Yamaha Fazer’s TZ makeover

Easy-fit kit converts budget roadster into retro race rep

With all the interest in café racers and home-built specials, how about this? A 1970s TZ-inspired street racer based on the Yamaha Fazer 600 that you can build yourself with a new £1800 kit.

It’s the latest from Isle of Wight-based Café Racer Kits who design and make a range of detailed, idiot-proof conversions. Their first, back in 2012, was based on the old Honda CX500, followed by a CB250/400 variant and, in 2016, a Hinckley Triumph triple. Now, with donor CXs becoming more valuable, CRK’s Ian Saxcoburg, a lifelong biker and professional draughtsman, came up with this.

“I’d had my eye on the Fazer because they were good bikes that seemed near the bottom of the value curve, between £600 and £1200, which makes it viable,” says Ian. “And with the way the tank is perched on the frame it had the look of the early steel-framed racers, hence the duck tail rear.” The process is easy: bag a donor Fazer (this kit applies to the two earliest from 19982004); peruse which spec kit you require on CRK’s website; order your kit and look forward to tinkering away in your garage for a couple of weeks before revealing a bike that’ll be the envy of all your mates. If you go for the full monty version here you get: tail module including seat brackets, GRP unit, number plate bracket/light and LED lights; upholstered Alcantara seat; fairing, screen, LED headlight; TZ-style mudguard, hugger; rearsets; chain/rad guard plus clip-ons. The only thing missing is the paintjob. Ian says only basic skills are required and the only cutting is of the rear subframe. Who said you couldn’t build your own café racer? CRK are at: www.caferacerkits.co.uk