Thank You8 Carlos. I owned one of these for about a month. Excellent bikes and it’s a shame they were never “officially” brought to the US. They morphed into the RZ which we did get. Thank God.
Hello, my name is Carlos and I want to share with you all my 2500 miles Yamaha rd 350 lc.
I’m in Miami Fl, and I saw this for the first time in my life when I was 14 years old.
in my opinion Is one of the best looking bikes from the 80’s.
No info included but a nice build indeed! Thanks to Donald Calder for the 77 CB550K Cafe pics.
Maybe the nicest “Big Bike” shaft drive Kawasaki custom I’ve ever seen. Check out their work at http://www.maccomotors.com/ Excellent work gentlemen. Thanks for the outstanding photos!
Hi there!!:
We are proud of introducing our first creation, a 1982 Kawasaki Z1100 ST Shaft named “big Z”
We are Maccomotors, two brothers, Tito and Jose and we own a little garage but with big passions and ideas in Chiclana de la Frontera, Cadiz, at the bottom of Spain.
This is the first Maccomotors creation but in less than a month we´ll surprise this world with a bratstyle Montesa Enduro 75 never seen before. It´s gorgeous too. We have started a Triumph Bonneville proyect already and will start customizing a Yamaha TTR in a few days. So we won´t stop.
We bought this Z1100 St from a neigbour for a very good price because the motorcycle didn´t run. It have a problen with the valves, so we rebuilt the engine and made this modifications among others:– Rebuilt engine
– Rear subframe chopped
– Seat by Maccomotors
– Single speedometer
– Rear suspension Marzocchi E81
– Air filters Meiwa
– Oil filter KN
– Bates headlight
– Turnlights signals SHIN-YO mini cateye
– Taillight Texas
– Grips Beston style
– Handlebars Rental ultralow
– Pipes adapted fron a Kawasaki Zephyr 1100
– Exhausts 2 in 2 MIVV
– Mudguards Maccomotors
– Tyres Metzeler Lasertec: Rear 130/90-16 Front 110/90-19
– Paintwork Maccomotors
– Steel and aluminium pieces by maccomotors
We own a few bikes and long time ago we talk and talk about customizing aour ideas and so we did. We wanted to share with all the people that is as crazy as we are with motorcycles that we decided to run a website. maccomotors.com, in which we share all the progress of our work as well as a blog with photos and motorcycles of others. We have a fan facebook page as well: http://www.facebook.com/Maccomotors
We wanted create a beautifull bike, in a retro style but functional and agresive at the same time. It´s a real rocket!!
Thank you very much. Appreciate so much your work.
Jose.
Another outstanding build from regular contributor Ken Fontenot and our friends at Cycle Sports of Houston. If I wasn’t too big for these little Honda’s I’d build one tomorrow.
Here it is with the recently posted Suzuki 2 stroke. That’s a hell of a nice set!
That exhaust is a work of art.
Here are a few pics of the Honda CB160 Road Racer we have been building alongside the Suzuki GT500 for the last year. A few pics and a short Bio:
Honda ’68 CB160 Road Racer
A customer of ours decided he wanted to have fun doing some vintage racing. He looked at options and decided that the guys racing the Honda 160’s were having the most fun of all the classes in AHMRA (American Historic Motorcycle Racing Association) so he decided to find a bike and have something built. He found a stock ’68 Honda CB160 in San Diego in absolutly terrible condition, rusted badly and everything locked up. It was delivered to our shop here in Houston and we began by dissassembling the entire bike and evaluating everything…..it needed everything. We sandblasted the frame, cut off most of the unneeded parts, painted it gloss black and put it on a lift. From there we started either replacing, repainting, replating or refurbishing every part, nuts and bolts included as we put them back on.
Mark Shim owns several restaurants and when he is not riding one of the bikes in his collection or racing them he displays them in his restaurants…..Ya know, like art. So we decided this was going to be a VERY nice race bike with lots of attention to detail. We rebuilt the engine completely, put in 2mm oversize, higher compression pistons, new valve train, and replaced lots of worn out parts and did a lot more custom work that we won’t discuss. We painted the engine cases satin black, covers gloss black or polished, sanded the fins down and had a nice engine to bolt back in.
Mark handed a seat/tailsection to us that he bought years ago and said this is the color scheme. We painted the tank black & yellow to match, ordered a Dunstall 1/4 fairing, painted it, made custom brackets and bolted it all up. We had Shane Davis at graphtec make a set of tanks badges with the old dodge “Super Bee” as a guideline changed up to look like Mark with his vintage shorty helmet and goggles he likes to wear. They set the tank off really well! Thanks Shane!
We used slightly modified stock carbs, painted and polished them and got a set of really nice velocity stacks. John Easton over at Jemco Exhaust systems, down the street from us built a killer looking Exhaust system, had it nickel plated and I must say, its the best sounding 160 I have ever heard! He made a jig if anyone wants one of these systems he can build one for you. He can be reached at 713-461-3834.
