Yamaha XS400 Custom by Reier Motors

A lovely yellow lady from Austria…

While its larger siblings get much of the attention, the Yamaha XS400 is quite the lovable machine. The 392cc air-cooled straight twin offered a punchy 32-36 horsepower, allowing the 391-lb (wet) middleweight to outperform the 400cc four-stroke competition from the likes of Kawasaki and Suzuki.

Enter Reier Motors of Salzburg, Austria — a small garage focused on customizing and restoring a wide range of makes and models. When a customer wished for something special from his XS400, Reier Motors set to work sketching out the concept. After much hard work, the result is the lovely yellow lady you see here, which competed in the Punk’s Peak Race at Wheels & Waves and won Best of Show at their home event in Austria, the 7-day Club of Newchurch motorcycle festival!

Below, we get the full story on this custom Yamaha XS400 brat cafe, with many great shots from Konrad Fersterer.

Yamaha XS400 Brat Cafe: In the Builder’s Words

Based in Salzburg, Austria, we’re a small customizing and restoring garage focused on creating unique bikes across a wide range of segments and brands. Our key strength lies within restoring and customizing all kind of Japanese brands, BMWs and Ducatis with the idea to give our customers the most unique and authentic ride of their life.

Last winter, one of our customers approached us with the idea of restoring an old Yamaha XS400. As you will see on the pictures, the bike wasn’t in a too bad condition, but there was the clear wish/request to make something really special out of it.

At that point, Christian (our CEO and creative mastermind) started to sketch. Soon it was clear in which direction this project will evolve and our customer fully bought into the concept.

With the engine staying pretty much stock (just revised and optimized), the other modifications began one after the other:

Open K&N air filters with intense work on the carburetor adjustments.

Complete self-made construction of front fairing including mounting points. Installment of LED lights with state of the art technology. New instrument/tacho (KOSO).

Complete re-arrangement of cables and wires. Entire battery box moved to the rear under the seat -> special REIER MOTORS ELECTRIC BOX (available to buy separately).

Change of subframe/tail including integrated headlight and new rear fender.

Clip on handlebars in line with front fairing tolerance and appropriate steering angle.

Licence plate holder moved to left side.

Special kick-starter solution in between main frame (always on board in case battery dies, usable within a few seconds).

Seat completely new out of high quality leather.

Brembo brake pumps, raising brake performance without destroying the vintage look and feel. Rims newly painted and fresh tyres -> Front: Avon Oldtimer Racing / Rear: Heidenau Trail,

Exhaust system completely self-made with special routing and incredible sound

After the bike was done to the point it was possible to hand it over, we all felt in love with it already a long time before.

Since there was the plan to go to this year’s Wheels & Waves in Biarritz, we could manage to convince the owner (actually it wasn’t convincing) to join us and take part in the Punks Peak Race. So we did 🙂

The feedback was incredible, therefore we brought the bike also to the next show, the Club of Newchurch, our home event in Austria. There, the bike was even honored as “BEST OF SHOW Professional”.