Roman Levin of FOH Cycle Fab has to be the hardest-working builder on the North American fighter scene. Roman has consecutively turned out one after the other of the baddest fighters in North America over the past year. His love for the bikes he builds, attention to detail, and distinct style push him to the top of the industry, one bike at a time. This stunning cafe took almost two years to complete, as it took back-burner to the DL fighter, my 929 #1, and various other projects.

Clearly, any cafe purists would scoff at us for calling this bike as such, with all the modern bits on it. But it has all the iconic stylings of a cafe, stripped to bare essentials with its small humpback tail, low bars, and single round headlight. What purists may refer to as essentials, would not be nearly satisfactory for today’s fighters. The TL’s powerful twin motor, updated Kawi front suspension, Triumph rear arm and oversized rim, loud snorting exhaust, striking mixture of paint and carbon fiber bodywork bring the classic styling to a high performance machine.

Set on having a trellis style frame for the bike, he began work with a Ducati frame, modified to accept the TL motor. A Kawasaki ZX14 neck was welded in place to hold the mix-and-match Kawi front end in place. Next, modifications were made to fit the Triumph single-sided swingarm with modified Triumph 18 x 8.5″ rear rim, and a Yamaha R6 rear shock with 900RR spring. Finally, a one-off subframe was added, to perch the rider atop this top-notch creation.

The controls were sorted out in Roman’s usual fashion, from things he had around–pieces he wanted to use, and bits he made. The dirtbike pegs on the foot controls are FOH’s peg of choice for the bikes, as they provide more grip than anything short of a bear trap! Hand controls were sorted by making a set of billet aluminum grips and bar ends, mated to minimalistic electronic controls. ASV levers perched on either side of a one-off single billet reservoir for the fluid going to the brake and clutch, giving the front end a very clean look. The custom top clamp houses three indicator lights, and nothing more. No gauges on this, so you’ll have to figure out on your own when you reach the ton!

With the bike mechanically sorted, he began to hand form the wet layup carbon fiber pieces. A classic cafe-styled short speed hump and seat pan. The retro big-but-shapely tank cover, housing an aluminum fuel cell. And minimalistic front fender and rear muddie finished off that job. While finishing the fiber work, he sent the rear rim to Kosman in California, to add an inch in diameter and width–and the rear seat to a local pro, so he could focus on tearing the bike down and getting it painted up properly! Every bit of this bike was either painted or polished, leaving nothing unfinished.

Roman has pronounced his style very clearly with this bike—If you are going to do something, do it right. The fit and finish of this machine is just astounding and it seems to me that this two year project set a bench-mark for FOH. Check back soon to see not one, but two offensive fighter projects coming out of Romans garage!