Lately we have been seeing a trend in the café racer scene. More and more builders are starting to look at the venerable Honda CB 750 to use as a base bike. We think that this could be the revival of the Honda café racers and we are digging it! Don’t get me wrong, we love seeing Triumphs, BMW’s and Moto Guzzi’s being chopped and rebuilt into tasty café racers and scramblers. But there is something about the shape and style of a JDM inline-four that catches our interest. After all, they did deliver super-bike performance for moped prices back in the day.

You may remember the name Jeremy Duchampt from some time ago. The Frenchman is responsible for two Ducati’s and a Yamaha TR-1 that we featured here on BikeBrewers not so long ago. When we received a message from the main man behind Jerem Motorcycles that he had built a Honda CB 750 Rothmans café racer, we got warm and fuzzy feelings in our bellies; we knew it had to be good! Oh boy were we in for a treat. This Honda is so elegant, the proportions are so well-balanced, it looks like the CB is doing 100 mph at stand still!

The foundation of this project is a Honda CB 750 F2, as it is officially called. A model which was produced by Honda from 1992 all the way up to 2007(!). Honda’s R&D department must have been very pleased with this, no doubt. On paper, the CB 750 produced around 75 hp and 65 Nm of torque, with a claimed weight of around 210 kg. No mind boggling specs, but there is more to it. The Seven Fifty stands out in it’s a simplicity, reliability, and overall reputation of being bulletproof.

What Jeremy did to this bike is extraordinary. The list of modifications is long, so here’s a brief summary.

• Custom front fender
• Modified subframe
• Custom café racer leather and Alcantara seat with stitching (Irina: Point saddler 34)
• Custom made cowl with integrated LED taillight (FFPro Design)
• LED bar-end indicators
• Bar-end mirrors
• LED vintage-style, round yellow headlight with custom brackets
• Keyless ignition (KAIROS RFID)
• Vintage speedo (FIVEACES)
• Laser-cut top triple clamp yoke (USVracing)
• Clip-ons with brown handlebar grips
• BREMBO brake master cylinder and levers
• Powder coated rims
• Modified rear shock absorber
• Air box removed to with DNA pod filters
• Blacked out engine, frame and swingarm
• Custom 4-in-1 exhaust
• Carb tuning
• Custom painting Rothmans Style (FFPro Design)

The way this café racer turned out is mesmerising. Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, cigarette companies often sponsored race teams, one of which was Honda. Who remembers the NSR250, NSR500 or RC30? This Rothmans inspired design brings back memories of those days, where small displacement, high revving engines dominated the tracks and the streets. It’s not a secret that we would love to get our hands on this Honda. For now, we have to do with the pictures.

Builder details:
Jerem Motorcycles
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Since the CB 750 competed directly with Triumph, BMW, and Harley-Davidson, it too became a popular object to modify. As far as we’re concerned, the Honda CB 750 is probably the most customized motorcycle ever! We covered numerous of projects that were built around the platform, and yes, HD-Triumph-BMW are also incredibly popular base bikes, but they just can’t compete with the Honda in terms of affordability; it is the people’s champion after all.

Its 2022 now, and still we get notifications of newly built motorcycles that revolve around the Honda CB 750. So, when the guys from Moto Adonis gave us a call, we answered. We have been featuring builds from the Dutch customizers more often recently, and the rate at which bikes leave their workshop is incredible. Make no mistake, these guys have an eye for detail, and they do it with a ton of passion. This might be the right time to mention that they have some room in their schedule and are now actively looking for new challenges. Make sure to head out to their website and reach out to the guys yourself!

Despite its superbike status in the late 1960s and early 1970s, nowadays when people think of the Seven Fifty, they think of a modest, soft, naked touring bike. Very reliable, easy to maintain, and how do we put this nicely, a bit boring. A challenge the Moto Adonis crew, which exists out of Arthur Renkema and Job Leussink, know how to deal with. As the team usually starts, at first a couple of ideas were sketched out on a piece of paper. Once the ideas started to become more concrete, a digital render was made on the computer. From those designs the owner of the Honda could get a good idea of the final product. Once he greenlit the render, the build could start.

