Custom Wolf - "Scoop" Café Racer

When Wolfgang Baetz sold his personal ride there was only one thing he could do. Build a better bike. You see, Wolfgang is the owner of Custom Wolf in Bavaria and has been building bikes for over 20 years. His personal ride was a show stopping GSXR called Golden Brown Rough – which he only sold because someone made him an offer he couldn't refuse. Although building a better bike was never going to be easy. Then he came across something special. An original Moto Martin frame in the far north of Germany to use with Suzuki GSX engines. He knew it was the perfect find for his latest project.

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1977 Suzuki GT500

This all alloy beauty was built by Tim Hart and Paul Courbot from Titan Performance in the U.K. Titan specialize in building Suzuki 2-stroke café racers and café racers parts. This 1977 GT500 features a polished alloy TZ tank, polished alloy race seat, Titan Performance polished alloy 'S' logo rearsets and Titan polished stainless steel expansion chambers. The motor is basically stock apart from a little tidy up in the ports, 120 mains jets, cone filters and of course the pipes, which look they make a sublime sound. Tim told us the bike isn't quite finished yet. "As with all cafés it's undergoing constant mods and will soon have a smaller, neater polished alloy oil tank/battery box so we can do away with the huge standard one" Tim said. 

You can view some videos of Titan Performance racing their bikes at the Isle of Man TT this year and hear their pipes for yourself.

Suzuki EN125

The Suzuki EN125 is a relatively unknown commuter bike thats only real benefit to most people is its great fuel economy. Definitely not the kind of bike you would imagine to be a decent donor bike – unless you are Douglas Paijo from Indonesia. After many years of owning the bike he had an unfortunate accident and thought his dreams of turning it into a 'Brat Style' custom were ruined. "I had a terrible accident on the bike last year" Douglas told us. "An old man with a Honda Supercub hit me from the left side at an intersection. It was almost midnight, and he had no lights. My bike was damaged badly, I lost my gas tank and the left side was completely broken. Fortunately, the frame was OK. My friends suggested I sell the bike, but i had so many beautiful memories with it. I have no car so when my wife gave birth to my first son, we rode the bike to the nearby hospital. It was unforgettable. So, i decide to customized it".

Douglas enlisted the help of his good friend Andi who runs a small custom shop in Yogyakarta in Indonesia, and together they went about doing a complete makeover on the bike. "The Suzuki EN125 is a pure sport road bike, but i want a different look for the bike. I want a simple, clean bike with good handling and fun to ride. I stripped down the bike, chopped the rear end of the frame, made a new seat and put a Suzuki GP100 gas tank on. I like the bobber look, so i wanted a fat tire for the bike and found a 130/90 15" tire but unfortinately it was too hard to find the suitable rim here". Due to Indonesia being limited for motorcycle parts Douglas did what a lot of Indonesians have to do and become resourceful. "I ended up using a VW Beetle rim for the rear wheel and luckily had no problem finding the front one". As time went by Douglas received more and more parts from his friends. "I had a 38mm front fork which taken from a chinese's Loncin sparta trail 125cc bike and had to shorten it to get a nice look. Andi made the front and rear fender. More than 80% of the parts I took from OEM spare parts. I believe that the quality and durability of the parts will give me more rather than if I use after market parts". Douglas also pulled a lot of parts from other bikes, like the headlight is from a Honda CB100, a rear stop lamp taken from a Suzuki RV90, and the Handle bars are from a Honda GL200. "I also picked up a series of signal lamps from Kawasaki KLX 150, a classic speedometer from an old Suzuki cub and Andi fitted an old Honda CB125 muffler". The last thing they did was paint it. "I loved the gas tank and I wanted a suzuki classic colour on the tank and I found one. The skull cartoon is the choice of my son Guilermo who is 4 years now. We love to ride this bike in the afternoon, with the approriate safety gear, he sits on the gas tank in front of me. It's not a fast ride if you want to know, of course i don't want to put my son in danger. We usually ride in the country side at the weekend. I know that he will love to ride as his father."

Now I'm wishing I took my pregnant wife to the hospital on my bike – maybe the next one. What a great story, and it says a lot about the differences in cultures around the world. 

1983 Muzeti 250

Never heard of a Muzeti motorcycle? Don't worry, neither had we. You see, Murray Wilson is the proud owner and builder of the only Muzeti in the world. Murray (or Muz to his friends) completely rebuilt a 1983 GSX 250 Suzuki and decided to attach a badge with Muzeti on it – which is an extension of his nickname. “And lots of people have said to me, ‘Oh, I think I’ve heard of them’,” Murray says. “I didn’t want to go out and buy a brand-new bike, so I found one on eBay – a bargain at $300,” he said. Murray stripped the whole bike down and repainted the frame. “I didn’t rebuild the engine, but went right through it. The petrol tank’s off a different bike altogether because I wanted a long, skinny tank to suit the style. Where the seat is, I made it all up out of fibreglass, and then had to rewire the whole thing, and I had new wheels made up.” Many of Murray's friends now want him to build them a Muzeti as well, so with any luck we could be seeing more of these beautiful bikes on the road.

