Sr 500

A show stopping Yamaha GTS 1000 from Italy, a neo-retro Yamaha XT250 from Australia, and a very slick body kit for the BMW R nineT from France. Yamaha XT250 by Deus ex Machina The Deus Swank rally is a light-hearted off-road event that combines “vintage motorcycles, fancy dress and a can-do attitude.” So when Yamaha asked Deus Australia to build a bike that would embody the Swank spirit, head wrench Jeremy Tagand picked the XT250. After all, it might only be a small, air-cooled single—but…

There's nothing unusual about building a custom motorcycle with the primary purpose of taking it to a show. But what if the show in question has absolutely nothing to do with custom motorcycles? That's a cool twist. This sharply styled Yamaha SR500 flat tracker is the pet project of 27-year-old Maxime Fontvielle. He's an application engineer at the French operation of the US machine tool company, Hurco—a career he got into thanks to a love of two wheelers. “When I was a teenager,” he tells…

We know Richard Pollock is a master of his craft—and we know he's thorough. But we're beginning to think he's a little obsessive. This Yamaha SR500 went onto the Mule Motorcycles bench for some basic upgrades. But as Richard dug deeper, he found more and more issues. Things snowballed fast... “The bike was an ex-road racer converted to a street tracker, that had a bad idle” he says. “It fitted a very common profile: a race bike that had been to hell and back (maybe even making repeated…

Scramblers are a hot topic. Build one, and you're sure to be judged solely by how well equipped it is for hardcore off-piste use. But that's not all that scramblers are about. Daniel Peter compares his latest build to his childhood BMX—and it's pretty much how we feel about modern-day scramblers too. 'When I was four years old, my BMX bike became my life,” he explains. “It was so simple, yet so fun. Just wheels, pedals and brakes. I'd ride it to the beach, jump a few curbs along the way…

1978 - 2018: Yamaha SR 500

Stripped down to its bare essentials.

Scramblers are a hot topic. Build one, and you're sure to be judged solely by how well equipped it is for hardcore off-piste use. But that's not all that scramblers are about. Daniel Peter compares his latest build to his childhood BMX—and it's pretty much how we feel about modern-day scramblers too. 'When I was four years old, my BMX bike became my life,” he explains. “It was so simple, yet so fun. Just wheels, pedals and brakes. I'd ride it to the beach, jump a few curbs along the way…