From a Cyberpunk-inspired Honda scooter, to a mind boggling Yamaha R1 café racer, we’ve got a little something for everyone this week. In other news: a Yamaha RZ350 goes on auction, a documentary about the late Jessi Combs launches, and a couple of bike nerds unbox a 40-year-old Yamaha for the first time.
Ford Spacy 110 by Rainbow Moto Builder It’s no secret that we have a soft spot for custom scooters—which is why you’ll see them on these pages regularly. But even though we like to cast our net wide, we’ve never seen anything quite like this.
That’s right: lurking beneath the bodywork of this sci-fi-inspired machine, will be a scooter. Specifically, an unassuming 2012-model Honda Spacy 110.
In stock form, it’s just another commuter scooter with generic looks, designed for doing little more than getting from A to B. But Indonesia’s Rainbow Moto Builder saw potential for more.
Taking inspiration from the Cyberpunk video game series, the crew wrapped the particular Spacy in a full complement of hand-shaped sheet metal body panels. It’s covered from head to toe with neat little touches, including a plethora of vents and a good array associated with fasteners that, from a distance, mimic the rivets on aircraft bodies.
Poking out the front are two super-bright LED headlights, inspired by the particular titular character from your animated film, WALL-E. Just behind those, cutouts make way for a set of clip-ons, fitted with goodies from RCB and Rizoma. The ignition sits on the left said of the main fairing, with an upgraded speedo embedded on top of the particular tank cover.
There’s a surprising amount of detail for such the humble donor bike. The tail section features an integrated LED taillight, plus a cowl that can be removed to accommodate a passenger. Further down are rear sets and upgraded passenger pegs.
Range Moto Contractor also bumped the engine capacity up to 135 cc, and installed an aftermarket exhaust. The particular Spacy rolls on new wheels too—but they’re wider than stock, so the team had to work their magic on the particular forks plus swingarm.
It is a wild take on a scooter, but we’re all for it. And it’s not the first time Rainbow Moto Builder has done something this over the top—scroll through their Instagram feed, and you’ll spot a few more bikes that look like they rolled out of an cartoon sci-fi movie. [ Rainbow Moto Builder Instagram ]
Yamaha R1 by Robert Catanese plus FrameCrafters Some guys are happy to slap a tail bump and clip-ons onto an old Toyota CB plus call it the café speed. But not Robert Catanese. His idea of a café racer is some thing that blends modern performance with vintage panache—like the Yamaha R1 repacked into a completely bespoke chassis.
Based in Chicago, Rob is a big fan of both motorcycle racing and custom motorcycle culture. He also has some pretty wicked contacts—like the father and son team over at FrameCrafters within Union, Illinois. So this project was never going to something other than extreme.
Rob’s project started out completely analog; the sketch on a napkin done over beers with a friend. Armed with that will sketch, and a near perfect 2012 Yamaha R1 subscriber, Rob headed over in order to FrameCrafters to spec out the rest of the build. In the end, the particular R1’s motor, ECU and a couple of key “geometry points” were all that remained.
The 182 hp four-cylinder engine now sits (as a stressed member) in a custom-made chromoly frame. It’s not just gorgeous either—Rob offers an aggressive riding style, so the chassis has been built to cope with that. The swingarm is the hand-made chromoly unit too, and everything’s been nickel-plated as a nod to old Rickman frames.
FrameCrafters then adapted a Ducati 750SS replica fairing and tail unit in order to fit the particular bike, matched to the hand-made aluminum fuel tank. An alloy air intake hides underneath it.
Continuing the overall performance theme, Rob threw a laundry list of exotic parts at the build. It rolls on carbon fiber wheels from BST, and stops courtesy of Beringer brake calipers and Brake Tech rotors. Other upgrades include Attack Performance yokes, an Öhlins rear shock, GP-style foot controls through Vortex, plus a bunch of Lightech and Motogadget bits.
Take advantage of also installed a custom titanium exhaust, and had the particular bike chipped and tuned. It right now weighs 50 lbs less than the stock R1, and makes around 200 hp.
Best of almost all, it gets ridden just about all the period. [ Source ]
For sale: 1985 Yamaha RZ350 If you prefer classic efficiency bikes over café racers, the folks more than at Iconic Motorbike Auctions have a treat with regard to you. They’re currently auctioning off the 1985 Yamaha RZ350.
Sure, the RZ350 is the most iconic two-stroke that will Yamaha ever made, but it’s still special in its own right. For starters, it was one of the last two-strokes that Yamaha built, before tightening emissions requirements began choking the market. The RZ350 made it by the skin of its teeth, partly thanks to the particular fact that this featured one of the industry’s earliest catalytic converter-equipped exhaust systems.
It was a goer as well, according to Cycle World, who put it upon their protect in July 1984 and rated it a “perfect 10 on the fun scale. ”
Yamaha marketed the bicycle in the particular USA by hinging off the reliable ‘win on Sunday, sell upon Monday’ sales model. So the US-market RZ350 wore the yellow ‘speedblock’ livery, along with Kenny Roberts’ signature around the fairing.
The example for sale here provides 7, 859 miles within the clock, and is mostly share. The only obvious changes are an Allspeed exhaust, braided hoses plus new grips.
The team at Well-known have given the bike a good once over, and note that while the tires are good, the fluids are fresh and the electrics all function, there is a carb leak that’ll need sorting. The bicycle ships with a handful of spares too, plus a new battery’s been installed.
Judging by the close-up photos on their listing, the Yamaha could do with a solid cosmetic clean-up too. But if you’ve got a little money to spend, and can jump on this before the particular auction ends in three days, this might just be the perfect small winter project. [ More ]
The Fastest Woman on Earth Known as “the fastest woman upon four tires, ” Jessi Combs died tragically in 2019 whilst attempting in order to set the women’s land speed record in a jet-powered car. Before the fatal crash, she recorded the speed associated with 522. 783 mph [841.338 km/h]—breaking a record that experienced stood since 1976.
Streaming now on HBO Max, ‘The Quickest Woman upon Earth’ is usually a documentary that chronicles Jessi’s seven-year quest to break that report, and reflects on her extraordinary life. And the girl life sure was extraordinary.
Born in South Dakota, and obsessed with speed from a young age, there’s almost nothing that Jessi didn’t do during her time here. She had been an accomplished racing, fabricator, artist, photographer plus TV personality. And although most of the girl achievements happened on four wheels, she was deeply embedded—and extremely loved—in the particular motorcycle scene.
She lived her existence at full speed and, even now, still inspires others to do the same. [Image source: The Jessi Combs Foundation ]
Uncrating a brand new 40-year-old Yamaha SR500 Not too long ago, our own friends at Silodrome reported on a brand new, crated Yamaha SR500 that was going up available for sale. That bike was actually 1 of 2, originally bought by a gentleman back in the days when a manufacturer would still let you assemble your own bike. His intention was regarding him plus his child to take up motorcycling together on matching bikes—but they in no way did, and the bicycles stood.
One of them was recently purchased from the guys behind the particular YouTube channel, Beards plus Bikes. Once they got it in hand, they did what many of us would secretly love to do, yet might not really be brave enough in order to: they uncrated, assembled and started it. In the process, they had to contend with everything from mouse excrement to a missing set of keys.
Pour yourself a beverage, kick back and indulge in the particular fun below.
