not the Z900RS. The moto press hasn’t even tested the new Zed yet, but a couple of pre-production models have been hiding in Deus’ Sydney workshop for a few weeks now.

Right here is the first factory sanctioned Z900RS: an edgy, muscular custom called ‘Stone Tracker,’ revealed a few hours ago in Australia.

Kawasaki reached out to Deus about three months ago, several weeks before the Z900RS was made public. It’s the first time Deus’ star builder Jeremy Tagand has worked with Team Green, but it’s a neat loop in his career: 20 years ago, Jeremy was an apprentice at the famous French Kawasaki dealer Technic Moto.

His bosses were Pierre Briane and Patrick Long, who cut their teeth running the workshop of Godier Genoud, the legendary endurance racing team of the 1970s.

“The brief was pretty vague at the start,” Jeremy recalls. “They wanted two very different builds based on the Z900RS. Then the discussions became real, and we were given guidelines. A tracker version was on the cards.”

A pre-production Z900RS arrived at Deus, and Jeremy and designer Saxon Shing started researching possibilities. “I gave Saxon lots of ideas and photos of what I wanted to build, what was in my mind. Saxon produced a perfect render that I could work with.”

When manufacturers give new bikes to builders to modify, they usually prefer the bones of the bike to stay standard. Kawasaki was no different. “They wanted a strong ‘Deus’ feel to the build, but retaining a lot of the stock features.”

So Jeremy concentrated on the bodywork—fashioning a new tail and seat unit, plus a headlight nacelle, using 2-millimeter aluminum alloy. “Lots of drawing, cutting to size, welding and cleaning up the welds to get a perfect, clean edge.”

The trick was to get the proportion and size of those parts just right—enough to stand out and look clearly ‘custom,’ but also blend in with the build. The tank is unchanged, but the side panels are tweaked to fit the new seat and tail unit, which is upholstered with black Alcantara.

Up front, there’s a high-mounted one-off fender, with ample clearance for the Metzeler Karoo 3 tires.

Many of the alloy parts on the Z900RS have been sandblasted, to give a ‘raw’ look—including the 17” wheels. “Something a little brutal, with texture,” says Jeremy.

He’s also etched the engine cases with the Kawasaki ‘river mark’—a traditional symbol dating back to the 19th century when Shozo Kawasaki was running a shipping business. It’s a symbol that will be familiar to owners of older Kawasakis and the recent H2.

Deus had carte blanche with the exhaust system, so they’ve installed a stunning 4-into-2-into-1 system from MotoGP suppliers SC Project. Kawasaki did a good job to keep the bulk of the standard system down, but this one’s even peachier.

The cockpit has been slimmed down too, with street necessities gone and a set of lovely old Tommaselli wide bars installed. This is going to be a promo bike, so despite the angular headlight surround and twin LED lamps, the street legal gear isn’t required.

It’s a cracking start to what we’re guessing will be a long line of Z900RS customs in the years to come. But there’s one big question that needs answering—what’s the Zed like to ride?

Although Jeremy was working with precious pre-production models of the Z900RS, he couldn’t resist taking the bike out for a discreet spin. “I was very impressed,” he says. “It has the heritage of the inline-4 engine, and the suspension and ‘feel’ of the bike was great. It has a very sweet power delivery too—it felt very light, even though it’s a decent-sized motorcycle.”

Time to form an orderly queue…

Deus Customs | Facebook | Instagram | Images by Thomas Walk