From Skorpion Sport to Sport Cafe Racer.
What happened before?
Somewhere in January 2001 I was looking for a MuZ Skorpion Sport, second hand. Why? ‘cause it ’s one of the rarest and nicest payable one cylinder sportbike ever. The connection? Yamaha SZR, Bimota mono and Ducati mono. Honda TT or GB was never imported in Belgium. Till than (since 1981) I only had Japanese two and four cylinder bikes, mostly up 100bhp.
On the internet I found a green metallic beauty with only 6000miles on the clock, no accidents as good as new. Price was alright, so a week later it was MINE.
I offered my Kawasaki ZZR600 to my wife and see was the happiest woman on earth. Ok, two bikes in the garage, nice!
Stage one:
I used the MuZ as daily mule to go to work at summer and winter and for holidays. The bike was a disaster! At 20.000miles I had a complete revision of the engine. Clocks went crazy, headlight broken inside, taillight the same, Bodywork broken ‘cause the vibrations, clip-ons ditto, rear monoshock in two pieces……
Something in me said that the concept was ok, but the original parts sucks!! One moment I thought to sell it, but there is no monospirit in Belgium. With all my miseries in mind I started a website to get in touch with other mono owners. It took a while, but a few months later we had a 4 member owner group.
At the same time I got in touch with the Dutch Yamaha SRX connection, who had also a few Skorpion members in Holland. I stopped my website and started a MuZ corner at the SRX website. Later on we started the Monoconnection website for Yamaha SRX600, Yamaha SZR660, MuZ Skorpion 660 and Honda TT/GB500 bikes. You can find out about all of this at http://www.monoconnection.nl/
We also have contact with the German and English Skorpion and SRX fanatics. Some of them visiting our yearly meeting in Holland (second weekend of September)
Ok, back to my bike….. Stage one, standard...
Stage two:
2 years later, most important technical problems were solved, I was thinking ‘bout building a café racer of the Skorpion. Since the early days I was a fanatic café racer freak but had no money for a classic bike from the sixties. So that is how the story that never ends, begins.
Step1
The fairing, including the complete headlight had to go for two reasons.
1/ The fairing and headlight were broken
2/ I wanted to lower the new Telefix clipons
Little chrome mirrors mounted at the handlebar and Lucas headlight in the front. I even tried a little fly screen. New exhaust from Superpole. Second hand original clockwork. Nissin brake pump in front.
Stage three:
Late 2005 I started with a complete rebuild again, but I only had the weekends to work on the bike ‘cause I needed it to go to work.
What changed during the last year: A LOT
1/ The muffler was not big enough, so I changed it with a BSM Vampire from a GTR1000
2/ The dashboard is a new digital speedo from Motogadget, with a lot of options . See
http://www.motogadget.de/. That needs a complete new electrical loome.
3/ Fuse box from a Kawa ZZR
4/ New brake disk in front from Honda NS125R
5/ LED taillight
6/ LED turnlight (completely home made, incl. prints)
7/ Monoseat from a FZR750RR racer boulted on a little homemade subframe.
8/ New satin black coated Skorpion wheels and bridge
9/ Yamaha SZR throttle and electrical switches on clip-ons
10/ Mikuni choke, mounted on engine
11/ White Power rear shock
12/ Front fork revision
13/ Little mirror on the left side clip on
The bike has more than 80.000miles, so the next thing to come is a tuned engine and a paint job. But first I need some money to pay that operation. More details of the rebuild job you can find at next link http://forum.monoconnection.nl/viewtopic.php?t=768&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
Great bikes aren't they? I had to 'Hooliganize' my 96 Skorpion Sport after a run-in with the passenger side of a Ford van on a dark and rainy night. Waited two years to find a good used frame and front end on Ebay. It also has a headlight from my old Honda CB450 and a bug screen from my Buell Blast. Works perfectly now. Once together, it started with the choke on the first turnover!
ReplyDeleteThat seat cowl looks more like it's from a YZF750 to me.
ReplyDelete