Remember the “Ballistic Trident”, a custom MV Agusta Brutale 800 RR by customiser Rough Crafts of Taiwan? Well, Winston Yeh has now worked his magic on Rough Crafts’ first custom build of 2017, the Yard Built Yamaha XSR700 that has two identities – a café racer style street machine, ‘The Corsa Scorcher’ and a dirt track ready scrambler style bike, ‘The Soil Scorpion’.
The idea of having two motorcycles in one came to Yeh when he was trying to decide between making the XSR700 a cafe racer or a scrambler. “I found myself having a hard time deciding should I go with clip-ons and make it a cafe racer, or with flat bars and make it a tracker” says Yeh.
“That’s where the idea came in: why not make the shaping as a body kit, and customers can use their own idea to mix and match suspension, wheels, brakes, handlebars, to build the bike they want?” he said. Taking the standard Yamaha XSR700 with its tubular frame and detachable sub-frame, Yeh set about making two distinct motorcycles from one.
Designing a set of triple clamps to accommodate a pair of Yamaha YZF-R1 upside-down forks, Yeh added the R1’s axle, and lightweightwheels – ultra lightweight carbon fibre wheels from Rotobox for the Corsa Scorcher and forged alloys sourced from Wukawa Industry for the Soil Scorpion. This is mated to Shark Factory’s X2E fully adjustable remote control digital suspension, adjustable on-the-fly for tarmac or dirt.
Two sets of handlebars are used, naturally, with clip-ons from Gilles Tooling for the cafe racer, while the scrambler uses a hand-made flat bar. Exhausts are also different, with the YZF-R1’s titanium Akrapovic exhaust on the street, and an Akrapovic titanium XSR700 high pipe for off-road use.
According to Yeh, it takes about an hour to switch the XSR700 between road and scrambler versions, using standard hand tools. Carbon-fibre is used for the bodywork and tail-section, which hides a small custom-built aluminium fuel tank underneath.
The detail on the Corsa Scorcher café racer is outstanding, with a Rough Crafts custom header on the exhaust. The rear brake caliper is standard XSR coupled with a Beringer disc.
A Wukawa Industry sprocket is fitted to the rear wheel, with Gilles Tooling rear sets and MS Pro foot pegs. MS Pro controls keep everything on point on the bars, next to Rough Crafts custom grips and Rough Crafts custom Fin Style Risers.
Other custom work includes the Rough Crafts Grill type headlight, fuel cap and velocity intake stacks, with Air Runner Custom Paint providing the paintwork. Since this is a commission for the Yard Built series of custom machines from Yamaha Europe, there is no indication of what the Rough Crafts Yamaha XSR700 might cost, but it welcomes enquiries on its website.
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