FIXATION: A BICYCLE-INSPIRED YAMAHA XT250 BOBBER
IN THE BICYCLE world, single-velocity and ‘fixie’ motorcycles are taking part in an upsurge in popularity. Like the custom motorbike scene, it’s a whole subculture—in which fashion and individualization are as crucial as getting from A to B. But what occurs while those worlds bleed into every different?
Kevin Bergeron has the solution with this unconventional bobber. Built from scratch and powered with the aid of using an early-80s Yamaha XT250 motor, it attracts closely on bicycle culture, each beyond and present.
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A BICYCLE-INSPIRED YAMAHA XT250 BOBBER
Kevin’s primarily based totally in Alberta, Canada, in which he works as a primary responder. He spends his downtime constructing custom motorcycles out of a toolbox left to him with the aid of using his past due father. “I commenced enhancing bikes as a manner to specific my creative abilities,” he says, “however additionally to grieve, and, to a few extent, spend time with my dad thru his tools.”
Kevin had the imaginative and prescient for this venture brewing in his thoughts for an event as, however, became eventually spurred to motion while Roland Sands Design released their Dream Build Off contest. Since he became running on finances he picked an engine he already had (the XT250), and commenced sketching out thoughts on his iPad.
“I in no way grew up with sufficient cash for personal bikes,” he tells us, “so bicycles have been the subsequent exceptional thing. I’ve usually been attracted to their easy aesthetic, and what purifier seems more than a ‘fixie.’ So I am determined to allow that to lead the manner for the imaginative and prescient of this motorcycle.”
The centrepiece of the construct is a tubular metal body that Kevin bent and welded up himself. Some thought got here from the GT ‘triple triangle’ bicycle that he grew up on—however there are nods to different motorcycle constructing strategies too.
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FIXATION: A BICYCLE-INSPIRED YAMAHA XT250
“I positioned my personal spin at the body and created an aero seat tube with a radial recess for the rear wheel,” he explains. “Every tube have become TIG-welded, then capped with a brazed silicone bronze—a way synonymous with older bicycles.”
There are hardly ever any off-the-shelf elements here. Kevin machined the entirety in-residence on both his lathe or mill—inclusive of the inflexible front forks, which reflect the unmarried-crown fashions determined on antique street bicycles. “I designed them to appear lugged—any other very not unusual bicycle construction technique.”
Next, Kevin grew to become interested in the motorcycle’s bespoke wheel set. The front wheel makes use of a custom-made aluminium hub, radial-laced to a 21” rim that Buchanans in California drilled particularly for the venture. For the again wheel, Kevin changed the front hub from a Honda dust bike to just accept a sprocket, then laced up any other 21” rim.
Aiming for splendid minimalism, Kevin got down to layout a near-invisible braking system. He commenced with the disc and calliper from a go-kart, then connected them to the pressure sprocket. Everything’s hidden away in the back of an ornate cover, hand-fashioned from aluminium.
The tubing which you see going for walks from the pinnacle of the duvet hosts the brake line, directing it to the proper-facet foot lever. The left-facet lever actuates the clutch, with a small custom-made hand lever for shifting.
The handiest different manoeuvre is the inner throttle—an element that Kevin designed and constructed himself, with the aid of taking cues from older Honda Monkeys. The handlebars are Renthal gadgets which have been polished and outfitted with Eclat BMX grips. But the stem that holds them in vicinity is a one-off.
Out the front is a ‘flashlight’ that became machined from aluminium, bolted to a hand-made chrome steel luggage rack. Kevin fabricated the cut up tanks too; one holds fuel, even as the opposite has all of the electrics packed into it. Behind them is a slender seat that he admits is neither sensible nor comfortable.
As for the engine, that’s in general stock—aleven though it’s been handed to a complete pinnacle-down rebuild. “It became nicely used,” we’re told, “so it’s now bored to the most allowed tolerance.”
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FIXATION BICYCLE-INSPIRED YAMAHA XT250
The exhaust is difficult to identify at first, however it’s miles there. Kevin constructed a ‘header’ to direct exhaust gases into the body’s down tube, with a boxy vent at the decreased proper facet of the motorcycle for them to go out thru.
“The measuring and reinforcing concern to make the body exhaust come to lifestyles proved to be some distance extra tough than I had anticipated,” he says. “Which, genuinely, can be said for every single difficulty of the motorcycle. Through this construct I actually have advanced a brand new appreciation for the Max Hazans of the world, developing something out of nothing.”
Kevin’s bicycle–stimulated construct took 0.33 in its magnificence withinside the Dream Build Off, and walked away with the Committee’s Choice award at Canada’s annual Kickstart Motorcycle Show. But he’s now no longer resting on his laurels.
“There are 1000 matters I might do differently,” he says, “however I am pleased with this step in my consistent pursuit of manufacturing excessive first-rate work. I am very much searching ahead to transferring onto the subsequent venture.”
And in case you’re wondering, Kevin has genuinely ridden it. “I rode it three or four instances and hated every minute of it. It weighs simply over one hundred fifty lbs, so it’s manner too rapid to be inflexible.”
Source’s Image Bicycle-stimulated Yamaha XT250 bobber with the aid of using Kevin Bergeron
