When in Paris last month, I was struck by the number of custom motorcycles being ridden around the city. Amidst the hordes of Piaggio MP3 three-wheeled scooters were a surprising number of café racers, trackers and bobbers.
I don’t think I saw a bike as sharp as this 1974 Honda CB350 K4, though. It was built by Parisien Patrick Escande, who switched his passion from enduro to road machines after a big accident three years ago.
Patrick calls this machine his “Saké Racer”. It started life as a box of bits purchased for just 500 euros: barely $650 in American money, but the time investment was much greater. Patrick stripped and completely rebuilt the engine, ground the tabs off and refinished the frame, and dropped the suspension a little both front and back. The wheels are from a Honda CB250 that had identical sizes front and rear, to create a balanced look.
Dime City Cycles supplied the tires, shocks and headlight brackets, with the handlebars coming from Deus. The headlight, turn signals, mufflers, rev counter and aluminum rear fender are from the French company GMP Classic.
The eye-catching tank is from a CB350, but an earlier K0 model. The Honda logo was removed and the surfaced flattened before the paint was applied by Croco Déco Moto, who also helped with some of the trickier mechanical aspects of the rebuild.
Très chic, non? Patrick is now working on a CB500 build, so keep an eye on his very stylish Valmy Machines site for progress.
Images © Gotz Göppert.
