Kawasaki KZ400 Street Tracker

"The customer is always right." We've all heard the saying. It's based on the thought that if a company really wants to get ahead, they need to listen closely to what their customers want. Most of the time you dredge it up when your stuck in a tricky situation dealing with an airline hostess or rental car attendant. You know the feeling; you just want that second damn bag of tiny little peanuts and it just so happens that no, you don't care so much about the one-small-bag-of-nutty-snacks-per-passenger-rule thank you very much. So when a good customer of Maindrive Cycles in Texas asked them to build a street tracker using a Japanese bike, they needed a little convincing before they started. You see, Cory Hebert from Maindrive specialises in good ol' American bikes, and had never built a Japanese bike before.

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Deus SX225 Street Tracker

As winter approaches here in Australia, the thought of migrating to a tropical climate is very appealing. A place like Bali would be the perfect location; not only is it balmy for most of the year but thanks in part to Deus they have a very sweet bike and surf culture. And with beautiful bikes like this Deus SX225 Street Tracker that keep rolling out of their Bengkel workshop, one could only assume that things are going to stay pretty warm over there for a while yet. Here's how Deus Bali describe the build, "this Yamaha SX225 Street Tracker has literally been rebuilt from the ground up. The frame to the engine, and everything in-between has been modified, rebuilt or replaced to fulfill the specs laid out by our customer and friend Alex. What he wanted, he got. Including the short wheel base – seems he has a liking towards the wheelie."

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1979 BMW R100/7 Blitz Street Tracker

A couple of months ago we featured a beautifully shot video of some French gentleman from Blitz Motorcycles in Paris cruising the country roads of France. The video caused quite a commotion with most people liking it, but we also had our fair share of haters — but as they say in France, "such is life." Well, hopefully their latest creation, this rough and raw BMW street tracker will show you that these guys aren't a "bunch of douche bag hipsters" but actually a group of quite talented builders putting out some really impressive bikes.

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1973 Yamaha RD250 Street Tracker

This RD250 caught my eye after recently winning the coveted Do The Ton Bike of the Month. The bike hadn't run for 20 years when Ken Stout bought it as part of a package deal with two 60's Honda Superhawks. Being a design engineer in the motorcycle/powersport industry it didn't take him long to get it going. "After cleaning the carbs, new fuel line, and some gas, she fired right up" Ken said. Ken wanted to do something special with the bike and decided to turn it into a street tracker. "The tail section is a modified CBR 1000RR tail from my buddy's bike, that I saw him wreck while in a wheelie. I stripped the bike to the bare frame, shaved anything that was not needed and cut and chopped the stock electrical brackets to get them to fit where I wanted them. The gas cap I found in the trash at the Buell liquidation sale... cut a big hole in the tank and welded in some sheet metal so it would bolt on. The intake is made of plumbing ABS bought at Lowes (a little tip for everyone: Acetone will melt ABS. So you can use it to blend joints and sanding marks out).  I made the pipes using some of the original pipe (mainly the header tube and some internal parts), some sheet metal rolled into cones and chambers, and a couple sections of exhaust pipe from Autozone. The paint is a mixture of duplicolor and some PPG I had laying around for the last 5 years. Sprayed it in my friend's garage – thanks to Rebellion Ind." You can check out more pics of this RD250 street tracker and read Kens build thread here. Alternatively, if you want to see how the Honda Superhawk turned out, hit this link.

SR500 Street Tracker

The idea to turn his SR500 into a street tracker came to Italian Andrea Costantini after viewing some photos of a Kim Boyle creation. "I searched the bike spasmodically, because I loved the mechanics" he says. Luckily for Andrea his father is a mechanical engineer and has a small workshop at home with a horizontal lathe, a vertical mill and a grinding wheel. So with the help of his Dad, Andrea went about creating his dream street tracker. "I changed the stroke of the fork, creating a shorter spacer, a spacer for the brake disc which is a Ducati 996 because otherwise the caliper from a Ducati Hypermotard would have hit against the spokes of the rim. I bought the seat from Redmax Speed Shop and we made the plates to attach to the frame anchor points. I changed the bar tension and the rod brake to simplify the rear. The tank is off an old Yamaha GT80 and the footpegs were also made and designed by my father. The painting of the frame, tank and seat were all carried out on the terrace of my home in Rome". You can check out loads more build shots of this sweet street tracker on Andrea's Flickr page. 

SR500 Street Tracker

This 'designer' SR500 street tracker was built by Steve Hillary at the Red Max Speed Shop for the opening party of London fashion store Present. Red Max are based in Hampshire, U.K, and are involved in the fast growing Shorttrack racing scene in Europe. They may have a passion for trackers, but they also build some nice cafe racers and bobbers. Redmax made the custom parts, fabrication, SR tank and the seat was custom made by Bratstyle. The eye-catching paint job is by the talented guys at Death Spray Customs, although the design is by Japanese fashion designer (based in London) Eley Kishimoto and is appropriately named "flash" print. If you think the design looks familiar it's probably because it featured recently on a range of Ruby Ateliar helmets. But it doesn't stop there, you can even buy matching shoes, skateboard and backpack to go with your helmet. Hit the link to see the Red Max SR500 Flickr page. [Found on Sideburn Blog]

1966 Triumph TT

Stumbled across a blog called Triumph Flat Track which as the name suggests is all about everything Triumph from vintage photos through to modern bike builds. Like this cool 1966 Triumph TT with the very retro looking leather spider seat and flame tank. Greg Rovetta is the bikes owner and said this about the build: "The mastermind for this build is my friend "Steve Perez", with me doing the slave labor. I bought it in 1984. This was the 3rd ground-up rebuild. The frame and casings were in pieces in his back yard for over ten years. I was then reunited with my frame after not seeing my friend for ten years and slowly built it into what it is today." For more specs and pics hit this link to Triumph Flat Track.

Triumph Street Tracker

BellaCorse are a large seller of Triumph Bonneville parts and accessories in Michigan, USA. The owner Michael Selman also built this mean Street Tracker. Project Swiss Misfortune is an eyecatcher that started life as a 2002 790cc Bonnie. The engine has been bored-out to 904cc and has Keihin Racing FCR-39mm flat slide carbs and a BellaCorse Air Box Elimination kit installed. The 2-1 exhaust is from Zard of Italy and is a Titanium-alloy construction. The alloy tank and seat were hand-made and are loosely patterned after the H-D XR750. You can definitely see the resemblance especially in the seat. With all that chrome and a powerful moan, who wouldn't want to take it home. For more Triumph Trackers check out the legendary Triumph Flat Track blog.

Deus SR542

Never has a 1978 Yamaha Sr500 looked so good. Deus have totally rebuilt this classic and turn it into a SR542 Street Tracker. The back end looks very similar to their TW225. Apparently it has left Australian shores and headed for Hollywood. Rumoured to be Orlando Blooms. [via HFL]