Taiwanese custom master works his magic on Yamaha XSR700

Yamaha's Yard Built program returns to the workshops of master Taiwanese builder Winston Yeh of Rough Crafts fame. Having set a high level of expectation following his impressive build of the XJR1300, The Guerilla Four, Yamaha chose Rough Crafts for the first custom build of the year with the Sport Heritage range middleweight champion XSR700 as a base.

Without modifying the frame, Winston was free to work his magic on the punchy, mid-range XSR700. The result is not one, but two masterpieces. The simple-to-change kits transform the XSR700 in under an hour between a café racer style street machine, The Corsa Scorcher, and a dirt track ready scrambler style bike, The Soil Scorpion.

"This is our first 'double-style' custom build from one machine," said Yamaha's Cristian Barelli. "The build really proves for me the versatility of the XSR700 as a base for customization. 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."

"The XSR was an amazing base to start with," Winston said. "I love the tubular frame of the 700, and the power to weight ratio is perfect for a motorcycle. With the newly designed shorter frame and detachable rear frame loop you really don't need to cut the frame to make a proper custom shape. I found myself having a hard time deciding should I go with clip-ons and make it a cafe 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 to mix and match suspension, wheels, brakes, handlebars, to build the bike they want?"

With versatility his benchmark, Yeh designed a set of triple clamps to run a complete YZF-R1 front end. To achieve the one bike, two builds concept, he went to the Shark Factory for their X2E fully adjustable remote control digital suspension, making the setup adjustable on the fly for tarmac riding or dirt fun. The cafe racer features ultra lightweight carbon fiber wheels from Rotobox, clip-ons from Gilles Tooling, and an Akrapovič titanium R1 tail pipe.

The scrambler version features lightweight forged wheels from Wukawa Industry Co., a handmade flat bar, and an Akrapovič titanium XSR700 high pipe modified in the tracker style. The scrambler runs Sprint Filter waterproof filters to make it safe to play in the dirt. Both builds share trusted custom brake setups from Beringer.

The Faster XSR body kit itself was made with a full carbon-fiber mono body with a smaller aluminum tank underneath, fully bolt-on without any modification, fabricated by MS Pro. The brake calipers and rotors are standard XSR items feeding into the Beringer top set. A Wukawa Industry sprocket runs the rear, with Gilles Tooling rear sets and MS Pro foot pegs. There's more signature in-house work with the Rough Crafts Grill type headlight, fuel cap and of course the carbon body unit. Last but not least, Rough Crafts velocity stacks set off the motor itself.