Roman's ZR7/SR2
By Anthony van Someren - 28 Jan 13
Roman AKA Romoto from Slovakia has been an amateur bike builder since 1978 and, as you can imagine, has several builds under his belt, but the one that has caught our eye here at The Bike Shed is this Kawasaki ZR7 based Cafe Racer.
Here's how she looked when she arrived.
It’s actually quite an obvious modern donor to build a reliable custom from, with an air cooled engine that runs on carbs suspended in a double cradle tubular steel frame and simple shapes to work with.
During last winter Roman cut down the sub frame and welded the subframe from a Ducati SR2 onto the bike, from which he hung a monoshock and single sided swingarm from the same Duc. It’s a very neat job.
The upside down forks are also donated by the Duc, so in terms of chassis parts it’s all-Italian performance and class.
The tank needed a little modification, plus the seat, solid screen and a few other bits and pieces. Obviously all the electrics had to be tucked away to clean up the subframe and allow the monoshock to take up that space.
Roman insisted on a classic style pipe, but in contrast to that he fitted a digital dash and LED turn signals, which seems appropriate on this very modern retro build. Roman wanted a practical bike that works, plus he also wanted it to be as comfortable as possible (which as we all know, is not the norm on most cafe racers), so the riding position isn‘t too radical and the seat is well padded.
Paint is Lotus Racing Green and Whiskey Tulamor Dew Gold.
A lot of you guys comments are about price and we usually reply along the lines of "how log is a piece of string?", but with this build Roman is happy to share, telling us this build cost 3,700 Euros for the bike and parts, plus around 300 hours of work.
So far the bike has only covered 600 kilmeters as it was only finished late last autumn, and Europe doesn't provide he warmest winters, but we imagine the wheels will be turning again come the spring.
Sadly (or happily, depending on your point of view) this bike is for sale, as Roman can only justify building one bike at a time, and we guess he wants to start his next project.
Great work Roman, and thanks to Roman’s son for the photos.