Kawasaki KZ750 Scrambler

Argentina has become a hotbed of custom bike-building, particularly tracker and scrambler builds. When Argentine-born Sebastian Achaval moved to NYC to found his eyewear brand, oneYedeer, his passion for motorbikes followed him.

A former motocross and enduro racer, he began building custom bikes after his KTM SM950 was stolen four years ago. He says:

I guess I got hooked in between the challenge, the learning, the art that you can put on the bikes and the love to ride something unique.

Below, we get the full story from Seba on this build, which all started with a set of tires!

Kawasaki KZ750 Twin Scrambler:  Builder Interview

• Please tell us a bit about yourself, your history with motorcycles, and your workshop.

My first bike was actually my sister’s (back in my hometown in Argentina), and I had it modified soon as I could have my hands on. Then the second one was an old Honda MB100 that I had as my final school project. I restored it and eventually sold it to buy my first “big” bike I loved so much, a Yamaha FZ400 Genesis.

It was great, I was 16/17 years old. Then later I started to travel and every here I go I had one, and do something with them. I raced for sometime in enduro and a bit of motocross; I never thought I was getting into building or modifying bikes till recently. After I had my KTM SM950 stolen and it broke my heart loosing her.

So I bought a 96 ZZR Ninja and customized it, and the “Gypster” was born. I made it mostly on the streets here in NY. lLved what it became not only me somebody wanted to buy it so I sold and I wanted to try another one, so on I bought couple more bikes to do the same, GL500 1982, this Blue kz750, a CB750…

I guess that’s what happened.

Always wanting this to be just a good outlet / a nice way to put out some of my energy and creativity. The Workshop came after a while where I start renting spaces to work on them first at MotoPreserve, now a space in Brooklyn Moto. It’s been like about 4 years.

I guess I got hooked in between the challenge, the learning, the art that you can put on the bikes and the love to ride something unique.

• What’s the make, model, and year of the bike?

This Blue Kawasaki you looking at is a 1977 Kz750 Twin. It had low mileage on it and it was well care.

• Why was this bike built?

This is the crazy part of the story. It all started just because I had the tires, lol. I bought them for another KZ750 that I finally decided to start working on, and a friend bought it from me — he wanted to keep it original. (It was pristine, same bike but in red in such a good shape.) I had just bought the tires and my mind set to do it, immediately, literally same day I looked for another KZ750 near me and it was in the shop next day. I was thinking, of course, that “this is gonna be quick cause I just had one like it” — and, as you may know…it always takes more time than you think.

Beside my personal use, I like the idea of taking photos at them, make videos and using them sometimes to promote my eyewear / sunglasses brand named oneYedeer, where part of the design and soul is inspired by the bike world and lifestyle.

• What was the design concept and what influenced the build?

The idea was just to make her look sexier and sporty at the same time but also keeping the vibe of that era. Like, what would you do back in the days if you wanted to take a street bike and make it into something you could race on the hills, but you only have some tools and materials to work in your garage. To keep it that way I made mostly of the job by hand. The 70’s, they were building tuff machines back then, this is one of them but with a fresher look, I believe.

• What custom work was done to the bike?

Was mostly cleaning up the bike:  new tires, handle bars, lights, gauges, tuning, clean up the tail, both fenders, wires, rear shocks (burly Stiletto), seat, new decals design clear coating — making sure that it’s a functional machine for two people to have a good time out off-road or taking in it to town on weekends to sit in a coffee shop just to look at it. That’s what I’m planning to do.

• How would you classify this bike?

This is a scrambler or what I like to call her enduro type of build. Is Street legal but thinking mostly offroad.

• Was there anything done during this build that you are particularly proud of?

I think when you finish a project, the whole thing makes you feel good. I guess the challenge on this one was to keep it as neat as possible; my other builds have been more rusty — like, decay type of looks — more like aged, post war or apocalyptic type of vibe.

Follow the Builder:

• Website:  http://www.oneyedeer.com/
• Instagram:  @sebanyc

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