Tracker to Scrambler: Rebuilt FT35s from Revel Customs…
As many of you may know, British motorcycle manufacturer CCM (Clews Competition Machines) was founded by off-road racer Alan Clews in the early 1970s. The company quickly gained notoriety for their BSA-powered motocrossers, and in the 1980s, several thousand of their Rotax-powered bikes came to North America re-badged as Can-Ams. They even produced the Armstrong MT500 for the British Army before Harley-Davidson took over the design and production rights.

In 2004, Alan Clews bought CCM back from the owner that had acquired the company in 1998. Just a year later, the CCM FT35s was introduced. Although a bit awkward-looking, the FT35s was quite unlike anything else on the market, a production street tracker / supermoto hybrid with a Suzuki DR-Z400 engine, fully-adjustable WP suspension, aluminum tank, and a dry weight of just 115 kilograms (254 pounds).
“Back from the brink, CCM return to the fray with a Suzuki motor wrapped up in one hell of a limited-edition piece of leftfield lunacy.” –Visordown
Enter our friend Andrei of Surrey, England’s Revel Customs, whose client wanted a good-looking, high-performing urban scrambler with an underseat exhaust, and had a budget of under £10,000 — quite the challenge from the builder’s standpoint. Then Andrei happened across a nearly 20-year-old FT35s, and he realized it would make the perfect donor for the project.
“I quickly realised that most of the high quality components such as the Brembo brakes, USD forks, and Mikuni Flat CR carb are all high quality juicy components that come standard with bike — not to mention the very low dry weight of 115kg!”
Though the FT35s was a great starting place, a main challenge would be the low standard seat height — some three inches shorter than an NX650 Dominator. Perfect for a street tracker, but too low for the client and the scrambler he envisioned. The rear part of the bike would have to be completely redesigned and rebuilt.
Fortunately, Andrei was up to the task. He cut off the original subframe, designed and fabricated a new frame with a custom seat pan, installed a different tank, welded up one very sexy dual underseat exhaust system, and most importantly, worked hard to make these new elements flow seamlessly together.
Andrei has done such a good job the bike looks as if it were born this way, as if CCM offered a scrambler version of their 400cc machine. Best of all, it performs significantly better than the stocker.
“The bike now handles less skittishly on the road and more planted, especially at higher speeds — which can only be a good thing for our somewhat awful UK roads… Just 130kg fully wet, it can easily pull a wheelie in first or second! It’s really fun and fast, great for urban riding dodging potholes!”
Nicknamed “Dragonfly,” this agile, lightweight darter is the perfect tool for the urban jungle, and a head-turner to boot. Bravo, Andei! Below is our full interview with the man himself, and more detail shots of the build.
Builder Interview
• What’s the make, model, and year of the donor bike?
CCM FT35s, 2006.
• Why was this bike built?
It was a customer project, where he was specifically looking for a lightweight scrambler-type bike with a fairly minimalist design approach. We started looking at older bikes but then realised it would be more sensible to use something more modern with better performance for this particular occasion.
• What was the design concept and what influenced the build?
Our client used other examples as inspiration but me being the builder, I wanted my builds to not only look good, but as always, be fully road legal and a bike that felt ergonomic and practical too.
While observing other similar examples using similar donor bikes, I quickly learnt that the idea of having the exhaust underneath the seat would be the main challenge. The concept of pursuing this type of project for under £10k is a challenge for any builder. However, once I came across an old 2006 400cc CCM bike, I then quickly realised that most of the high quality components such as the Brembo brakes, USD forks, and Mikuni Flat CR carb are all high quality juicy components that come standard with bike — not to mention the very low dry weight of 115kg!
The perfect recipe for a high spec build project was already and just needed some tweaks — the only problem was that the bike was very low. A seat height of just 790mm was too low and that meant I could involve my favourite part in this build, and it’s to remodel the frame to raise much higher.
• What custom work was done to the bike?
Chopping off the original subframe and introducing a new higher tank with a new bespoke seat pan and a new sexy upswept dual underseat exhaust system. These three elements needed to flow seamlessly around the engine and frame.
Integrating the new sub-frame was a challenge in itself. I raised the seat height a further 200mm and this meant it left a big gap between the rear wheel and subframe, meaning I had few options for making the exhaust mufflers underneath.
Since I kept the original twin radiators (which were tall) I decided not to make the header pipe go across the engine but rather underneath it. The exhaust link pipe snakes its way through the swingarm and up past the off-centred rear shock and finally into the bespoke stainless steel mufflers under the seat.
The front headlight cowl is one of my first fully custom-built headlight housings which serves more than just a cowl. I’ve integrated the cowl to host most of the wire loom inside as well as the brackets to host the new clocks, side lights and the main headlight unit which has an adjustable mechanism to set the angle of the headlight beam.
Overall it’s smaller than the goofy original plastic one. The new design still resembles the old school flat number race plate formation but with a touch of contemporary style!
• Does the bike have a nickname?
Yes, Dragonfly — no idea why I came up with that name, it’s just the first name I thought of and I quite like it.
• Any idea of horsepower, weight, and/or performance numbers?
Yes, power figures stay the same around 40 hp. The bike’s weight however has become a bit heavier because we used a steel tank, a heavier seat and other metal parts such as the front cowl instead of the original plastic. Overall, the bike now handles less skittishly on the road and more planted, especially at higher speeds — which can only be a good thing for our somewhat awful UK roads!
• Can you tell us what it’s like to ride this bike?
Overall, it’s still a very light machine which can whip round corners very easily. With just 130kg fully wet, it can easily pull a wheelie in first or second! It’s really fun and fast, great for urban riding dodging potholes!
• Was there anything done during this build that you are particularly proud of?
I really like how the subframe neatly ties together with the new seat upholstery and bespoke exhaust underneath — it’s really uniform and balanced. This is something that I was focusing on mainly and I believe it has worked really well.
Despite many people saying that the heat from the exhaust will be uncomfortable for the rider — this is no longer a problem because of the brackets I made for securing the mufflers. Heat is never trapped underneath the seat because of the air quickly escaping and also, the exhaust mufflers will hardly ever transfer its heat into the frame or other parts of the bike because of the bracket design — they are thin and have large surface areas so the heat is quickly dissipated in these brackets before it even reaches other components etc.
I’m also pleased that I managed to fit the original battery and all the electrics underneath the tank’s tunnel. This is good as the owner no longer has to worry about maintaining an expensive lithium battery.
• Is there anyone you’d like to thank?
As usual I want to thank James from Horse Seats for making the seat the cover — it follows the line of the subframe underneath perfectly. Always a nice touch and just makes the overall design seamlessly integrated.
More Photos
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Web: www.revelcustom.com
Instagram: @revelcustoms
I like it.