“El Citron? This thing should have been called El Diablo…” In 1974, Kawasaki unveiled the S3 Mach II, a 400cc two-stroke street triple with 42 hp and a dry weight of 339 pounds. The bike […]
Tag: Restomods
Restomod Thumper: Yamaha SR400 by DOTi Motorcycle
JDM Motard: A big single streetbike from Vietnam… The Yamaha SR400 has been available in the Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) since 1978, originally developed as a street-oriented spinoff of the legendary XT500 enduro. To comply […]
Orange Crush: Yamaha RD350LC Hybrid
Dusty Miller builds an electric orange giant-killer… The Yamaha RD350LC was the first liquid-cooled evolution of the RD series, which appeared in 1980 to succeed the air-cooled RD400. It had the same bore and stroke […]
White Heat: Yamaha RD400 Hybrid
Retired firefighter Dusty Miller builds one hot RD! In 1975, the Yamaha RD400 appeared as the evolution of the RD350, featuring 51cc more displacement, new cases/barrels/head, a new airbox design, and a rubber-mounted engine. “The […]
Honda XL600LM “Bulldog” by GPgarage Moto
The Honda XL600LM was a tribute to the HRC Paris-Dakar Rally machines of the 1980s. In 1982, Cyril Neveu won the legendary trans-Saharan race on an XR550, and Honda was intent on repeating that victory, […]
Triple Black: Kawasaki H2 by Vinny Borbone
A vintage racer builds one bad two-stroke street bike… The Kawasaki H2 was one of the most uncompromising motorcycles ever produced, a 750cc two-stroke “Widowmaker” triple that was loud, smoky, crude, and scarily fast, cutting […]
Baja Commander: Honda XL500R Baja
GPgarage Moto builds a Baja restomod! The XL500R was Honda’s 500cc dual-sport in the early 1980s, a mono-shock (Pro-Link) evolution of the twin-shock XL500S, featuring a 32-hp SOHC engine with counterbalancers, long-travel suspension, and a […]
Box of Dynamite: Yamaha RD465LC Restomod
A modernized “Elsie” with a dyno-proven 103.7 bhp! The Yamaha RD350LC was the successor of the RD400, featuring the same bore and stroke as the original air-cooled RD350 (64x54mm) but with liquid cooling and a […]
Mythic 750 Triple: Denco CR90 Restomod
Street Dragster: Modernized tribute to the mythic Denco CR90… The Kawasaki H2 remains one of the most notorious motorcycles in history, a 750cc two-stroke triple that became known as the “Widowmaker” — a moniker that […]
Ultimate RD: Yamaha RD400 Restomod
An 80-bhp Harris/Mark Dent RD400 Special… Introduced in 1975 to replace the RD350, the Yamaha RD400 would quickly become the alpha wolf of the late 70s sport middleweights, producing ~40 horsepower at 7000 rpm. Front […]