La Corona - '81 BMW r100RS

La Corona Motorcycles is one of the latest shops in Europe to be producing this stripped back street tracker look. Based in Barcelona, this is their fourth build by the four passionate Spanish builders. Each of their builds has used a different donor bike, but they all have the 'less is more' La Corona aesthetic to them. This time they decided to use a 1981 BMW R100RS. It's the second incarnation of this beemer, originally being built red with black detailing. The stock bike had a sizeable complete fairing, which was the first thing to go. Their goal, like most of their builds was to build something simple and "naked".

They changed the original handlebars in favour of some dirt track bars – which gave the bike a more comfortable riding position. The clock is made by Acewell Digital and it's also a little on-board computer for the bike. The stock wheels were replaced with gold mesh style wheels, and covered with a fresh set of Firestone ANS Military tires; 19 x 4.0 front and 18 x 4.5 rear.

The stock BMW R100RS fuel tank was also replaced with a Kawasaki kz750 tank – adding to the classic tracker styling they were looking for. The electrical wiring was also replaced and simplified. The battery is a gel battery with case was relocated under the engine. They also added a scrambler style headlight and rear light. La Corona removed the stock air filters and case, and a new cover was constructed that flows better with the lines of the bike and it's engine 

Overall, they have created another beautiful naked tracker that has La Corona written all over it – particularly on the tank. As the boys from Barcelona said "we are very proud of this great bike." And so they should be.

The bike is now for sale, so if you are interested contact La Corona through their website or Facebook page

CB550F Super Sport garage build

Nelspruit is a remote town in South Africa’s former Eastern Transvaal, surrounded by citrus groves and miles from anywhere. There’s no custom motorcycle scene to speak of, but on the up side, Nelspruit is surrounded by some of the country’s best motorcycling roads. And on those roads, you’ll find Louis Nel riding this lovely Honda CB550F. 

Over to Louis… I am a professional accountant by trade and these garage builds are just a creative escape from my corporate day-to-day existence. Based in Nelspruit, South Africa….a small town with no custom biking scene to speak of, but with some of the best mountain roads suitable for riding in our country. It all started a 2 years ago when I inadvertently spotted the “Wrenchmonkey’s CX500” on a random blog, after a week’s surfing and catching up on the Discovery Channels “Café Racer” series I was smitten, and had to build something. A CX500 was the first build and in conjunction with my brother (designer based in Brazil at the time) we acquired a ’82 CX500 custom and started with no prior experience customising a motorcycle. 

The internet and online communities are a great help and inspiration and scratching a little even small towns have people that have the required skill and passion to pull of even the most daring build. So on my brothers return from Brazil he used the CX as daily drive and the next project started…….a 1976 CB550f. The CB was acquired as a failed restoration job from Johannesburg and bought in a few boxes. I had the bike professionally reassembled and in essence had a perfectly restored CB550f in the garage, the bike was indeed very special by all accounts but the emotional attachment just wasn’t the same as with the CB where actual hard labour achieved the result rather than a platinum credit card. 

So the transformation began and I took to the rear frame with my mini grinder one weekend 6 months ago, to the absolute disgust of some forum members I should add. Well the transformation began and eventually the shopping list looked like this: 

Progressive series 12 rear shocks 

Excel 18” High Ribbed aluminium rims 

Firestone Champion Deluxe Rubber 

Renthal Low Road bars 

SuperTrapp muffler 

POSH Faith aluminium indicators 

POSH Faith rear light 

POSH Faith Gum Grips 

MotoGadget Tiny speedometer 

The rear hoop, seatpan and foam was all fabricated in the garage an old upholsterer in town handled the leather work for the seat. On the tank the creative skills of my brother was used as well as some help of some experts in Durban were required on a old CB500 tank sent off for some “big flake” treatment. The result has indeed been very pleasing and even some of the forum traditionalists are impressed with the transformation. The allure of fabricating something yourself is absolutely amazing, and the “emotional attachment” that was missing with the commissioned restore is back in bucket loads! 