The idea was to build a scrambler around the 2001 Honda CB Seven Fifty. A clean one at that. With some big ol’ knobby tires. Something you would want to have with you when the zombie apocalypse brakes out. The first order of business was to chop up the subframe, raise it by a few inches, and weld a shorter version back in place. This allowed for a pair of taller rear shocks. A simple bench seat was fabricated and upholstered by Miller Kustom Upholstery in diamond-stitched brown leather with black piping. Moto Adonis added their signature built-in tail light to the rear seat to keep things looking clean. A custom battery box was created to accommodate for the under-seat battery. MAD Exhausts are responsible for the sick stainless-steel exhaust system. Combined with the pod air-filters, this thing must sound loud!

Up front, a new handlebar was fitted for a more commanding stance. A minimalistic speedo provides all the necessary info, and the new LED round headlight ensure visibility at night. A pair of fork-gaiters prevent dirt and grime from sticking on the fork tubes. Custom short fenders at the front and rear help somewhat with that as well. The bar-end mirrors provide with rear-view vision and look spectacular on this Honda, especially in combination with the bar-end indicators. The Heidenau K60 dual sport tires look like they are up for the task. The grey color of the tank combined with the blacked-out engine, wheels, and swingarms really make this scrambler look great. To make sure that the CB also runs great, it was put on a dyno and tuned to a healthy 81 hp at the rear-wheel. Not bad at all!

Photo credits: Lennart Stolte

Builder details:
Moto Adonis
Website
Instagram
Facebook

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1. BMW R nineT Café Racer by K-Speed
In 2018 K-Speed broke the internet with their incredibly elegant yet mean looking BMW R nineT Café Racer. It is safe to say that since then the Thailand based outfit K-Speed has grown out to be one of the industry top-tier bike builders.

The BMW R nineT is one of those machines that can be put under the famous words “Veni, Vidi, Vici”. Right from the introduction back in 2014, it was clear that BMW aimed at a big piece of the retro bike scene as we know it today. Next to an impressive catalog of custom parts, big brands started created complete lines of parts, especially for the R nineT. And BMW bootstrapped different editions of the Beemer, like the Racer and Scrambler. Nevertheless, I think we’ll be stuck to this popular boxer the next couple of years (probably decades). But is that a problem? Of course not! It’s a very good bike and I love to see them getting customized.

2. BMW K100 Cafe Racer by Retrorides
Another oldie but goldie: a BMW K100 Café Racer by Retrorides. With this bike, the Brazilian brothers Gustavo and Rodrigo Lourenço showed what they are capable of and that they were able to redefine the standards for building cafe racer, still the #1 bike for cafe racer projects. With so many unique creations it’s hard to stand out, but the K100 simply hit a sweet spot. While Gustavo and Rodrigo have a long-time history in building hot rods, they sure know how to make something special out of a two-wheeled machine.

3. YAMAHA TRX850 Café Racer by Seb Hipperson
It was no secret that the Yamaha TRX850 was meant as a direct competitor of the Ducati 900SS. Just like the Duc, the TRX850 had a 2 cylinder engine in a tube frame, a sporty riding position and a bikini fairing. The most exciting about the TRX was its engine. It was based on the Yamaha TDM850 and had 5 valves per cylinder (3 in and 2 out) but the TRX was the first production motorcycle with a 270°  crank (or 90° if you prefer) with the so called “crossplane” technology. With this the parallel twin produced sound and feeling of a V-twin. A technology Yamaha also used for the Yamaha XSR700 which results in a great power band. The 80hp and 85Nm are available at very low RPM’s.

Unlike the 900SS, the TRX was not a big sales hit, but amongst motorcycle lovers the bike is called one of the “best kept secrets” and a “forgotten gem”. Bespoke furniture maker Seb Hipperson from Londen had that same love for the TRX and decided to build his own TRX850 Cafe Racer. Watch and enjoy! The bike was showed to the public at the Bike Shed London back in 2015.

