Posts Tagged ‘kawasaki’
Recycling – AKA The Art of Streetfighterization
November 21st, 2011
Play along with me, because I guarantee this is going someplace. I find solace and a certain amount of nostalgic tingling whenever I get the chance to take in a swap meet or salvage yard. I like to think in my head that I am the Indiana Jones of motorcycling on that particular day and no person on earth can stop me from acquiring the Crystal Skully, or at least the Yamaha DT tank that I really want for my latest project. If chopping up perfectly good stuff is wrong, then i don’t want to be right.
How many different bikes other than the original donor were cannibalized to make your current machine?
(a) None – 0 points
(b) 1 or 2 bikes – 10 points
(c) Between 3 and 5 – 20 points
(d) More than 5 bikes – 50 points
Posted in CK's Corner, Fighting Spirit, Streetfighter Features | 
Tags: cf, customfighters, ducati, honda, kawasaki, streetfighter, suzuki, yamaha | 
7 Comments »
Slimey Crud Run 2011: A trail of destruction
October 27th, 2011
OFFICIALY THE UNOFFICIAL LOGO OF THE CRUD
Lets begin this by summarizing the ‘Crud. It’s a bike gathering that is the official, unofficial ‘cafe gathering started quite some years ago by a small unofficial group of riders known as “The Slimey Crud”, of which world renowned author and journalist Peter Egan is a founding member. It’s basically evolved into a gathering of exotic Italian machines, others are from the land of the rising sun, and made purely from unobtanium (thanks for the word Craig) and worth a life to most riders. It’s an incredible experience to be smack dab in the middle of. I can’t imagine anything more interesting than meeting up at one location on the first Sunday in May and again in October, checking out some bikes, forging a trail to location number two and seeing what is there as some don’t go to one, but will end up at the other, some don’t find the second location, hell, some just don’t know!
From the official Slimy Crud website -
“There are no big ad campaigns, no corporate sponsors, no official website, no local or regional newspaper or TV promotions, not even the usual obligatory one-size-promotes-all beer banners with the name of the event emblazoned on a huge blank white spot.”
“The Crud Run meanders across the scenic Wisconsin River valley from Pine Bluff in Dane county to Leland in Sauk County. The distance between the villages is less than 30 miles in a straight line, but the road mileage can vary from about 70 to, well, who knows? No specific route is prescribed, so the best way to go depends entirely on your imagination.”
Posted in Fighting Spirit, Streetfighter Events |
Tags: cafe racer, custom fighters, ducati, honda, kawasaki, Streetfighter Events, yamaha |
3 Comments »
Two Wheeled Stimulus
October 25th, 2011
Two Wheeled Stimulus (not that kind you perverts)
The price of oil is thru the roof because a suit in his air conditioned office blames any and all blips on the natural disaster radar for a need to raise prices and compensate. Grocery bills are climbing and climbing because it takes longer to truck food around irradiated areas rather than drive thru them, and the new Air Jordan’s cost more than a Chilean miner makes in 12 months. This whole global economy thing makes my head spin, and unfortunately motorcyclists land right smack dab in the middle of it all. While the big three motor companies in Detroit are receiving US federal money to get them out of trouble the Japanese based “big 4” motorcycle manufacturers don’t get the same concessions. Multiple teams pulled their efforts from superbike racing due to funding issues, Suzuki has reduced sales of sport bikes to the US, and most manufacturers saw downturns of 30-40% since this global shitstorm began.
Posted in CK's Corner, Fighting Spirit |
Tags: cf, custom fighters, ducati, honda, kawasaki, suzuki, yamaha |
1 Comment »
April 2011 Fighter of the Month Winner – Rohr
August 30th, 2011
Alex Stunts – Alex Flores and his Kawasaki 636 stunt bike
November 12th, 2010
Alex Flores of sunny California took some time with me at the end of last year to put down a private session and quick interview for CF. We met up and looked for some good spots to shoot at in the Cali hills but were denied by gates at about every entrance we could find, so we headed to a spot he knew near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
Flores has won many competitions, including the 2007 XDL Championships in Arizona (see video to the left), put out many videos, and been an influential rider since he started stunting in 2000, so I thought the CF’ers would be interested to check him out.
He’s got a nicely setup naked Kawi 636 with a cool looking wrap (has since changed it for this year, so look for it) and some trick parts on it to help with his stunting. He is currently sponsored by some pretty big companies, such as Shift, Fast Line and Tygershark Cages.
2009 Fighter of the Year – Greencheezeeta’s Kawasaki Z1000
August 16th, 2010
Gavin “Greencheezeeta” Butts first came upon our forum toward the end of 2008, and immediately fell in pace with the group as if he’d been here from the beginning. His Z1000 had already begun transforming when he showed up, and really took off on these pages. Such enthusiasm was put into that bike. He loved it so much, not only was he spending hours in the garage building it to his taste, he was making dance videos, doing risque photo shoots with it, riding it everywhere to show it off-spreading the word about streetfighters, and showing people the light to fightering their own bikes (sometimes forcefully). As a result of his enthusiasm for fighters and modification, a good number of people have come to CF from numerous other forums, as well as some of his local friends and riding buddies.
Posted in Streetfighter Features |
Tags: gavin, greencheezeeta, kawasaki, z-king, z1000 |
10 Comments »
Jaybuilt’s Lightweight Kawasaki
August 15th, 2009
Jay Abington had never heard of a fighter before he built this bike and subsequently found Customfighters. com. We’re very glad he did, as he’s shown us something very different. Jay is a down-to-earth, unpretentious guy. In speaking with him, it became clear that this build was done for his own pure enjoyment, and nothing else. He wasn’t out to impress anyone or prove anything, he simply wanted to build something he could be proud of — something he had made with his own two hands. Building and creating is Jay’s life. To say that he is a gearhead would be an understatement. Putting things together is something he says has been part of him since he was a kid, and he expects it always will be. Jay just cannot stop; he has to constantly be working on something — to the extent that he literally built the wooden bed he sleeps on, AND the hand tools to carve it with! “Idle hands do evil things, so we’ve got no time for that,” he said.When he was 10, Jay began to work on tractors and equipment, learning from his father-figure neighbor. By the time he was in high school, he was working for an auto parts store, building engines and doing machine work. Back when working auto parts meant really knowing the stuff, not just reading the parts fiche. His love for tuning led him to work at a high-performance BMW motorcycle shop in the Bay area of California, making parts and building winning race bikes. The eight years spent there, he says, taught him more than he’d ever learned in terms of performance tuning. Years later, he moved on to hot rod engines and sprint cars. He’s spent time alongside people like New Zealand’s John Britten, but he has no “holier-than-thou” aura about him. More recently, Jay has done heavy equipment repair (ask him about his customized work-truck), which he is stepping away from a bit while working for a local business owner — building race cars in one of the nicest home facilities I’ve ever seen, including a personal dyno! Suffice to say, just about everything Jay does revolves around motors and/or having fun.
