The post From Trash Bag Special to Sleek Caferacer appeared first on BikeBrewers.com.

The Monkey and the Ape

By now you should have a pretty good idea about who Rusty Stitches are and what they are all about. They are the David to the motorcycle riding gear industry’s Goliath. And they’ve been growing recently…fast! Although their mascot is a big hairy ape, the Rusty Stitches management team thought it would be a good idea if the giant ape had its own ride. And what better bike to start with than a Honda Monkey!

If you want to get technical about the difference between a monkey and an ape; a monkey has a tail and is relatively small by size, and an ape has no tail and can grow much larger than a monkey. This is the story of the ape and the monkey!

The Honda Monkey was first introduced to the public in 1961, after increasing popularity as a children’s ride at a Japanese amusements park. Originally it was a 100cc minibike called the Z100 but quickly gained popularity amongst people in its 50cc trim as the Z50 a.k.a. “the Monkey”. Not a bad name considering it is one of Honda’s longest produced models in the company’s history. We’re not going to bore you with performance specs. What we can say is that people who owned them, loved them! It was an ideal vehicle to take on a trailer or on a camper. It’s lightweight, small, frugal with fuel, and easy to work on.

Cult status

The Honda Monkey has gained something of a cult status. In 2018 the late Beatles singer John Lennon’s old Honda Monkey Z50 was auction for a whopping $80,000! Not bad for a bike that initially cost about $250. What also increased the popularity of the Monkey is the availability of aftermarket parts. You can turn a standard 50cc Monkey into a fire-breathing, tire smoking, little ripper, capable of serious speeds.

Moto Adonis

This is where part 2 of the story begins. Enter: Moto Adonis. The Dutch based team consisting of Arthur Renkema and Job Leussink have been dabbling in the world of customization for some time now. As far as Rusty Stitches were concerned, Moto Adonis the go-to guys to get their custom Honda Monkey built. It was clear from the beginning which direction they wanted to go with this little bike. It had to look a lot meaner than the original Monkey, and they knew exactly how they were going to do that.

The little Honda got stripped of all its parts and received a complete rebuild from the ground up. One thing that wasn’t changed was the engine displacement. The reason for this was that the Honda will serve a promotional purpose only, travelling around to various Rusty Stitches dealerships and motorcycle shows. Besides, increasing the displacement would also mean going through a series of mandatory tests and complete re-registration; quite pointless for what is intended. What the engine did receive was a dry-ice vapor blast treatment, and a complete respray in black and white. Other than that, very little was kept of the original Monkey.

The original wheels were removed and saved for later. Instead, a pair of 12” oversized wheels were added with Maxxis NSR knobbly tires. To accommodate for the wheels, the front shocks were replaced as well as the triple clamps for wider units. Both front and rear shocks now have an increased travel. A round LED headlight was mounted using a unique set of custom brackets. Using an LED light was made possible by upgrading the original 6 Volts system to a more modern 12V power supply. A black aluminium handlebar is now in place, coupled with a beautiful set of white Biltwell grips to stay with the black & white theme. The front brake has been beefed up with a 2-piston caliper and bigger disk brake.

More than just a few parts…

Moving to the rear we can see an extended and widened aluminium swing arm. The little drum brake from the rear has also been replaced with a 2-piston disk brake conversion kit. The final drive was changed to a bigger rear sprocket. The subframe has been custom built and houses a café racer style hump seat. The seat has been custom made by Miller Kustom Upholstery. Look closely and you will notice the white stitching and lettering. We love such craftsmanship! It is worth mentioning that the entire rear seat was built from scratch.

There are 2 other real eye-catchers on this little Monkey: the tank and the exhaust. Let’s start with the tank. It is the original Honda tank but it received a fresh coat of black paint. What makes it special though, is the pin-striping that was applied by hand; an art form we don’t see much anymore. It was done by Huid & Staal’s very own Frank Bouwmeester. The other eye-catcher is the exhaust system, which was built from the ground up by MAD Exhausts. We have heard this Monkey in real life, and it sounds more like a Gorilla than a Monkey!

Trailer

That’s it then, right? Wrong. Remember the original wheels that were saved for later? They were repurposed to be used on a custom-made trailer. Built to resemble a giant banana box, the trailer was completely built from nothing to serve as a prop. That also means that the Monkey has a trailer hitch, and we think that it’s the cutest thing we have ever seen. The little engine that could…

Photo credits: Rob Willemsen

Builder details:
Moto Adonis
Website
Instagram
Facebook

The post Rusty Stitches commission – Honda Monkey Z50 by Moto Adonis appeared first on BikeBrewers.com.