Regards, Louis 

Photography by Sven Musica

Holiday Customs

XV920 by Classified Moto

Two years ago, John Ryland finished his first customer build—a groundbreaking Yamaha XV920 that effectively launched Classified Moto onto the custom scene. The bike was a huge hit, and prompted a flood of requests from customers for similar builds.

One of those requests was from Biker's Cafe in Dubai. “They wanted a replica to ride and display at the café,” says Ryland. “But the time allocated to the build was short, and we were in danger of missing the delivery deadline.” So Ryland asked Bob Ranew, owner of the original XV920, if he’d ship his bike (with upgrades) to Dubai and let Ryland build him a new one. Ranew agreed, and here’s the result.

“It seemed a shame to simply duplicate the original XV920,” says Ryland, “so we began changing and refining things. Visually, the biggest difference is the color— we went for a ‘mostly metal’ look.” This time, Ryland stripped the frame and swing arm down and coated them with clear satin powder. The Benelli tank, a signature of the original bike, was stripped and nickel-plated, and a candy-black powder coat stripe was applied. (“In direct sun you can see a prismatic effect under the stripe. It’s subtle but cool.”)

Other upgrades include a fully custom stainless steel exhaust, a slightly longer seat, R6 foot controls, a Ballistic lithium ion battery, a DID Gold X-Ring chain, and a custom fabricated billet upper triple clamp.

“Overall the bike feels more refined,” says Ryland. “It’s still loud and rambunctious looking, but the fit and finish is better and we improved certain components. Last time, the starter gear upgrade (to remedy the notorious Virago grinding) took us weeks. This time my mechanic Greg Ownby finished it before I even knew he’d started. I like that kind of progress!”

Since the shoot, Ryland has added heated grips, more exhaust baffling and petcocks. The bike is currently running a stock XV920R rear adjustable shock, but will be upgraded to a Progressive Suspension setup once it has some miles on the clock. (“We used that on the bike we built for Katee Sackhoff and it was fantastic.”)

The Classified Moto crew have been working round the clock to keep all their projects on schedule, and the backlog is finally easing. “So we’ve decided to re-open the build queue briefly. And, fingers crossed, we’ll soon be moving into a bigger workshop.”

Images by Adam Ewing.

Specifications:

Platform: 1982 Yamaha XV920R (chain drive)

Front end: 2008 Yamaha YZF R6-R forks, brakes and wheel with CM Triple Tree conversion and custom CM billet upper clamp and All Balls tapered bearings

Exhaust: Custom stainless with modified Moto Guzzi California muffler

Carburetion: Stock carbs, jetted for high-flow exhaust and pod filter

Tires: Dunlop D616 180/55-17 rear, Metzeler ME880 130/80-17 front

Swing arm: Heavily modified Yamaha 2007 YZF R6-S with stock YZF rear wheel, brakes and stock XV rear shock

Tank: Benelli Mojave, nickel plated

Frame: XV920R with modified subframe and bracketry, powder coated satin clear by Shaun Dusara

Battery: Ballistic lithium ion

Headlight: Bates style 5.75″

Gauge: Acewell

Seat: Custom made pan and foam shaped in house, upholstered by Roy Baird

Brake lines: Galfer stainless

Foot controls: Yamaha R6 with custom mounting plates.

Sprockets: 520 conversion with Renthal aluminum rear, JT front with custom spacer by Seth Ingham

Other: DID gold X-Ring 520 chain, stainless engine hardware, large cateye tailight from Dime City Cycles, Akrapovic carbon fiber heat shield, heated grips

1981 XS650 bobber

This is a story about a young man named Cassio Silva who fell in love with a bobber sitting outside a tattoo shop in Texas. "That same day I went home and spent hours researching how to build one for myself" recalls Cassio. You see, this 20 year old had never even ridden a motorcycle, let alone tried to build one. "I’ve been building and modifying cars for years and knew i had the skills to take on the project" he says. After finding a suitable XS650, Cassio took the bike home and within days it was cut in half in his garage.

