SWM Milano
Mark Williams embarks on yet another custom creation, a mission just-about-possible
I’d been planning, well okay, dreaming about this ever since I first clocked the limited run, $38,000-plus, postapocalypse stylee Ronins in 2014. And having sold my last custom-build, the CB400N ’tracker laboriously chronicled here in 2018 and bought a brand-spanking SWM Gran Milano in the bankrupt importer’s fire-sale, I figured I finally had the wherewithal to create a poor man’s version of that brutalist, Buell-engined streetfighter.
However careful consideration – rather an alien concept hereabouts – revealed why custom builders generally choose decades-old donor bikes with carburettors rather than fuel injection and none of the emissions gubbins that strangle performance and cause aesthetic grief. Which un-coincidentally is why Triumph, Guzzi, CCM etc. offer so-called ‘factory customs’. Yep, the Milano has fuel injection, ABS and catalytic converters and although its Chinese-sourced, 445cc engine has a higher compression ratio and shorter stroke than the ancient Honda XBR500 on which it’s based, even allowing for its lower capacity it delivers 11.3% less power, so it’s no rocket-ship. But, I knew from roadtesting the bike, it’s pretty nippy, surefooted, comfy even for my lanky frame and is well built with excellent, highly adjustable Fastace USD forks and gassed-up shocks, Brembo brakes and chunky 17-inch wheels. That said, the one major obstacle was how to make the crucial, Ronin-esque headlamp fairing-cum-fork shrouds and injectorhiding side panels. Initially I located a CAD expert who scanned the bike with a view to 3-D printing ’em but he found the software too limiting (!) and the project lay fallow during Covid and an energy-draining divorce. However, a chance encounter introduced me to Adam Dance, a young engineer, bike restorer/builder, skilled metal fabricator (see admoto.co.uk) and miraculously, a near-ish neighbour who assured me he could do the biz using 2mm alloy sheet. Hurrah!
So off I go again but I will say that cost constraints and a desire to be riding rather than still stitching it together come summer mean this build isn’t going to be radical. The angular tank perfectly suits the look I’m after, the two new side panels will clip onto a chassis that’ll stay largely as is, although the rear-end will be tidied up with a hugger fender and inset LED lighting. The existing seat base will be re-upholstered in a more angular style and to match the paintwork, as per Adam’s computer rendition (left). Upfront I plan to replace the large clocks with a small digital display and employ push button switchgear fed by a German D-box digital controller, which also replaces much of the stock loom. The mini fairing/fork shroud will house twin
projector headlamps and a smaller oil cooler. If funds permit I’ll re-paint the wheels to match the bodywork but South Korea’s funky (and grippy) Golden tyres will remain. Sticking with the fuel injection means retaining the exhaust sensor and the cats that reside inboard of the lower chassis rails but as I like the upswept mufflers – with their discreetly removable baffles – I’ll also save some dosh by leaving ’em alone. However, in order to recover some of the power lost to Euro 4, I’m going to lash out and import a Magnum Dyno-boost chip-set from the States which claims both 15% more torque and top end.
No, it won’t really be a bargain basement Ronin, but it will be more comfortable and biddable on Britain’s pockmarked and overcrowded roads. More importantly unlike many of the show ponies that clutter the custom bike media and like all the bikes I’ve butchered, sorry bespokely re-purposed, it’ll be ridden – hard and often.
‘Like all the bikes I’ve butchered, sorry bespokely re-purposed, it’ll be ridden – hard and often’