“You dream it, we build it!” a strong slogan from Assen Zahariev’s garage in Sofia, Bulgaria. However, a bike this stunning out of a stock 80° longitudinal V-Twin we could not have dreamt up ourselves. Assen saw a golden opportunity in this rare motorcycle and let his inspiration flow freely.

We have previously featured many CX500 builds, but this is our first CX650 and we are rather excited to tell you all about it! The Honda CX650 with its 673cc is the big brother of the common CX500 models. Whereas the production numbers of the latter easily exceed 180,000, the CX650 in all its versions was limited to roughly 15,000 in total, worldwide. The CX models were loaded with innovative features. Electric-only starting, low-maintenance shaft drives were found on the occasional BMW motorcycle, as were the constant vacuum carburettors, but the liquid cooling and separated ignition system were rather unique. Even though the CX650 and the CX650E looked rather similar, this one looks nothing like it did when it rolled off the production line.

Specialising in BMW motorcycles, the Honda was a bit of a side step for Tossa R. When starting a new project, especially with a bike that is novel to us, most of us start with browsing the interweb and social media, scrolling through dozens of images of custom interpretations of a particular model for ideas and inspiration. Assen went the complete opposite direction and carefully steered clear of other people’s ideas influencing his build. He turned toward the bike and toward himself, and five months later, the result is an elegant yet sporty, urban cafe racer.

With the exception of the seat by Oldman Leathers and the paint by Picasso Motor, all the work was done in-house. Yamaha R6 triple clamps and forks were swapped in to improve the suspension and handling, as well as the stopping power provided by dual floating discs with radially mounted calipers. Combined with the centrally mounted rear shock with external reservoir the suspension is fully adjustable to the rider’s needs. Above the rear shock, tucked in neatly between the downtubes of the frame, are two high flow air filters, allowing the bike to breathe more freely, and together with the custom stainless steel exhaust they bring at least 65 horses out of the stable.

Shortening the exhaust and running it underneath the engine frees up the rear wheel, but removing the side covers and shortening the tail really shifts the visual weight forwards, giving it its sporty appearance. The moon discs in the rear wheel were added to keep the bike visually grounded and balanced. A newly fabricated bracket supports the seat and the custom tail and ensures a perfect optical line from the tail through the carburetors, cylinder heads, and exhaust headers to end in the front axle, emphasising that this bike is built to ride!

The lines of the bike are further accentuated by small bar-end mirrors, a low-profile gage, and clip-ons, streamlining its profile. Electronically, the bike is decked out with high end gauges and bar-end indicators by MotoGadget, and also the head and taillight have been replaced with LEDs to bring it into the 21st century and ensure visibility. This motorcycle does not need its lights to attract attention, though. We reckon parking it at a cafe in the city centre will draw ample attention from enthusiasts, passersby, and aspiring builders!

If this has tickled your fancy, reach out to Tossa R, these bikes are built to order, and there is room for only 8 more!

Photo Credits: Tossa R

Builder details:
Tossa R
Instagram
Facebook

The post A Neo Café Racer to Die for – Honda CX650 by Tossa R appeared first on BikeBrewers.com.

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
Instagram
Facebook

The post Rothmans inspired Honda CB 750 Café Racer by JeremMotorcycles appeared first on BikeBrewers.com.

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

The post Honda CB 750 ‘Abomination’ by Moto Adonis appeared first on BikeBrewers.com.

Back in 2020, BikeBrewers were invited to join the first edition of the Café Racer Fest in Kyustendil, Bulgaria. Unfortunately COVID had paralyzed the world and travel restrictions caused us to miss out on that event.

We followed the happening on social media while the enthusiasm of participants, visitors and bike builders vibrated through our screens. We knew we missed out on something special! We made a promise there and then, that we would do everything to make it to the 2021 edition. As we are always true to our word, there was no reason not to make the trip this time.

To team members Ron and Adnane it felt nearly as good as going on a road trip even though two flights, three cars but no bikes were involved in getting from Amsterdam to Kyustendil.

Arriving close to midnight, the organizer of the Café Racer Fest and spiritual father of the event, Ivan Mushev of Bull Moto Custom, had kindly arranged transportation from Sofia airport to the ski resort up in the mountains about half an hour up from town up a dark and twisty country road with al sort of wildlife crossing our headlights.

Early start
In order to make the most of the day breakfast was served early and we took off to the centre of town. The empty square would soon be the stage of an extraordinary event, attracting an sizable crowd of both participants and spectators. On the plaza of this nearly 40.000 inhabitant’s rich city, volunteers were busy setting the stage for things to come.