4. Honda CB250 Café Racer by Black Bean Motorcycles
The Honda CB is and always will be a great base bike for a café racer. Especially the 4 cylinder bikes with the CB750 and CB550 being dominant. Pretty obvious, since these were real sales canons in the 70s, 80s and even 90s. But Honda also produced CB’s with a parallel twin cylinder like the CB500(t), CB400 and CB360. The small Honda CB250G, which you see below, was mainly produced for the European market and is only produced between 1974 and 1976. This little machine puts out 30hp and had a six-speed gearbox, which was pretty odd those days. Honda claimed it to be “one of the finest sport-touring motorcycles available”. 

The Honda CB250 Cafe Racer you see here is built by Blackbean Motorcycles, a German workshop in the heart of Munich.

5. Moto Guzzi California Café Racer by Radical Guzzi
Born on the drawing table of Sylvain Berneron, better known as the Holographic Hammer and executed by Radical Guzzi from Germany: a real muscle bike café racer based on the extremely bulky Moto Guzzi California 1400 8v.The plan was to create a high torque café racer, so the idea was to use the massive 1400cc engine of the California. But to lose the bulky character, they had to strip down the weight of this machine, which originally is 322kg (dry). They’ve managed to reduce that fat to 195kg! A lot of high end parts and custom parts where uses like: seat and frame, wheel hubs, triple clamps for the 58mm Marzocchi front suspension, Brembo brakes, Öhlins rear shocks, custom exhaust etc. The standard power outpot and torque of 96hp and 120Nm were tuned to 105hp and 138Nm, thanks to Keihin FCR 41 carbs and custom exhaust system.

The post Top 10 BikeBrewers Café Racers Hall of Fame: Part 1 appeared first on BikeBrewers.com.

Mad Max meets The Walking Dead

Survival Bike
Louis James, a business owner from Dorset England, got inspired by The Walking Dead and really liked the shows’ anti-hero Daryl Dixon’s modified Honda CB750. In fact, he liked it so much that he knew his next build had to be based on a Honda CB750 as well. Other builds you ask? Well, Louis likes his winter projects, and has built motorcycles in a shed before. Building a survival bike based on a CB750 was going to be a new experience, since Louis had never worked on a Honda CB750 before.

Dr. Frankenstein’s monster
This build was going to be a Frankenstein bike from the get-go. First he sourced a 1992 CB750 frame from eBay. That marked the starting point of the project really. According to Louis, the bike was built with parts from about 2 dozen other bikes! Building a bike with parts that were made for different motorcycles brings the difficulty threshold to a whole new level. Literally everything had to be modified.

Nuts ‘n Bolts
One of the hardest challenges was fitting the massive engine by himself without a hoist or even a stand at the time. That must have looked medieval. The engine came from Japan off a 2004 model CB750 with only 12,000 miles. This engine has a hydraulic clutch, which is something of a novelty on a CB750! The other hard challenge was getting the electrics working. Again, using unfamiliar parts doesn’t help with this. The list of parts used is pretty extensive:

• Frame from a 1992 Honda CB750
• Yamaha R1 front end
• Cognimoto lower clamp
• Hel braided brake and clutch lines
• Custom stainless steel battery box
• Unbranded custom modified fuel tank
• Continental Twinduro TKC-80 tires
• Pro taper Contour fat bars
• LED jeep wrangler headlight
• Square quad led spotlights with yellow lenses
• Mini LED indicators and tail and brake lights.
• Removable folding shovel as a rear fender!
• Glock holster for shoot of zombies
• Shotgun bandolier belt fitted to the tank
• Cafe Racer style seat
• Perforated stainless steel headboard
• Perforated stainless steel tank guards
• Shotgun cartridge handlebar ends covers
• Carburettors from a Honda CBX 750
• 4x pod Air filters
• Cotton gauze crankcase breather filters
• CNC billet clutch and brake levers + reservoirs
• Mini mirror
• Subframe engine crash protectors
• Modified original exhaust
• Kevlar exhaust wrap
• Light indicator instrument cluster from an old model Honda.

Apocalypse ready!
The results speak for themselves. This Honda was meant to look very tough and rough, and it does. It looks exactly how we imagined a bike built during an apocalypse would look like. With the chunky Conti’s TKC-80 and modified exhaust, this CB750 will take you anywhere whilst scaring away any uninvited visitors.

