Cool special: Debolex Kawasaki ZRX1200R breaks cover
● London-based customisers transform Lawson-rep Kawasaki
Croydon-based customisers deBolex have made quite a name for themselves over the last few years by producing beautiful, handbuilt café racers – and now they’ve done it again. This time, though, the machine they’ve created has been based on a rather unusual bike: Kawasaki’s ZRX1200R.
The big Zed was produced between 2001 and 2007 as a modern take on the ‘Eddie Lawson replica’ AMA superbike and powered by a 1164cc inline four which was good for just over 120bhp.
“We wanted the bike to have that classic super bike feel but with our unique design touches,” says Calum Pryce-Tidd, Founder of deBolex. “As with all our projects that means a lot of metal shaping.” A signature of deBolex’s bikes is their hand-formed bodywork and what you see on this machine is all handmade aluminium, including the front fairing, petrol tank and tail piece.
“It was probably one of our more challenging projects with features such as the quick-release headlight cover and the tank and tail design took some head scratching to achieve,” continued Pryce-Tidd. The rest of the build was designed to extract as much performance out of the bike as possible, as deBolex believe their bikes should be able to handle just as well as they look. So the suspension was swapped for Maxton superbike units, it now runs on Dymag UP7X lightweight alloy wheels shod with Metzeler Racetec RR tyres, while braking comes from Skandi experts ISR. The engine has been pepped up a little, too, thanks to some Yoshimura TMR-38 carbs and a custom, full-stainless exhaust. Small details include Samco hoses while a Motogadet M-Unit based wiring harness is hidden away under the seat along with a tiny lithium battery.
All deBolex’s builds so far have been one offs, however this will be their last for some time as they embark on a new project. “This will be our last one-off for now while we focus instead on creating a series run of motorcycles,” added Pryce-Tidd. “This will formalise what we have learnt by building one-offs over the past eight years. We aim to bridge the gap between production and complete one-off custom which will enable us to produce our motorcycles in a much quicker time frame and at a better cost while keeping quality and design our number one priority.”