We found some nice aluminum rims, powdercoated them gloss black, installed stainless spokes, race spec Avon vintage tires and wheels were ready. We found a ’74 TA-125 Yamaha road race front suspension, rebuilt it, made a few modifications, installed some tapered roller bearings, installed a set of Hagon rear shocks, new swingarm bushings and we had suspension. We rebuilt all the brakes, and made the hardware look as good as the rest of the bike. Marc LaNoue at Metal Cutting Specialties did all the waterjet work on the brake hubs and chainguard. Moto-Bits provided a set of rearsets that work really nice. All new handlebar controls, new cables, grips and kill switch and after about a year of messaging the rest of the parts and safety wiring everything we had a race spec ’68 Honda CB160 race bike that seems to work really well on the track and looks good on display. When not at the race track it can be seen at Kapop restaurant in Houston texas.
Thanks to all of our friends who helped with the build and a special thanks to Mike Valdez for setting up studio and taking the photos for us!Ken Fontenot & Jeff Wisenbaker
Cycle Sports Ltd of Houston
http://www.cyclesportsofhouston.com
The latest results from the Bonhams Auctions. She’s a real Beauty though.
RECORD-BREAKING VINCENT BLACK SHADOW MOTORCYCLE TOPS THE BILL AT £1.4 MILLION BONHAMS SALEThe Bonhams auction at the International Classic MotorCycle Show at the Staffordshire County Showground topped £1.4 million on Sunday 28th April, with the top-selling lot a 1952 Vincent Black Shadow, which realised £113,500.The fully-restored, ex-works machine formed part of the factory’s bid to set a new 24-hour speed record at Montlhéry in France in May 1952. Although mechanical failures prevented the bid from being successful, the British team returned home with eight new records, including six hours at over 100mph.Among other auction highlights was a 1931 Brough Superior SS80 motorcycle won in a raffle more than 40 years ago and a 1914 Indian Model F once owned by legendary Hollywood actor Steve McQueen.The latter sold to a European telephone bidder for £32,200, while the SS80 realised £57,500 – more than a million times the cost of the 1972 raffle ticket. Starting life as a sidecar outfit with Ipswich Police, the motorcycle was converted to solo trim and later offered as first prize in a fund-raising raffle at the Brough Superior Club. Tickets were sold for five pence each, or 50 pence for a book of 10, and second and third prizes respectively were 10 and five gallons of oil.An eclectic selection of 30 machines owned by the late Clifford Jones proved popular with bidders, selling for a total of more than £175,000. The collection featured a number of 1950s ‘cafe racers’, as well as much modern-day racing and superbike machinery.Meanwhile in the automobilia section, two Akai Yamaha race helmets worn by the legendary Barry Sheene in the 1980s fetched a combined total of £10,000, selling for £6,875 (Lot 105) and £3,125 (Lot 104) respectively.Ben Walker, Head of the Bonhams Motorcycle Department, said: “Once again our auction at the ‘International’ Classic proved to be exactly that, with interest from bidders from across the globe.“Record-breaking machines like the 1952 Vincent Black Shadow and the movie star charisma of Steve McQueen were among the draws for the crowd, and there was fierce competition for the Ducatis in the collection of the late Clifford Jones.”For further press information please call 0207 468 8259, or email press@bonhams.com.
Another serious Suzuki build! MAN that’s nice!
Ok, finally finished our ’75 Suzuki GT500 Cafe Racer. We used your Hand controls, master cylinder, brake light switch, and mirrors. Did a studio photoshoot this past weekend and here are some of the pics.
Here is a little info on the bike:Another Unique Custom Cafe Racer from the build team at Cycle Sports Ltd of Houston:
We have a customer, Mr Terry Shields that really likes nice vintage motorcycles. He bought a used Suzuki GT500 on Ebay in really good condition, rode it around for a while and felt he wanted to convert it into a Cafe racer. He brought it in to us and we came up with a few ideas on how to make it all happen.
We stripped the bike down to the bare frame, sandblasted it and started removing unneeded tabs and modifying it to make it fit the part. We put the frame up on a lift and started construction. Everything that was put back on was either refurbished, refinished or replaced. All specialty hardware & fasteners that we reused were replated to look new.
We found an appropriate fiberglass tank, tail/seat, and Manx style front fender from Legendary Motorcycles out of New York. We went about getting all the mounting brackets made and installed these componets. We custom built a hinge to tilt the seat up. Engine was cleaned, Painted, and all covers sent to the chrome shop. We had Jemco Exhaust Systems here in Houston build a set of expansion chambers to fit and they, as usual, did a remarkable job! We also sent the pipes to the chromers as well as many other parts. We modified a set of Yamaha R1 foot controls and Moto-Bits pedals to make the rearsets, more chroming. Wheels were stripped, Hubs and assorted hardware also chromed. New Chrome rims, stainless spokes were aquired, relaced and Dunlop K71 retro tires were installed & balanced.