The post Shed-built: Apocalypse Ready Honda CB750 appeared first on BikeBrewers.com.

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I hear you think: “A bobber?!”… Let’s just give it a try!

Remember the world’s fastest pizza bike, built in Dubai by VR Customs? Well, that build took place last summer, its hardtail design inspired by the beautiful bike you see here, completed just days before the pizza bike build off commenced. Referred to simply as “Project Bob”, the base for the project, a 1980 Honda CB750 DOHC, had been imported from the U.S. by another owner, but his plans changed and VR Customs’ Alan Boyter acquired the bike in 2016. “At some point, the bike had been hacked up to have a café look, but the work had been poorly executed – by a blind welder I suspect. But somebody had clearly put a lot of effort into the bike, so the base was pretty good”.

Rather than fix the poor welding where the rear shock mounts had been cut and re-welded, Alan decided instead to build his first hardtail. “There really aren’t that many hardtail options for the DOHC CB. Most options either bolt or weld to the rear part of the frame but Voodoo Vintage make a kit which is welded from the front end of the frame, giving the look of a custom hardtail but retaining the original chassis number.” Life in the United Arab Emirates has its advantages – there’s little need for any wet weather gear for sure – but registering modified bikes can be a real challenge, so retaining the chassis number made that difficult job, just a little bit easier.

“The hardtail kit consisted of various pre-bent tubing, but actually lining it all up, determining how much of the original frame to cut away, and making it all true, meant going back to basics; measure ten times, mull it over and sleep on it overnight, cut once, weld everything down to the bench, measure again, get the wife to measure it again, weld once.”
A complete front end and rear wheel from a new Triumph Bonneville became available locally so Alan utilized those; the front end was built using the original Honda stem, which was cut out of the Honda bottom yoke, spaced correctly then welded into the Triumph yoke. Next came the engine and rear wheel installation; a custom hanger was designed for the Triumph 675 Daytona disc and caliper, providing a better performance but with a smaller diameter. On the other side, a Triumph America sprocket carrier with wider spacing was mated to a Suzuki Hayabusa 530 sprocket (fitted in reverse), thus retaining the 530 chain and kept in trim with a 530 chain tensioner.

“Once the frame layout was finalized, all the ancillary items began to fall into place, though there were lots of ‘do-overs’ and re-works during the build, as always. The original plan was to have a fake oil tank to house the rectifier, coil packs, battery, and wiring. This was fitted in three different positions and orientations, until I settled on housing the battery and ignition key in a shorter version, with the remaining wiring sitting in a cut-down ammunition box, which also doubles as the rear master cylinder mount. That’s actually a go-kart master cylinder, installed using a custom-made linkage. The dummy tank and box were positioned such that the wiring would run within the frame, so everything was hidden.”

Alan felt that a suicide shift suited the radical design but he designed it as an addition to the foot control, rather than go the whole hog with a hand (or foot) clutch. “It means any future owner has the option to choose and was also done with road registration in mind. I wasn’t sure if the suicide shift would be permitted, so had to maintain the possibility of removing it. In the end, though, it wasn’t an issue.” In one of those ‘well that’s lucky’ build moments, it seems the knuckle duster shift came with the same thread as a Triumph Bonneville front wheel spindle, and since Alan had one lying around, he repurposed it to fit. Reduce, re-use, re(motor)cycle!

Those stunning exhausts turn heads wherever the bike is parked, and are the result of a great deal of blood, sweat, and toil. “I hunted high and low for off the shelf items but again was thwarted because of the DOHC engine – there were plenty for other CBs – plus of course, the length of the frame didn’t help. So finally I opted to make my own”. The end result, Four into Four pipes, are fitted with silencer inserts and mounted so that the outside pipe appears to be floating, maintaining a clean look. “They were an absolute bastard to make” as Alan puts it, “since the inner and outer exhaust outlets exit at different angles and then come together at different down angles”. But if you look back at the pizza bike images, it’s clear that all this practice means Alan’s exhaust welding skills have been honed to perfection.

