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Submission from http://santakillerr.tumblr.com/
Found these two gems downtown Chicago on my way to Millennium Park. I’m personally a fan of the red one. Something about its small stature really attracts me to it more than the blue racer.
I’m with you, I’d be happy with either but I’d prefer the red one.
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Lior’s CB350 was the Do The Ton forum’s March bike of the month. It was up against some stiff competition and easily won with nearly 50% of the vote.
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Checked out Cafe Fabrications site and saw this CB350 Cafe Racer.
If these guys pictures were as good as their bikes, you’d see alot more of them.
Source: cafefabrications.com
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Lovely custom Honda CL350 by Studio Motor from Indonesia. Looks like a shiny version of the Wrench Monkees Club Black. I like it, do you?
Source: studiomotor.net
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Do The Ton Bike of the Month voting time again. Which did you vote for, the CB350 cafe racer or the Mongrel?
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Scott in Bali wearing “The Brat” T-Shirt.
I’m not jealous…(hand over mouth…..bullshit)
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In December 2011, I was contacted by Paolo from RIDERS Magazine in Italy after he saw The Brat on BikeEXIF. He was interested in doing a story on the bike.
“nessun problema” I said, and answered a few of Paulo’s questions. I then waited for it to hit the magazine. Bingo, check it out, page 17 of the February issue.
un problema, it’s in Italian. Mmmmm….who do I know who speaks Italian?
Luke Inazuma of Inazuma Cafe Racer fame that’s who! - (Luke is the man behind the #1 Italian Motorcycle blog in the universe and is worth following even if you can’t read a word of it. There is always a good quantity of quality pics on his blog.)
NOTE: This is Luke’s translation of the article in RIDERS magazine. I haven’t edited it or tried to fix the transation issues.
Main article
One day they will have a properly furnished café in workshop style, vintage T-shirts, surfboards hanged at the walls, and gearless bicycles, as expensive as a motorcycles. But, at the moment they are only two hearts and a workshop in Perth, Australia, and a meaningful name: Garage Project Motorycles. The bikes built by Rex Havoc and Brad Petrevic speak a raw language and talk about minimal, and they respect their roots: the Japanese influence of the Brat Style atelier and the one of the smart colleagues of Deus Motorcycles are declared. (The influence is) declared to the extent that they name “The Brat” (la monella) this Honda CB350, which is the business card of the garage, and it seems just landed from Osaka.
Talking about names, Havoc in English means chaos, ruin, destruction (Really? I didn’t know! Ndt). Sloppy, at least. The two guys changed any single piece of the CB, without saving even the pressed steel frame, which has been substituted with a single cradle frame in steel tubes, (which is) nicely quick and, basically, hardtail, given that the quite streets of Perth do not require more than 9 cm of shock excursion.
But the real fun is on the details. The Rizoma rear mirror is bolted directly on the wheel hub. The very short intake air ducts are connected to the standard carburettors via two flanges with stellar fins identical to those of the exhaust. You better call the latter arquebuses as the muffles only are one meter long and the gun-ends are enriched by a beautiful brass bush.
Rex Havoc stormed his creativity also on the top parts: see the drag bar with bicycle handles and reversed levers, or the Nippodenso gauge with the speed limits signals.
The nice bit of this low rider is that it’s strange but not unreachable. You need a minimal budget, to know the right craftsmen, and to have time to waste in your garage. Havoc fished its CB350 on e-bay for the equivalent of 1,200 euro, but the work is quantified 10,000. A big deal, if you consider the Italian prices.
Side column
Enjoy the little things (il piacere sta nelle piccole cose) is what Rex Havoc made to engrave on the Morad aluminium wheels. Even it doesn’t seem so, the tank is original. The pinstriping is a tribute to Rex’s favourite Japanese artist, Nanami Cowdroy. Also the lightening work performed on the front brake is an intelligent, creative and aesthetically dazzling way to find solutions where they are: under your eyes.
A big thank you to Paulo Somani of Riders Magazine for the article and Luke from Inazuma Cafe Racer for the translation.
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Got an email from an architect on the other side of the world last week. Eric said he’d seen The Brat on BikeEXIF recently and was checking out our blog and noticed that we have a project about to start called “Rusty”.
It just so happens that Eric has just recently purchased a bike he affectionately calls “Rusty”, a ‘74 CB450 made by Holiday Customs in Portland Oregon. Over to Eric…
“I affectionately named the bike Rusty, due partly to its original paint scheme, but also the copious amounts of rust still present on the bike when I bought it. The builders in Portland seem to be going for a very rough, grungy look, and I kind of liked it.”
Eric has always been into all things two wheels and bought his first Motorbike 12 years ago. What was it I hear you ask? Oh, only a Ducati 916!
“I owned a bunch of Italian beauties over the years, then eventually moved towards Japanese track machines. I picked up dirt biking about 5 years ago and have been hooked. I also ventured into supermotos, but crashed in my first race and tore my ACL. That led to a bunch of down time which eventually led to me purchasing Rusty.”
“The bikes kept getting faster and faster, but I started longing for a slower, funner, naked bike of some sort to ride on the street at more reasonable speeds. I’d owned a Monster, but wanted something even more unique. I’d been collecting images of café racers for the past few years. I loved the pure, shiny café racers, but also loved the fat tired, all matte-finish bikes. I didn’t even know the term Brat existed at that point.”
“While recovering from my surgery, and having some cash on hand from selling my dirt bike, I decided I was ready to buy a café racer. After several weeks of Craigslist and ebay shopping, I stumbled upon “Rusty”. I was blown away. The second I saw it I knew it was exactly what I wanted. More unique and interesting than a café bike; the proportions were perfect to me.”
“I LOVE rusty. I ride him more than all my other bikes.”
If this photo was taken today, you wouldn’t see the bike as it’d be under four feet of snow. Not much riding of Rusty going on at the moment.
When I first saw pics of Eric’s “Rusty” I loved it. It put a smile on my face straight away. The first word I used to describe it was “honest”. It’s a no bullshit bike that just wants you to ride it. The best kind in my opinion.
….psssst, wanna get a sneak peak at his next bike?
“I completely re-wired rusty, and have done a ton of maintenance. Then I got brave and started my own project bike. Inspired by the guys at Classified Moto, I started a Virago 750 project. I have been working on it in my spare time for the past 4 months. Here’s a little photo of it: it’s about 70% done.”
It would be easy to say “Oh yeh, but he’s an architect, he should know how to build a good looking bike” but then an architect designed this didn’t they?
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