1978 Suzuki Rat Bobber

This Suzuki Rat Bobber was built by Seattle based Greg Simanson who has a love of all custom motorcycles. When Greg decided to build a bike he wanted to create something a little different. "I turned the 1978 Suzuki GS750 into a hardtail" said Greg. "Shortened the front end, added new handlebars, controls, headlight, new exhaust and powder coated the wheels black". If you are wondering what the Japanese writing on the side of the tank means, it's actually an old Japanese license plate that Greg modified and added for decoration. You can view more shots of this rough and ready rat bobber on Gregs blog Shadowlight Customs.

Suzuki GS550 Café Racer

This 1978 Suzuki GS550 was picked up by Jason from Vintage Customs in Florida for $500. It wasn't running but some simple tuning plus a rebuild of the carbs and he got this classic back to life. "The frame was cleaned up, all of the extraneous stuff removed, and painted in a metallic charcoal" Jason explains. "I found a new-old-stock 4 into 1 header which really sounded nice. I kept the stock tank and the rear fairing, built a seatpan out of aluminum which held the rear fairing piece and upholstered it in a black vinyl" he says. Jason recently quit his graphic design job to follow his dream of building custom vintage styled café racers and bobbers under the name Vintage Customs. His website isn't up and running yet but you can view some of his other projects on his Flickr page. 

Suzuki S40 Café Racer

As far as donor bikes go, the humble Suzuki S40 Savage probably isn't on top of many peoples list. Casey Stevenson had trouble finding a suitable bike for his Café Racer project but eventually stumbled upon the S40 and decided to turn this 'ugly duckling' into a very sexy swan. "I was in the market for a new motorcycle and wanted a lightweight thumper to get around the streets of L.A. I quickly discovered the lack of available options, so I started working on a new design. I was imagining a motorcycle with a Japanese engine and classic cafe styling, but more sleek and modern than the single cylinder customs based on old bikes that are popular at the moment. I discovered my ultimate thumper café racer hidden inside a bike known as the Suzuki S40 (aka the Savage). They have been around for over 20 years and are still available brand new. The custom parts and accessories were designed to avoid any major modifications to the frame or engine, which allows anyone with basic tools to build their own bike from kit components. The end result is a machine that is simple, fun, and efficient." We take our helmets off to Casey who has done a fab job building a slick café racer from this unpopular model which most people would overlook for the more popular XS650 or SR400. It turned out so well Casey is now going to do a small production run of these bikes out of his shop in Los Angeles, as well as offer the custom parts as a kit. If you are interested, you can view more pics and prices on his website Ryca Motors.

Kawasaki KZ200

This motorcycle was sent to us by one of our readers in Indonesia named Gifny Richata. The bike is a 1981 Kawasaki KZ200, back then in Indonesia it was the biggest bike available since the government limited the motorcycle's displacement on the market to under 200cc. It's the first bike made under the Hajarbroxx Motorcycle name. Hajarbroxx was created by Gifny and his motorcycle mechanic friend named Nandang. Together their dream is to create world class customs that stand out on the streets of Indonesia. Like most project bikes it was in very bad condition and wasn't running, so they completely rebuilt the engine to original condition with NOS parts. The gas tank is from a Suzuki TS100 and the exhaust is from a KTM950. The custom swingarm was handmade, approximately 7cm longer than the original and was made by a local smithy. The battery case and the headlight plate is also handmade from iron plate. The rear shocks are from new Suzuki GSX250. The rear brake is still the original drum one and the front brake set is taken from the new Suzuki GSX125 with the OEM disc - and that funky headlight is a light accessory from a car. To see more of this freshly made KZ200 check out these photos shot by Pambudi Yoga.

Icon Kawazuki

We love the story behind this killer Icon KZ1000. Back in 1979 this humble bike started life as a police bike in Portland - but now 30 years later it's on the other side of the law, ready to cause some trouble. The build started by removing the stock swingarm and replacing it with the swingarm and rear wheel from a '92 GSX-R750. The KZ1000 frame was modified to accept a SV monoshock - not quite sure about the Redbull can shock cover but we have been told it's already been removed. The engine was given a 1075cc Wiseco big bore kit and the front end is off the same Suzuki SV1000. Considering the bike is a motorcycle mash-up we can't believe how stunning it turned out. It not only looks great but we bet it would be a whole lot of fun to ride this monster. To read a very humorous story about this KZ, visit the Icon Blog. [Spotted on HFL]