Got a call from Gauth who wanted his first bike to be something pretty cool, similar to the bikes he’d seen from his many trips to Japan. He came down to the garage and had a look at the quality of our bikes and then got worried he wouldn’t be able to afford the next “Garage Project”.
We talked about what he wanted and we thought we could probably do something that would look like nothing else on the roads of Perth and stay within his budget. The hunt was now on for a suitable bike. We started looking in gumtree, ebay, bikesales etc without much luck. The call then went out to our contacts and Kevin replied quicksmart that he had a Yamaha SR250 that he was thinking of selling.
Gauth went and had a look and put a deposit on the bike straight away. We organised to pick it up the following week and ride it back to the garage.
Gauth picked me up and took me to Kevin’s and we started the bike up and started on the trip home. I’d done about 10kms when I came around a left hand corner and the bike slid which I wasn’t prepared for as it has 20hp on a good day and I was only doing 20km/h. I thought the tyre must be flat so we made our way to a petrol station were it was apparent that it wasn’t a flat tyre but an oil covered tyre. The engine wasn’t liking the long trip home and the seals were on their way out. We bought some oil, topped up and took it very easy all the way back to the garage.
It now meant that some of the budget would now have to be used to rebuild the engine but I suppose its better we do it now than after finishing the bike. Gauth says this bike will be a “keeper” so having a rebuilt engine is good thing.
I usually ask customers to send me pictures of bikes they like or aspects of other bikes they would like to incorporate so that we get a clear idea of which way to head.
With the pics that Gauth sent through and his list of what he wanted…
…we got started. One of the first things we did was fit a 5” Firestone on the back.
October 2012
We stripped the bike and started testing different tanks to see what would look like.
They all worked but Gauth finally settled on a Peanut tank from Lowbrow.
If you have a look at the rear subframe below, you can see the angles are all wrong if one wants a flat Brat Style seat…
…so we lopped it all off and fabricated our own subframe. Here it is mocked up to check the lines.
Below is a pic of it welded in place.
Trying out a few different controls.
Fitted this sidestand with an internal spring…oh so sexy.
Gauth has decided to give the bike a bit of extra power and put a 310cc kit in while we do the engine overhaul. Makes sense in every way.
Late November
Frame has been powder coated satin black.
Front wheel has been done but waiting on the rear to come back.
Will you look at that side stand!
Do you like where we put the ignition?
