Tough as Nails

A different kind of Bobber
Being a tinkerer, Nick has had his fair share of wrenching. In the past he had restored a Triumph T140 Bonneville, which he considers to be his first “real” motorcycle. Some of his fondest memories are of that Bonneville. Fast forward to the present, and we can see that all of the hard work has paid off. We present to you, the Gentleman’s Rat bike. The idea was initially to build a Moto Guzzi Bobber. There aren’t that many Guzzi Bobber’s riding around, especially with a hard-tail. But having seen the “Peter F.” bike by Mandello Cycles in Bremervörde, Nick got some inspiration for his own build.

BOOM!
The Gentleman’s Rat first started its life as a 1982 Moto Guzzi 1000SP. A completely different machine than what we see here today. Some interesting and cool features on this Moto Guzzi are for instance the fuel tank, that originally left the factory on a CZ, and was left with the original patina-rust on it for authenticity. Or the tubeless wheels and oversize Brembo brakes, that came off a Moto Guzzi California EV1100. The most notable piece of equipment on this Guzzi has to be the Girder fork. Nick told us that it wasn’t an easy job to get the fork to fit correctly, since it was originally intended for a Boom Trike. For those of you that don’t know what that is, a Boom Trike is a German built trike that uses Volkswagen and Ford engines.

More comfortable than a cafe racer
There are more interesting features on this build. The handlebar for instance, is a tall unit that, in combination with the yellow headlight, is supposed to be a nod to the 1940’s. The engine itself was kept as standard with the exception of a pair of pod air-filters. For the sake of simplicity, the original contact breaker with ignition points was maintained. A new battery box underneath the unidentifiable seat was fabricated by a fellow Guzzista. If that went by too quickly, the seat was bought off the internet and came off an unknown motorcycle. Looks comfy though! All other electrics are housed in that box as well. The subframe of the Guzzi was cut, bent, and welded to align with the new struts, turning the 1000SP into a hard-tail. Nick did mention to us that the Guzzi rides more comfortable than his Moto Guzzi Le Mans 3 Café Racer. To finish the look off, the exhaust headers received a wrapping treatment, while the mufflers were replaced with a pair of open pipe exhausts, making this one loud bobber.

Never-ending project
According to the goldsmith from Emmen, the Netherlands, this project is a never-ending story and he intends to keep it that way. At the moment of writing, he has already changed out the handlebar and fuel tank to try a new look. We have to admit that this Guzzi looks exceptionally beautiful, in its own unique and raw way. It is hard to believe that this bike is a genuine shed-built bike. We would love to see more of this kind of builds if it was up to us!

Photo Credits: Gert de Weerd

Builder details:
Nick Keen
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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.

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