A crisp Yamaha XT500 restomod, a BMW K100 from a Spanish motor racing shop, a classy Yamaha TT600RE tracker from France, and a custom FB Mondial built by a sculptor in Iran. How eclectic can you get?
BMW K100RS by Bolt Motor Co. The Spanish workshop has a knack for crafting classy ‘flying bricks’ and this new custom K100 follows the trend. The trick is to get a rising straight frame line from front to back, which gives the water-cooled Beemer a powerful stance and sportier look.
On this 1986 machine, Adrián Campos and his crew have added the Marzocchi forks from a Ducati Panigale 1199, complete with Brembo monobloc brake calipers and 330 mm discs.
The triple clamps are custom made and CNC’d in house by Bolt—and designed to be a ‘plug and play’ fitment for custom K and R series BMWs with Panigale forks.
The rear monoshock is from Hagon, and given that Bolt is part of a company that builds Formula 2 racing cars, we’re guessing the new suspension is dialed-in well. The aggressive-looking tires are Michelin Anakee Wilds, which fall into the growing category of rubber that looks dirt-oriented but grips remarkably well on-road too.
The cockpit is dressed up with Motogadget push buttons, plus an m.pro speedo hooked up to the top triple via a 3D-printed housing. There’s a new LED headlight with a 3D printed cover, and everything runs off an m.unit control box.
The K-series BMW might be pigeonholed as staid or conservative, but this is the kind of build that destroys stereotypes. [Bolt Motor Company]
Yamaha XT500 restomod by MotoRelic Yamaha’s big bore XT500 is a motorcycling icon, and rightly so: it won the 1979 Paris–Dakar Rally with Cyril Neveu on board, and helped kickstart the whole genre of big, street-legal enduros.
This immaculate restomod comes from Sean Skinner of MotoRelic in Virginia, USA. It looks as though it’s just rolled out of the factory, but it should perform even better than the real thing—thanks to a few discreet but effective upgrades.
Sean has fitted the forks from a YZ250 via a custom steering stem, plus a Suzuki PE250 swingarm and new 15-inch shocks from Ikon. (The swingarm was necessary to accommodate a bigger rear wheel-and-tire combo, and in the end, required a few frame and seat pan mods too.)
To give enough clearance for the forks, Sean has modified the gas tank as well. He’s also built a new front fender, and added new side panels from Kuntzinger CNC in Germany.
The engine is now sporting an SR500 head, and breathes through a flatside carb and K&N filter. The high-riding exhaust is custom-made, with a concealed muffler and twin exits just under the seat.
The finish is factory-level, topped off with crisp silver paint and red highlights. We’re betting this machine is a ton of fun to ride. [Via]
FB Mondial HPS 300 cafe racer Here’s a combination we’d never be able to dream up if we tried: A modern-day FB Mondial customized by an Iranian sculptor and painter based in Tehran.
Even by the standards of Italian motorcycle brands, FB Mondial (est. 1929) has had a checkered history. Between the late 70s and 2014, the company’s ownership history was convoluted—but the good news is that it’s back in business. There are dealers all over Europe and a sharp looking range built in Piaggio’s Chinese factories.
The HPS 300 is a good-looking bike with a custom vibe straight out of the box, but builder Ali Ahooei has elevated it to a much higher level. His approach was to strip the HPS 300 back to basics, tweak the frame, and then upgrade the seat, side covers, headlight and instrument cluster.
It’s a crisp and coherent new look, and shows a remarkable maturity for a young first-time builder working in a country with limited resources for custom builders. Definitely a name worth keeping an eye on. [More]
Yamaha TT600RE tracker by Motorieep In his workshop near Bordeaux, in the south west of France, Pierre Rieep builds highly functional, stylish customs with a focus on go-anywhere machines that don’t sacrifice function for style.
This is the ‘670 ST,’ based on the early 2000s Yamaha TT600RE enduro, but with a whole array of mods that completely transform the bike. The plastics are gone, the wheels are F19/R18 Excel beauties shod with Dunlop DT3R tires, and the forks are beefy 48mm Showa USD items.
There’s a twin shock arrangement at the back for classic good looks, a custom exhaust system that snakes around the engine and through the rear frame supports, and classy components everywhere you look—right down to the Magura brake masters.
The net weight is just 138 kg [304 pounds], which means the 48 hp engine output goes a long way. Pierre is planning to build a run of ten of these machines from January 2021, for ride away in June. And that sounds like a really good investment to us. [Motorieep]