The entire bike was built on a tight budget, not because Cassio wanted it to be cheap but to show that this can be done by anyone, with any budget, and almost any experience. The hardtail is a pre made unit made by TC Bros "It stretched the bike 3 inches, making it very comfortable for my 6'3" body" he says. "The bike originally came with a 16in wheel that i swapped for a 18in from an older japanese bike. Wheels were wrapped in 450 rear and 400 front Firestone replicas. The velocity stacks were a NOS part off ebay and really one of my favorite things on the bike. The seat is a West Eagle and uncovered, keeping with the raw theme. The lights were ebay items that I then took apart for some paint. The rear fender is the stock front one that i cut up to save some coin. The entire bike was painted with rattle cans."

After working hard on the build for a month, the bike was almost ready to hit the road. There was one small problem though, Cassio didn't know how to ride it. So in the same week he finished the bike, he took a motorcycle class and got his license – talk about a 'crash course' in motorcycles.

'95 Harley Sportster "Del Rey" by DP Customs

 

Here's the brother from (not) another mother, Jarrod Del Prado. “The customer on this build was, as usual, a very cool guy to work with. He shares our passion for motorsports in a big way. Vintage, current, all of it... so we decided to incorporate some of the colors of the 70's Elf F1 cars into this bike - blue, black and white.”

“His only specific requirements were that he wanted a rocker shifter and pipe wrap, otherwise he was cool with us doing what we do.” Dream customer? Check.

In typical Del Prado fashion, the colours were chosen for maximum impact. “We kept everything with the paint scheme simple and bold, and finished it with matte clear. We built the rocker shifter and had it coated in black to subdue the extra length.”

“It's based on a 1995 1200cc Evo Sportster. We modified the frame with a stretched and lowered hardtail. We tweaked the look of the motor by powder coating the primary cover, cam cover and rocker boxes in matte black. Then we improved the performance by adding a Crane Single Fire ignition and coil, and a Big Sucker intake. On the exhaust side, Justin built a tidy equal length custom exhaust finished in white.”

“Braking performance was improved dramatically with Brembo rotors and calipers. We wrapped the 19" front and 17" rear in Pirelli Night Dragon tires. As always, Justin proves that clean wiring is an art form - everything flows beautifully. We used Biltwell's aluminum throttle, Tracker handlebars, and Mushman foot pegs. The bike looks really mean, really sharp, and my bro and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out!”

Honda CB350 Café Racer

This beautiful 1975 Honda CB360 was purchased by Canadian Peter Cabral for next to nothing about a year ago. Of course, you usually get what you pay for, and Peter got a vintage bike in vintage condition. It wasn't running, the wiring was all damaged, it had a rusty tank and seized brakes. Although Peter has owned numerous bikes in the past, this is his first vintage custom project. Here's what Peter told us about the build:

"First I stripped all the unwanted items off the bike and started moulding a seat/tail from pink styrofoam. Happy with the look I covered it with foil and laid down the fibreglass, after the seat was hard I put it aside and started striping the bike down to the frame. I wire wheeled the frame to the metal and shaved off any unwanted tabs, wiped the frame down and sprayed with black epoxy paint. Next started on the engine, took apart the top end cleaning and checking parts, painting the engine body high heat black and lightly polishing others. Reassembled with new gaskets and also rebuilt the brake calliper, master cylinder, carbs, front shocks new cables and hoses. Wire wheeled the rims, painted them satin black to match other parts on the bike and installed the tubes and tires. Then I custom mounted the speedo low on the trees, added a sparkplug socket for a kicker, the exhaust 2-1 reverse cone was found on ebay, it was from a CB350 but a little heat and now it fits. I also mounted the stock rear fender to the swing arm, built a 2-1 intake and after most of the mechanical was complete I started on the bodywork, bondo, sand, bondo, sand etc. I had a local paint supply shop mix a metallic orange, then in my one car garage I sprayed the tank and seat."

Peter has loads more great shots of this stunning CB360 Lucky 7even café racer on his Flickr page, from the beginning of the build right through to the completed project.