What do you get when you pit custom bike shop Motocrew against a 1979 Yammie XS650?
A dark horse fit for James Bond’s next action flick – and apparently, this bike shop had quite the tight brief from the bike’s owner.
“The XS650 should be low, loud, and black all over,” states Chris, a full-time firefighter and part-time bike builder, on the requirements for this project.
“The bike was in nice condition, and in some ways, too good to take apart!…the decision was to build a classic cafe racer.”
“After building more modern bikes, such as my BMW K100 and a Ducati 848, I was fired up to build a classic.”
The project involved, among other things, Honda CBR1000RR forks (and calipers, complete with a frame conversion stem from Cognito Moto), mated to spoked wheels (yes, you heard right), with Chris’s plan as thus:
“The concept was to fit the biggest tires I could find – and fit legally.”
A very pretty certificate for the German TÜV later, and Motocrew had 3.0 x 18” rims with chunky Shinko E270 rubbers to complete the ensemble.
Other features included keyless ignition, a new rear subframe, a CNC machined black anodized unit, Brembo brake pads and cylinder, and Touratech fork springs with Black-T shocks to complement the one-off exhaust system.
“I sawed it into 42 pieces per side, and welded it up. Trust me, it’s loud enough!”
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*media sourced from Bike Exif*