The front mudguard is a cut-down alloy Moto Guzzi item fitted on a modified Bonneville mount to accommodate the larger diameter tires, whilst under the rear, special loom mounts were made to support and hide the tail light loom, yet keep it protected from road debris. Alan decided it was easier to build a new wiring loom himself from scratch since the new bike length and electrical layout meant the old one was far from ideal. Bar indicators cut down the amount of visible wiring and the need for rear mounted indicators, whilst a custom designed clock mounted in a fabricated stainless steel mount and featuring the VR logo, has a GPS speedo, doing away with the mechanical drive and cam from the front wheel.

Cable selection was a matter of raiding the Honda dealer’s parts bin! The clutch cable is for a Honda CRF450, the throttles are for a later model CB and the choke, mounted on an old school timing lever, is from a Honda Unicorn. Alan wanted to maintain that old school look on the bars so stayed away from modern electrical controls, simply installing (new) 1980 CB750 controls with 90’s model brake and clutch perch/levers. Prior to final assembly the engine and carbs were fully stripped and rebuilt, with every visible nut and bolt being cadmium plated, even the screws on the underside of the carbs, because of course ‘detail is everything’. And naturally, all parts were either powder coated (including even new parts like the foot controls, so as to maintain continuity of appearance) painted, plated or polished.

The quality of all this hard work is plain to see (all520 hours of hard work) but like so many of his other builds, Alan has barely had time to enjoy this one and now Project Bob is up for sale. “You know how it is,” says Alan “I’ve bought a handful of other old bikes in the meantime and have plans for those, so need to sell Bob to finance the next build”. Which seems a shame, but look on the bright side – it no doubt means we’ll be hearing from VR Customs once again in the near future.

The post Honda CB750 Bobber by VR Customs appeared first on BikeBrewers.com.

You may recall a similar looking bike built by Industrial Moto late last summer. We featured it in 2017. Someone liked it so much they wanted one for themselves and commissioned Industrial Moto to build another one. While this version is based on the original Project Scout concept, it incorporated a few changes. Maybe the most noticeable is the color of the rims. The customer wanted to feature more of the Solar Flare orange in the color scheme. This Scout II also has front suspension sourced from a Yamaha R1. The front brake master cylinder and reservoir were re-located under the gas tank to give the front end a cleaner look.

The gas tank is originally from a 1974 Suzuki GT750. The wheels came from a Honda CB750. The subframe and seat are handmade and the seat was finished by Tuffside seats. The electrical system includes a MotoGadget m.unit that uses a smartphone as the proximity key and allows the rider to program the display, brake and turn signal functions, as well as report faults and act as an alarm system. We do not expect to see this bike off-road, but the word “ruggedized” factored heavily into the design.

As with all of Industrial Moto’s bikes, all colored surfaces are powder coated to match the specific color scheme, including every exposed bolt head and nut. The motor is completely disassembled and rebuilt with new bearings and seals. Front and rear suspension are rebuilt and modernized. Footpegs and controls are handmade in Industrial Moto machine shop. This bike may be similar to the original project Scout, but it is still a one of a kind build.

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As promised in the beginning of 2017, we’ve reserved more space for shed builds. Of course, we L-O-V-E all those professional builds, but we also think that individual builders deserve a spot to highlight their work. For the occasion, we’ve made a list of the 10 best shed builds we’ve found in 2017. We’ve not limited the list of builds only we featured here, we’ve also looked to other leading blogs about custom bikes.

So scroll down and check out the bikes that are built by guys like you and me! Click on the images to read more about the bike, the challenges the builders faced and of course; more images.

PS. Just like the 21 best customs of 2017, this is a completely subjective list. We’re not biased by Honda, but this seemed to be the most popular brand to pick as a base bike among shed builders.

