Whew... *tugs collar* whew...
When you hear the phrase “custom
CB650” you probably have a pretty good idea of what to expect. Odds
are, it’s going to be some 1960s or 1970s cafe racer-inspired machine,
maybe with a bubble fairing thrown in if they really want to get fancy.
Probably the last thing you imagine is a hard-tail dragster dripping
with chrome, but that’s what AMS Garage from Bali has built. Friends,
meet the Pitbull.
Strict laws make importing large-displacement bikes into Indonesia difficult, so this Honda
entered the country in pieces. It arrived at the AMS shop as an engine
and a frame, which worked out just fine since basically everything else
would have wound up getting scrapped anyways. Even with that, only the
neck and the top rail of the original frame remain, the rest is all
custom fabricated. Out back is a rigid frame, and up front is a custom
girder fork for extra brownie points. Custom clip-on bars and rear set
footpegs help get the stance right. This is meant to be a drag bike, so a
Race Master drag slick in the rear is wrapped around a 19-inch wheel.
The
bodywork is all hand-worked aluminum which was then welded together and
the fuel tank and tail section are one solid piece. Running down the
center of that monocoque is a tank strap that also becomes the seat pan
for a crocodile leather seat. Then there’s the front fairing, which is
more aluminum and wraps around the girder forks to shield the rider at
speed.
Of course, if this is meant to be a real race bike, it
needs some go to back up all that show. That’s why the engine got a full
rebuild with 100 over pistons and CR Keihin round slide carburetors.
Velocity stacks help on the intake side, and a custom 4-into-4 exhaust
setup helps on the exhaust side. Plus they just look super rad. Sadly,
the Pitbull has yet to do any runs down the track, but we look forward
to seeing what it can do.
