5/18/2023 0 Comments Japanese sportster chopper![]() ![]() The exhaust was welded up from a collection of pre-bent sections, then capped off with a slightly modified Danmoto silencer. It also got a new Mikuni VM34 carb with a custom stainless steel velocity stack, and a braided camshaft oil line. Jamie didn’t need to do too much to the motor, so it simply went off to Motoedit for vapor blasting. The new headlight is classic bobber fare, right down to the yellow glass. The standard switches were kept and cleaned up, and all the wiring rerouted to run through the bars. The bars are from Norman Hyde, and the grips are from Biltwell Inc. The ignition now lives on the side of the battery box, and there’s a generic aftermarket speedo tucked into a hand-made basket on the side of the forks. Just in front of the tank, Jamie machined the ignition and speedo mounts off the top yoke, and ditched the rubber riser mounts for solid mounts. It’s topped off with its own one-off gas cap. It needed a new tunnel, and had to be reworked to clear the SR’s oil-in-frame filler. The Yamaha’s new fuel tank was lifted from a Harley Sportster, but it was far from a straight swap. Two Gun Salute’s aesthetic is very much steeped in hot rod culture, so they threw on a set of whitewalls from Shinko. Jamie decided to keep the SR’s stock wheels, but they were stripped, powder-coated and re-laced with stainless steel spokes, with help from SFX Wheels. The front forks were stripped, rebuilt and lowered by 80 mm. Jamie tweaked the SR400’s stance too, by swapping out the rear shocks for a set of Harley-Davidson units that are 100 mm shorter than stock. ![]() There’s a Motone taillight further down, attached to a custom-built plate bracket that’s mounted to the swing arm. Up top is a neat solo bobber seat, upholstered in black leather with a classic tuck and roll pattern, by Nostalgia Upholstery. The tail’s finished off with a trimmed Motone fender, with a clever mounting system that can be adjusted to match the wheel’s position when you tweak the chain tension. Then he welded in neat pair of rear fender lugs, and built a battery box to sit below the seat. He grabbed his grinder, de-tabbed the frame, and lopped off everything behind the shock mounts. So Jamie (who also has a family and a nine-to-five) kicked into high gear. A plan was made, and the target was to have the bike ready and on show at the Bike Shed London 2019.”Ī 1992-model Yamaha SR400 was sourced directly from Japan, and landed in the UK 13 weeks before the show. “I loved Jamie’s goal for the build: a low, super clean, simple looking bobber, influenced by Japanese builders such as Heiwa. “We jumped at the chance, having seen the quality of Jamie’s previous builds,” says Sam. The guys met up at the Hot Rod Drags at Santa Pod, and hit it off. ![]() Then Jamie Smith-a self-professed ‘shed builder’ who operates as Smith and Son Motorcycles near Peterborough-reached out to them via Instagram. Two Gun Salute brothers Nathan and Sam Burton had long wanted to do a custom build to promote their label, but being a small brand, budgets were always tight. The project started as a collaboration between the small but feisty British apparel brand Two Gun Salute and custom shop Smith and Son Motorcycles. From top to bottom, it’s a deliberate homage to Japanese custom style. But this tasty Yamaha SR400 takes more than just a few cues. Many elements of the universal flat-seated cafe racer genre originate in Japan-whether builders realize it or not. But it’s not just the motorcycles that captivate us: we’re also conscious of how Japanese creativity influences the custom scene around the globe. We’re huge fans of the Japanese custom scene. ![]()
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