Rough Crafts’ Yard Built XSR700 custom
Back in 2015, Winston Yeh, of the well-known, Taiwanese-based custom shop Rough Crafts, turned out ‘The Guerilla Four’. As Yeh’s first project for Yamaha’s factory-backed ‘Yard Built’ custom program, that big, XJR1300-based beast was pretty hard to top, but Yeh has done it with this latest creation.
Not One, but Two
Yeh’s latest effort for Yard Built is not one custom, but two, designed to show the versatility of Yamaha’s ‘Sport Heritage’ XSR700 platform by taking it in two different directions.
The first part of this split-personality build is a café racer dubbed ‘The Corsa Scorcher’. The second takes the XSR700 in a scrambler direction and is called ‘The Soil Scorpion’.
Both are the result of different treatments for things like the front end, wheels, handlebars and tyres, but the versatility of what Rough Crafts has created is evidenced by the fact that they share the same bodywork and neither of the two builds require any frame cutting or irreversible modifications to the XSR700 base.
“This is our first ‘double-style’ custom from one machine,” said Yamaha Motor Europe Marketing Co-ordinator, Cristian Barelli. “The build really proves for me the versatility of the XSR700 as a base for customisation.
“Whether you want to create a café racer or a scrambler, this proves that you can do both, without losing the core soul and rideability of the original machine.”
Two Directions
The XSR700’s newly-designed shorter bolt-on subframe makes such custom builds a little easier, according to Yeh, and while he describes the retro-styled Yamaha twin as a good base for bespoke builds, he says it’s almost too versatile.
“I found myself having a hard time deciding should I go with clip-ons and make it a café racer, or with flat bars and make it a tracker. That’s where the idea came in: why not make the shaping as a body kit, and customers can use their own idea[s] to mix and match suspension, wheels, brakes, handlebars, to build the bike they want?”
A key to getting the Corsa Scorcher and Soil Scorpion builds to work as they should was having a suspension set-up that was flexible enough to meet the demands of both riding types. This led Yeh to call on Shark Factory, who supplied their X2E fully-adjustable remote control digital suspension system. According to Yeh, the X2E allows the suspension to be changed on the fly to suit “tarmac riding or dirt fun”.
This set-up can work with the modified Yamaha YZF R1 suspension that has been incorporated into both the café racer and scrambler build, connected via triple trees that Rough Crafts fabricated in-house. This also allows an R1 front wheel and brake caliper to be used.
Corsa Scorcher
The Corsa Scorcher rolls on lightweight carbon fibre wheels from Rotobox, with the R1 braking kit up front combined with a Beringer solid disc. A Beringer disc has also been used with the standard XSR caliper on the rear wheel. Other additions include clip-on ‘bars and rear sets from Gilles Tooling, MS Pro footpegs and levers, plus a Wukawa Industry Co. rear sprocket. Rough Crafts’ own velocity stacks and custom headers have also been fitted, with the latter matched to a titanium Akrapovic silencer that normally graces the R1. Additional Rough Crafts gear on this build includes the grips and fin-style bar risers, grille headlight and fuel cap.
Soil Scorpion
In place of the carbon fibre rims on the café version, the scrambler from Rough Crafts uses forged alloy rims from Wukawa Industry Co., combined with Beringer discs at both ends.
For dirt use, the front mudguard has been deleted, while the Corsa Scorcher’s velocity stacks have been replaced with waterproof Sprint Filter inlets.
The Akrapovic titanium exhaust system that’s optional on the factory XSR700 has been reconfigured to a slightly more scrambler-suitable layout.
Finally, Rough Crafts made their own ‘Fighter Bars’ handlebar for the Soil Scorpion and capped it with MS Pro controls.
Common Carbon
The carbon fibre ‘Faster XSR’ body unit that’s used on both builds was developed by MS Pro and includes a fuel tank with a carbon fibre cover over an aluminium core. All this is bolt-on, bolt-off, with no modification required for the frame or other componentry.
To give each element of the XSR700 custom its own personality, the Faster XSR body components were given a different paint treatment for each build, laid down by Rough Crafts’ longtime collaborators, Air Runner Custom Paint.
There are some pretty interesting touches in each of these builds, and while they may not be to everyone’s taste, they do show the possibilities for customisation with the XSR700.
They also show Rough Crafts’ signature style that’s been honed over a series of black and bold Harley-Davidson Sportsters.
Taking that mantra and applying it to Japanese middleweights is a smart move and sure to provide inspiration for other builders to create something special on the XSR700 platform.
For further details on the latest Rough Crafts creations, go to: roughcrafts.com