The Café Racer Fest harbours not only custom bikes but also offers a stage for vintage motorcycles and cars from all makes and years. There was quite a collection of incredibly beautiful Pre-Perestroika MZ’s, Jawa’s and Ural sidecars. Truly as if time stood still.

Talking about time, it is funny what the years do with your sense of beauty. Bikes that were considered hideous in the 60’s and 70’s Western Europeans are now considered attractive by the same crowd. Thanks to younger demographics, discovering the fun in riding, Eastern Bloc classic icons such as the 60’s MZ have now grown from being more hideous than the word itself to ultra-cool! We bet there will be quite some young urban riders who would not mind to be spotted on one of those former ‘monstrosities’, were it not that in most large European cities, those two-strokes will never be seen spewing their distinguishable blue exhaust plumes again.

Ride out
Prior to the start of the event, a number of bikers and bike builders met at the local gas station for a ride out to the venue. Little over 150 bikers, nearly of which were modified in one way or another, joined in this brotherly gathering. The atmosphere was incredible; there is something quite special about seeing cafe racers being used for they were built.

Choices, choices
There were three contemporary categories; Modern Classics, Scrambler & Brat, and Café Racers. BikeBrewers were given the task of selecting the Top 3 in the “Café Racer” category. We were given about twenty projects to choose from and had about an hour to finalize our task.

As we always do when judging bikes, we put together a matrix awarding points on a scale of 1-10 for elements such as the ‘Wow!’ factor, originality, quality of work & amp; paint, and craftsmanship and set out separately to do our first independent judging.

You’d expect this to be easy and give clear comparable results. No such thing! We had quite a hefty discussion and with the clock ticking away it required a final walk around to re-evaluate our choices. At the ‘strike of twelve’ we managed to come up with a Top 3 we could both fully subscribe to.

And the winner is…
A 1994 Yamaha XV1100 had scored high points on both our lists and was chosen ‘Best of show’ in this year’s Café Racer category. Its owner, Borislav Alexsov, has put quite a lot of hours in building this machine and is rightfully proud of the result. 2nd place went to Vencislav Angelov with his stunning 1984 Honda CBX 750, and 3rd place went to Kaloian Ivanchev Chekelev with his very cool BMW R75 which saw daylight in 1982.

All top 3 finalists were showered with gifts from local sponsors. To top it off BikeBrewers’ came bearing gifts from our partners Felix Auto Moto and SA1NT! adding a helmet and a sought after twill trucker cap to the basket of each of the category winners!

Come rain come shine
Bulgarians have been spoiled with loads of sunshine over the past couple of months. Unfortunately, rain was predicted during the hours of the event. The start of the award ceremony for the café racer category was launched with a clap of thunder followed by a slight drizzle. That made us feel like home instantly.

Luckily the audience was not scared away that easily, and there was quite a cheer from the several hundred people on the square. According to the organizers, the total attendance during this year’s edition the audience grew with 20% to around 2.500 visitors who meandered amongst all the beauty displayed on the town square this morning.

The next edition
Writing this post just before the party organized by the Cafe Racer Club Bulgaria, we are already spoiled by the kindness of the Bulgarians we met on the way, especially by the members of the café racer community.

As much as we love attending established events in Western European countries, we are always on the lookout for new, exciting and more grass roots experiences. This scene is way bigger and vibrant than you would ever dare to imagine. Everyone we met was proud of the results of their labour and insights are shared freely among this close-knit society.

We will be back for sure and hope the organizers can look forward to an even bigger crowd in 2022. Being the only international visitors this year, we share our experience with the knowledge that this is likely to be the last time we enjoyed this exclusivity.

Given the fact that there is a very lively local scene and magnificent twisty country roads and awesome virgin off road tracks to be travelled freely, it is likely many adventurous bikers from the West will be heading East next year.

Photos by:
Georgi Georgiev Photography
Kalina Kalcheva
BikeBrewers

The post REPORT: Café Racer Fest 2021 by Café Racer Club Bulgaria appeared first on BikeBrewers.com.

Build nr. 3

An unusual suspect
Well, Ivan Mushev, owner and driving force behind Bull Moto Custom is back, with his 3rd build so far. Again, with a Honda Hornet 600. And why not? Honda has been a house-hold name for café racer builders for decades. They are reliable, affordable, easy to work on, and they offer a ton of bang for bucks. The Hornet is quite special, too. The 600cc Hornet engines pack a respectable 100+ horsepower which are thunderously available around 12.000 rpm. Most of us are probably familiar with this popular bike, which can be ridden in comfort at lower speeds. However, when revving over 7.000 rpm we enter the comfort zone of this particular bike. The same engine can be found in the CBR600RR

VFR swingarm
When we take a closer look at this bike, we can see that a lot of work has been put into this build. It is not often we see a Hornet sporting a VFR single-sided swing arm. An incredibly complex and tedious job to get done right. Inspired by Ducati, Ivan made work out of this task. Many have tried, but only a few actually succeed. We have to admit that it takes the Honda to the next level!

