This Custom Yamaha XSR900 Is For The Yamaha Aficionado

The Yamaha Yard Built series recognises skillfully customised Yamaha motorcycles that showcase the versatility of its platform. One of the newest members of this series is the Jeff Palhegyi Designs’ XSR900. The custom bike takes its inspiration from one of Yamaha’s fiercest and hallowed road racing machines of the 1970s -- the TZ750.

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Palhegyi’s creation is as close to the original TZ750 as it comes. It took him a while to get the dimensions and styling of the bodywork right to do complete justice to the two-stroke racing icon. Hence, he couldn’t just get a fairing kit designed for the XSR900.

He went about building the cafe racer-esque half fairing, the lower-half fairing (that protects the engine’s belly), and the iconic boxy tail section -- all from scratch. These bits were created from FRP to keep them as lightweight as possible. The fuel tank gets a new aluminium cover with a vintage race-style gas cap. Lastly, it wears a special racing livery like the TZ750 but with the colours from the American flag.

It gets an aggressive riding stance now, thanks to the low-set clip-on handlebars, a custom seat, and race-ready rear-set footpegs.

Palhegyi hasn’t tinkered too much with the powertrain. It runs with a Graves titanium exhaust system and a custom final drive, which should alter the response of the 847cc CP3 triple engine.

What does make a more significant impact are the upgraded foundations, including proper race-spec fully adjustable suspension and Brembo monobloc calipers. The bike now runs on the aftermarket Dymag wheels built for a YZF-R1. Custom axles and spacers were created for the wheels to fit the XSR, and we hope it’s worth all that effort.

The Yamaha Yard Built exercise is an excellent way to inculcate custom bike building. Let’s hope Yamaha India involves Indian custom bike builders in such initiatives as well, especially with the FZ-X coming into the mix soon.