They are saying that you possibly can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, however nobody bothered telling Earth Bikes that. The Slovakian {custom} store has simply constructed a chic and considerably alluring café racer out of probably the most unlikely donor; a Yamaha Virago.
It’s not that Yamaha Virago café racers are unusual—they’re simply actually arduous to get proper. In inventory trim, the Virago boasts one of the vital awkward layouts in trendy motorcycling. So it takes a shrewd method, and a bit of left-field pondering, to therapeutic massage it into form.
Earth Bikes circumnavigated these challenges, by selecting to spotlight an uncommon facet of the oddball Virago. This construct is all about what attracted Earth’s founder, Vlado Dinga, to the bike within the first place—its motor. Or, extra particularly, the way in which the motor is mounted.
“Obsessive about the concept of a V-twin engine mounted from above, giving it a considerably levitating really feel, I made a decision on a Yamaha XV920 Virago as a donor bike,” Vlado tells us. Set on constructing a café racer—but additionally desirous to avoid typical café racer designs—he determined to cowl the Virago in wispish bodywork that will intensify its stonking V-twin mill.
“With that concept in my head,” he continues, “I approached an industrial designer, Konstantin Laskov from Sofia, Bulgaria. My design transient was to give you a refined form, contrasting with the large engine, and respecting the core of the bike—the floating engine and the curved body. On a philosophical degree, the request was to comply with three key phrases: freedom, wind, and air.”
“Konstantin got here up with a couple of sketches and eventually delivered a easy thought of a single tight curve, with a peak above the engine and two tangents on the wheels. This grew to become our design mantra.”
Vlado and Konstantin bounced some concepts round, finally selecting a monocoque physique. With the design totally rendered in 3D, it was time to convey it to life.
This all transpired a couple of years in the past, earlier than Earth Bikes was totally established. Round that point, Vlado’s fabricator good friend, Aleš Tomis, moved from England again to Slovakia. Vlado introduced him onto the Virago mission and the 2 joined forces.
Taking the svelte bodywork from idea to actuality was no stroll within the park although. The fellows needed to make use of a manufacturing technique that they might replicate, so that they experimented with milling, casting, and 3D printing the physique. In the long run, they settled on good old school fiberglass, utilizing a constructive wooden mildew to create the ultimate destructive fiberglass mildew.
That destructive mildew was then used to put up the gorgeously sculpted one-piece physique. It may not maintain loads of gas or supply loads of seating house, however it certain appears to be like unbelievable.
A flush-mounted gasoline cap does responsibility up entrance, whereas a slim seat pad sits neatly on the again, tucked right into a recess within the bodywork fairly than simply slapped on prime of it. Three LEDs are embedded into the tail; one every for the taillight and switch alerts. All the pieces was fastidiously thought-about—from the deep paint to the refined Earth branding.
The subframe that helps the Virago’s new physique is equally swish. A pair of handmade brackets mount on to the bike’s stamped body, arching upwards to help a baseplate below the rear half of the monocoque. That design is mirrored decrease down within the custom-made rear units.
Shifting to the cockpit, Earth rebuilt all the pieces round a set of {custom} yokes. A Motogadget speedo sits flush within the prime yoke, simply above a row of LED warning lights. New clip-ons are fitted with Motogadget grips and switches, alongside upgraded levers and reservoirs, and LED bar-end flip alerts.
The true trick right here is that the flowing bodywork isn’t at odds with the Virago’s body and boxy swingarm (which, admittedly, has been altered considerably). That’s partly all the way down to Earth’s even handed use of finishes. A lot of the arduous elements have been blacked out, whereas the freshly rebuilt engine shines because the centerpiece of the construct.
Vlado took one other courageous determination, by retaining the Virago’s OEM wheels as a substitute of swapping them for one thing rather less 80s. “Throughout design analysis,” he says, “I got here throughout dozens of modified XVs, however none of them used the unique alloy wheels (aside from some gentle shed modifications, naturally). However to me, the wheels had one thing distinctive of their construction and design.”
In the long run, Vlado realized that the one factor he didn’t like in regards to the inventory wheels, was the internal ridges that ran between the entire spokes. So the blokes milled these out, then completed the wheels in black with crimson accents.
There are different slick particulars strewn all through the bike—like the way in which Earth has mounted a beefy Okay&N filter on to the in-frame ‘airbox.’ Even the drag-style exhaust system has a rationale behind it. It’s designed to juxtapose the curved nature of the bodywork, with a philosophy of the bodywork being the sky and the exhaust being the earth.
“The pipes grew to become a central visible ingredient of the bike and gave the bike its title, ‘Fujara.’ In Slovak tradition, a fujara is a standard straight flute, used primarily by shepherds.”
Little question this Virago is louder than a Slovakian flute—and it’s unlikely to be notably snug to experience for greater than a brief blast. Nevertheless it certain is sweet to have a look at.
Contemplating how radically Earth Bikes has reworked the venerable Virago, we’re eager to see what different oddball donor bikes they’ll work their magic on. Any requests?
Earth Bikes | Pictures by Marian Svitek