#1: Yamaha SR400 by Joseph Savor

[more info]

#2: Suzuki GS750 by Michiel van Son

[more info]

#3: Honda CB750 by Bryan Moses

[read more]

#4: Yamaha XJR1300 by Dawid Kazmierkowski

[more info]

#5: BMW R80RT by Mark Ceilinger

[read more]

#6: Honda CB200 by Chris Tope

[more info]

#7: Honda NX650 by Martin Kvarnhult

[read more]

#8: Honda CX500 by Will Nicholson

[read more]

#9: Honda CB550 by Eli Carver

[read more]

#10: Honda CB750 by Fre Fonteyne and Karel Willems

[read more]

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Oh, and we didn’t number them from 1 to 21, this was totally impossible for us and kept us arguing. And next to that: we didn’t want to place one custom bike above the other. So if you don’t mind: find the best one for yourself!

BMW R168 by Kacerwagen

[more info]

BMW “Alpha” by Mark Atkinson and Mehmet Doruk Erdem.

[more info]

Honda Rebel 300 by Zeus Custom

[more info]

BMW K100 by Retrorides

[more info]

Ducati 848 Evo Racer by NCT

[more info]

Moto Guzzi “Dustbin” by Craigh Rodsmith

[more info]

Yamaha XSR700 by Ironwood

[more info]

Yamaha XV920 by Ugly Motors

[more info]

Ducati 900SS by Deep Creek

[more info]

Yamaha TR1 by Moto Adonis

[more info]

Honda CR500 by C’s Garage

[more info]

“Fusqvarna” FX650 by Le Garage Felix

[more info]

Honda CB750 by Ace Custom Shop

[more info]

Moto Guzzi 950 by Stile Italiano

[more info]

Honda CBX1000 by Michael Kopec

[more info]

Yamaha XSR700 by Motomax Metz

[more info]

Honda CB750 by Wrench Kings

[more info]

Yamaha DT125 Scrambler by Ranger Korat

[more info]

Honda GL500 Silverwing by Motoism

[more info]

Yamaha WR400 by Meccanica Serrao d’Aquino

[more info]

Kawasaki Ninja 250 by Mr. Ride

[more info]

The post 21 Best Custom Motorcycles of 2017 appeared first on BikeBrewers.com.

Industrial Moto showed us a real nice lineup with custom bikes with out of the box creations like this CB750, this XV. Mark Long, the photographer, and copywriter of Industrial Moto was a bit in doubt about this project: “I know that you have featured a couple of Industrial Moto customs lately, so I will not be offended if you choose to pass on these. They don’t exactly fit in one of your usual categories anyway”. And I asked myself? Why should I pass? These little machines look cool, unique and a lot of fun; the perfect mix for a feature here on the blog!

Words by Mark: Industrial Moto is a family oriented business. Until today our café racers have defined our product line, but this holiday season Industrial Moto is introducing a couple of bikes with a younger crowd in mind. Whether your Christmas list includes a 12-year-old who is dying for a dirt bike and deserves something truly unique, or you are shopping for a 30-year-old who doesn’t want to grow up and needs a cool pit bike to tool around on between track day sessions, here is the solution.

Project Dude started out as a 2006 Kawasaki KLX110 and Project Punk started out as a 2001 Yamaha TTR-90. These bikes have both been given the complete industrial Moto treatment. They were completely disassembled, stripped of all finishes, and powder coated. All bearings and seals were replaced. The suspension components have been completely refurbished, and the motors were rebuilt and checked for all factory tolerances. They both run like new, but look way better than new! No other kid anywhere will have one like it. These are one-off custom builds without the usual custom bike price tag.

The gas tank for Dude came from a 1978 Honda ATC 110, and Punk’s from a 1982 model. Both bikes have custom seats finished by Tuffside – tweed fabric with blue stitching and leather trim on Dude and leather with green stitching on Punk. They have been fitted with premium off-road tires, Scott grips, new sprockets and chains, and a working headlight.

The colors are sure to stand out wherever these bikes go. The attention to detail includes powder coated bolt heads and nuts to match the color scheme. The unique gas tank and seat combination give each bike a unique look that you will not find anywhere else. The powder coat finishes and a top quality custom seat will ensure that they stand up to years of use and still look good. Christmas 2017 will be remembered as one of the best Christmases ever when you park one of these bikes next to your tree, even if your “kid” is 30 years old. These are truly one-of-a-kind motorcycles.

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