For instruments we installed a Koso unit with analog tach, digital speedo, tripmeters, idiot lights, and shift light. All hand controls and bar-end mirrors are from Joker Machine mounted to a set of superbike bars. We got a Dunstall 1/4 fairing from Air-tech and made custom mounts for it. All suspension componets were rebuilt and slightly longer piggyback gas shocks were installed. We sent all the cables to Barnett and had them all rebuilt and shortened, came back looking like new. We rebuilt the carbs, painted them to match the engine, rejetted them to the pipes and installed a set of K&N airfilters.
Frame, Tank, Fairing, Tail peice and several brackets were painted with House of Color Ice Blue which really comes alive under bright lighting or sunlight. Side covers were painted Satin Black to enhance the straight line under tank & Tailpiece.
The bike runs great and handles very well, quite a bit lighter than the stock original and quite striking in appearance. Our thanks to all our vendors and friends that helped in the build!Photography by: Michael Valdez
The Cycle Sports Ltd of Houston Build team:
Ken Fontenot
Jeff Wisenbaker
http://www.cyclesportsofhouston.com
A special Thanks (and congratulations) to Ron Fairbrother for keeping me posted on this excellent build!
I’ve spent hours drooling over the bikes crafted by Sanctuary and Bulldock in Japan and longed to recreate something similar. You have to remember though, that these guys are quite well established and possess all the machinery and parts necessary to push out bikes of that quality, and what high quality they are too. However, never one for giving up, I got hold of a 1992 Zephyr1100 as a starting point. It was ridden hard first, around the Isle of Man during the Manx GP in 2011, then in November the same year, she was raped and gutted ready for my interpretation of what a Zephyr1100 should be.
Now I’m a custom Harley man now, and before that I’ve owned MV Agusta, Ducati 888, Yammy R7 and lots more, but I have always had a soft spot for the retro muscle bikes. They just look right, but way too fussy if you know what I mean, so my idea was to clean it up and make it look simpler and this is the result.
The frame is standard but de-cluttered and the factory welds ground back then Stove enamelled satin black. The engine is also standard but stripped, blasted and also stove enamelled. It was re-assembled with new seals and bearings, not to mention the new stainless bolts throughout. The airbox was junked and a new tray under the seat was fitted, this holds the collector bottle for the rocker breather.
The front end on the standard Zeph always looked way too girly, (no offence to girls by the way), so I opted for the Triumph 955i forks/yolks, which were lengthened by 50mm and given a black Nitride coating. These hold one of the Aprilia RSV wheels and 955i calipers gripping a pair of Armstrong waveys.
At the back I fitted a CB1300 swingarm, which again was a beefier option to the thin stocker and had Hyperpro make me a pair of emulsion shocks, longer than standard for that raised rear look with RAL2009 orange springs. The wheel is a rear RSV job wearing a 180 Race Attack. Under slung rear brakes with a torque arm are a favourite of mine so that had to be made to, using the modified RSV bracket and a fabricated torque arm for the swinger. Lots of other parts including the rearsets, longer stand, curved oil cooler were sourced from we-bike in japan that holds so much stuff for the Jap retro bike it’s unbelievable. Bloomin good value too, even with postage to the UK. The clutch and brake radial masters are from a Ducati 1098. Again so much better looking than the standard stuff.
The electrics were the only really tricky bit, because to me, electrickery is just plain voodoo, so I handed the standard loom over to a local auto-electrician to have the R1 switchgear woven in. A genius.
Overall, this has cost me a lot less than the cost of a new ZX10 and about the same as a new CB1000R, so overall, I’m quite pleased with the outcome, and, it was built in my garage and not a factory. It’s a great feeling that this is the only one out there. Build it, don’t just buy it!!
UPDATE:For more on this bike go HERE
In honor of the Kawasaki Triples 2 stroke gathering in Deals Gap this weekend (which unfortunately I can’t make this year) I’ll be a little heavy on the 2 stroke posting this week. So with that in mind here’s another fine bike from our roving correspondent Charles Lathe
Hey Steve,
I’m attaching a couple of shots of a Suzuki I saw at a European bike get together in Raleigh.
We nipped into Florida on 17 before turning north on 95 headed to St. Mary’s, Georgia for Easter and enjoyed the best weather we’d seen for a while. Spring is threatening to establish itself here, but it is dragging its feet this year.
Regards, Chuck
North Carolina
This one was dated March 31’st!
Thought I would send in my pic off a ride out yesterday in the snow on my Triumph Scrambler. If this snow dosn’t go away soon I can see I’m going to have to get me some better tyers for the snow.
Many thanks and keep up the good work.
Mark.
Here’s my ex Guzzi Le Mans 2 from 1979 with 950cc,straight intakes,silencers removed,Schajor downpipes,aly tank,spoke wheels,digital ignition,seat cut with bread knife.
Ride fast.
Regards from North Germany
Thomas
Motorcycle Photo Of The Day 