April 2016 - Cafe Racer TV

This build comes to us from Cosmin Andrei. Below he talks about the build in his own words.

Our names are Cosmin and Paul. We are the guilty dudes that started this. My friend Paul had in his garage a Kawasaki GPZ 500s in good condition (just ugly from our point of view). We wanted to transform it and didn’t had the money to get it transformed in a professional workshop. So we started in my garage with only one thing in mind (make it a WAR ZONE CAFE RACER :P) (we love cafe racers…This made us want it) We stripped it completely, sandblasted it, and ordered parts that we needed. After sandblasting,came our biggest challenge…modify the frame to look like we want! (it came out in one week the way we wanted it)

The preassembly was also a challenge. We dropped the idea of having the original cooling fluid tank and came up with the idea of using a military Aluminum bottle instead. We tried to get some of the cafe racer/scrambler/army features on it,while hiding the cables as best as we could. A big delay was due to the construction of the seat. It was built by us, with a fiberglass base + seat spunge and leather. Favorite features: Cooling fluid tank, exhaust, seat and tires: Biggest challenge: The Frame

They did the entire build for $1,100. Good job guys!

This build comes to us from Loen Montefusco from Stockholm. Below is his story of the build in his own words.

I bought it (Suzuki GS 550) stock. It was sitting collecting dust at a friends garage. So I took the challenge. It takes a lot of effort to make ugly stock bikes into a better looking bikes.

I kept the stock tank and just did the dents on it. I shortened the rear end of the frame to add the loop and gave it an angle. I removed the engine and changed some gaskets on it, then washed it of course. The top clamp was a major league job but was very fun to do. I removed the risers and drilled a big hole for the stock fuel gauge and it wasn’t easy.

The springs on the fork are cut down to lower the whole bike. The rear shocks and harley as well as the pipes. The stock pipes of the Suzuki are just out of proportion, way too big for the Cafe Racer. I bought the seat but modified it a lot to get the shape I wanted, short and low but still comfortable. The front fender is stock but shortened and modified to get the brackets close to the tire. The back fender is from an old Swedish Husqvarna Rödmyra from 42′. The speedos are the smallest possible for the cafe. The headlight is stock. It’s just upside down to get it as close as possible to the frame. Avon tires are the biggest possible for the rims.