Exposed rear
The factory subframe was made redundant and a newly built, minimalistic unit was built, exposing that beautiful VFR rear wheel. It also allowed for a custom built under seat exhaust. The end-can or muffler is a box shaped, and looks the part. The seat pan is also custom made, and has integrated brake-lights and turn signals. A brilliant way to keep the Hornet road-legal whilst looking incredible! The alcantara seat cover just looks perfect, specially made by MG Design.

Custom made
When we move to the mid-section of the bike, we can see that the original airbox has been removed, and a custom-made box now houses the electrical parts of the Honda, giving it a clean and industrial look. The air filters have been replaced by a single, open-flow, unit. A bit further, and we can also see that the radiator overflow has been replaced with stainless steel containers.

Stoppie time?
Moving to the front we can see a Kawasaki ZX9R front suspension, complete with ZX9R front wheel and brakes, giving the Hornet some serious braking power. The naked bike handlebar has been swapped out for a set of clip-ons, giving the rider more control. Above the clip-ons we spot a mini KOSO speedo, giving the rider nothing more than the most essential information, while keeping the front clean. The headlight is an off-the-shelve unit from LSL, finished off with a custom-made headlight grill.

There are a few fiberglass parts that have been made to fit the bike, such as the belly pan, the headlight cover and radiator covers. What make this entire build stand out it that beautiful, deep, lush, Misano red pearl color.

Make sure you like and follow our social media pages to stay up to date on the latest custom motorcycle builds!

Photo Credit:Vladislav Chanev
Model: Aleksandrina Boqnova

Builder details:

Facebook (builder)
Instagram
Email: bullmoto@abv.bg

The post Red Hornet by Bull Moto Custom appeared first on BikeBrewers.com.

In a shed far far away
We get requests from all over the world to write posts about builds.
Never ever before did we get an email all the way from Siberia though!

Nikita (no not the one from Elton John!), the owner of KrikMoto reached out to us via Instagram and presented us with the Honda he had produced as a first project.
The idea had been maturing in the brain of our new Russian friend during the last four years. It was about two years ago he decided to just go for it and got himself the 1993 Honda CB400 Super Four.

Step 1: buy a bike
Acquiring the bike set him back $ 1.000 to start with.
Hm, whilst on the subject of starting, the bike proved to be in pretty poor condition when he got it. This meant major work had to be done before he could even start working on the customization of his caféracer.

If you live in a part of the world which has a climate as harsh as in his homeland you are not easily scared by minor setbacks. You just roll up your sleeves and get to it.
The only thing Nikita was working from was the clear picture in his mind of how the bike should turn out in the end. But even that picture became slightly blurry at times, as he was struggling to get to grips with technical issues along the way.

Built not bought
He did not even steer away from creating many elements from scratch including the seat. For this particular part he had to call in some outside help as his mother had forgotten to teach him how to work the sewing machine.

Some of the other chores he sank his teeth into were exercises such as modifying the intake system by replacing the airbox with four K&N air filters with zero resistance, changing the subframe, replacing the dashboard, side shields and rear suspension.
As his father did not forget to initiate him into the secrets of welding, Nikita also took it upon him to produce a new exhaust system. Not bad for a first project.

First love
In answer to our question what he likes most about the bike he smilingly answers: “Everything”. Continuing: “Perhaps this is because it is the firstborn”.
Fortunately for him the managed to sell the bike quickly and is sure its new owner is now a happy man riding around the Tundra’s in far away Siberia. Unfortunately for us there was not enough time to provide a decent set of pictures, so we have to do with the few which were sent to us.

To make up for the minimal selection he did send us a tasteful video though.

Onwards and upwards!
Still we feel this is enough to anxiously await news of a next project. We have seen some snapshots of interesting things to come.
Closing off with the Russian builder’s famous last words about his motivation to start building:
“When riding a bike, you should savour the feeling of the ride. If you are fortunate enough to be riding a custom bike the feeling multiplies!”

Builder details:
Builder: KrikMoto – Nikita
email: krikunov_n@mail.ru
Instagram
Facebook

The post Summer in Siberia – KrikMoto’s Honda CB400 appeared first on BikeBrewers.com.

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.