Yamaha RX King 135 Cafe Racer

Yamaha RX King Cafe Racer

Teguh Setiawan, an engineering student in Indonesia, built this beautiful two-stroke cafe racer in the garage of his boarding house with nothing but makeshift tools, Youtube videos, the help of a few close friends, and a whole lot of heart.  If that isn’t the essence of the custom culture we love, what is?

The bike is based on a Yamaha RX-135, a small displacement two-stroke commonly known as the RX King, RX-K, or simply the RX in various Asian markets.  Introduced in 1997, the RX King earned a strong reputation in India and Southeast Asia for its toughness and longevity, but emissions regulations killed the bike in Indonesia in 2009.

For this reason, builder Teguh has called this project “Long Live the King.” Below, we let him give you the full scoop on his first build, and what an auspicious beginning it is.  We look forward to more great builds from this budding engineer.

“Long Live the King”:  Yamaha RX King Cafe Racer

Yamaha RX King

Below, builder Teguh Setiawan explains the build in his own words (our highlights in bold):

Well, for starters let me introduce myself. My name is Teguh Setiawan.  I’m 23 y/o, and I’m an engineer in college at one of the universities in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

In recent years, two-wheeled vehicles has evolved into a custom culture as often seen in the streets. The occurence began around 2012 when I several times saw the custom bikes on the streets, and attending a big event such as “KustomFest” that made me started falling in love with custom motorcycles, especially cafe racers.

At the beginning of 2013 I bought my first cafe racer custom bike based on the Honda GL100, but Iwas not satisfied with the performance and the shape of the bike. Then in March 2015, I bought a stock bike, a 2004 Yamaha RX K 135 , commonly called the Yamaha RX King in my country. This bike famous for its strong reputation as a reliable machine, but because of government regulations on air emissions, this two-stroke oil-burner has been discontinued now. So let’s call this project “Long Live The King.”

Yamaha RX Cafe Racer

The trick is to keep the quality high, even when the budget is not. And that’s what I did on this my second bike. I built this bike by myself from the beginning of the process and you should know that I do not have a custom garage or workshop and only armed with makeshift tools at my boarding house garage with the help of a few close friends for welding and painting processes.

This project takes a long time because of financial constraints, tools, and skills. But slowly the concept started to become a reality for a “New Kid on the Block” like me.  It took about 10 months to complete the project, although there are still some minor deficiencies in various angles. I was only armed with a little knowledge from various sources, such as magazines, videos on youtube, and watching the process of building custom bikes at my friends’ workshop.

The process begins with finding the reference model of the cafe racer in several sources, and I got the idea to build such a classic Yamaha TZ or Honda RC with full fairing. Then I started to make an initial concept and thought of what needed to be done on this bike.

Yamaha-RX-King-Cafe-Racer-13

According to the design that I created on a drawing card and cardboard, the first thing I did after unpacking the body was removing the engine and wiring then cutting off the rear subframe, leaving only the main frame. Then re-created the rear subframe with a 3/4 inch pipe of 2mm thickness to get the perfect angle for riding position where before I’ve had made asquare-shaped swing arm.

The difficult thing is to make a new gas tank because I did not have the expertise for it, then I look for a suitable tank in custom shop but still have not found a suitable one. Finally I chose to use an aftermarket tank, from classic Suzuki a100. I chose it because it has sleek shape and length enough.

For the engine, still with factory stock specification with only rebuilding and powder-coated finish in my friend’s workshop.

Yamaha-RX-King-Cafe-Racer-7

 

A sheet of 0.8 mm galvanized plate is cut and shaped according to the fairing and hornet pattern that I made in cardboard. This is another challenge for me because of the shape that must be made to have a perfect curve just by using makeshift tools like hammer and without English wheel. But finally done for that work with satisfying enough results.

The shopping list started with all the items that I need. A Renthal tachometer fitted in front of custom upper triple T. The riding position was revised by fitting Ride It clip-on bars with simple control panels and a set of custom mounted rear-set footpegs from Yoshimura. I use original front and rear hub with polished Champ Rim fitted with Swallow S212 tire for both. Front brake and telescopic front fork are factory stock when rear brake switch to Nissin aftermarket disc brake and used Showa monoshock (later changed to conventional double shock for classic view reason).

All electronics were put on below the gastank when custom battery box hidden below custom seat with custom chrome battery cover. The special thing are this bike still leave rear seat with removable hornet for pillion passenger in emergency use. For remove the hornet easily by open the two bolts on it. My bike is not only parked at my garage but for daily use.

Yamaha-RX-King-Cafe-Racer-8

When it came time to paint the bike, the frame, swing arm, front fender and front fork painted with solid black, and the body of solid blue with a mix of black on the fairing. When finished painting the body seemed to be good if I added Yamaha classic striping. After applying the finishing touches, lucky number 92 on both sides of the fairing according to the year of my birth, the whole lot given a layer of a clear.

RX King Cafe Racer Build Sheet:

  • Fairing and hornet in handcrafted 0,8mm Galvalum Plate
  • Custom seat with removable hornet for pillion passenger
  • 1x 3.5 Ampere Battery with custom box and cover
  • Custom exhaust systems
  • Clip-on handlebars, bar-end mirrors
  • 5″ H4 headlight and LED strip stoplight
  • Renthal LED Tachometer
  • Custom turn signals.
  • Custom driver footpegs

 

Build/Photography Credits

Yamaha-RX-King-Cafe-Racer-6 Yamaha-RX-King-Cafe-Racer-5 Yamaha-RX-King-Cafe-Racer-4 Yamaha-RX-King-Cafe-Racer-3 Yamaha-RX-King-Cafe-Racer-9

6 Comments

  1. Setiawan_Teguh

    Voilaa,,
    Thanks mate for sharing my bike,,
    I really appreciate it and very glad to see it on your blog..

    Thanks again 🙂
    Cheers!

  2. blancoracing

    This should be bike of the year. The most real and honest cafe racer we’ve seen here for a while.
    Thanks for sharing!

  3. Pingback: Custom Bikes Of The Week: 15 May, 2016 | Bike EXIF

  4. hola muy lindo el proyecto estoy embarcado en una yamaha rx 125 y mi pregunta es para alargarla que horuillon trasero usaron y que amortiguadores traseros ya que le corrieron la distancia gracias.

  5. HI, CAN I HAVE YOUR EMAIL? i am a cafe racer lovers from china

  6. We are looking for new or used Yamaha RX 135

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