R1200S Café / FabMan Creations
From Port Elizabeth South Africa , Wayne Buys sends us his latest creation....
R1200S Café
- " My
goal was to create a café racer with styling from the fifties, I
wanted round curves that that would make it pop. It needed to look cool,
yet be fully functional with good handling and performance to match.
Something that could dress up a guy’s bar and yet be brought out on a
Sunday morning and run with modern day sports bikes. It needed to be an
air cooled and for the right sound a twin was imperative. The BMW R9T
would have been a brilliant platform to use but was too expensive, so a
2008 R1200S was obtained with low miles and still in perfect nick.
The
paralever front suspension was going to present some challenges, but I
had some ideas that could be used to turn this into my advantage for
some unique features. Temptation to modify the suspension in order to
get an aggressive look was a nonstarter due to handling requirements.
Thus the motor , driveline and suspension were all left stock. The seat
to peg and tank ratio was also left standard. All parts were to be hand
made from aluminum and stainless steel and no CNC aftermarket items were
to be used.
First
order was to hide the oil cooler, so it was moved vertically to the
front of the engine. A complete new two into one exhaust was fabricated
from stainless steel and vapor blasted for an even satin look. It is a
one piece unit that drew inspiration from old Norton racers. Velocity
stacks were made from stainless steel and vapor blasted to complete the
look of the exhaust. A five piece aluminum cowling was then formed to
hide the oil cooler and to enshroud the middle of the exhaust. The belly
and front profile of the shroud was inspired from WWII fighter planes.
The
front fender presented one of the paralever challenges as a
conventional fender would either sit to high from the wheel or have a
huge gap above it. Aviation came into play a second time for in
inspiration with the concept of creating an air intake incorporated on
top of the front fender, that has a functional purpose of channeling the
air to the oil cooler.
The
aluminum tank needed to be unique, so I decided to do a tank/tail piece
all in one with the filler cap placed at the rear. As the front section
of the tank is mostly hollow to create space for the electronics and
front brake/clutch hydraulics, a breather was placed at the top on the
inside to solve the problem of an airlock when filling the tank. The
rear LED tail light was incorporated into the tailpiece and is mounted
behind the logo. To distract attention from the front shock which looked
out of place, which was the second paralever challenge. I decided to
fabricate a aluminum grill with queues taken from a 1934 Ford roadster.
To
keep a clean look I modified the stock clutch/brake units to be
actuated via cables and mounted them under the tank. I hand made a
custom set of reverse levers that would activate the modified stock
hydraulic units at a one to one ratio whiles hiding the cables in the
bar tubes. I wanted the bike to look like a craftsman build it in a
barn, using skill and available materials, not a credit card. To go with
this look I decided that hand wrapped leather grips would fit the
build. To keep the bars slim and uncluttered, I left the throttle cable
exposed from the traditional cover which would have added bulk to the
bars. I formed an aluminum seat pan, after sculpting the foam I used
the same leather to cover it.
An
aluminum front number board was formed to compliment the racing feel.
Yet the bike needed to be completely street legal so the smallest
posable hi-low beam projector light was obtained. Only the inner guts
were used while all shrouding was hand formed from aluminum. The hanger
bracket was hand formed out of stainless steel with a hood to add to the
retro feel. Front signal lights were incorporated into the number
board.
Green
was selected as the main color with a complimenting cream to enhance
the vintage period feel that I was after. Wheel color were selected to
give a vintage feel of the bike as the budget had no room for the spoked
wheels that would have been the preferred choice for the period look of
the build. Fork sleeves were made to cover the spindly looking fork
tubes and give it I more robust look.
I
am extremely proud to say that this whole build was done with the
minimum of off the shelf parts, instrument clock, mirror, headlight
internals, fuel filler cap and the left handle bar switch gear. All
parts were hand formed and or fabricated with only a band saw, English
wheel and an hand operated milling machine. The build was done in its
entirety by myself inclusive of the paint job and upholstery work "
- Wayne Buys - FabMan Creations
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