What is El >moto< loco?
El >moto< loco is a project I started because I saw a really cool bike on the internet. Further research of the bike revealed the start bike was in fact a 1981 Yamaha XV750, better known to many as the 'Virago'.
I'm not a big fan of 'cruiser' style bikes like the Virago but I did love the look of the project bike I saw on the net. Without any real intentions I browsed eBay to try and find out how much an old Virago would cost as a donor bike for such a project. Call it fate or luck but there was a 1981 XV750 Virago for sale down on the Central Coast, road registered and in good working order. The bike was quite good value too and this got me thinking.......
After some deliberation I convinced myself I would buy the XV750 and use it a few days a week to cruise to work, alleviating some of the mileage on my car too. The plan was to keep the bike in usable order and clean, tidy, modify, upgrade and replace parts on the go so I could still use it as a working bike but ultimately turn into a cafe racer.
I picked the bike up on the weekend of 17th May 2010, Monday afternoon after work I began taking parts off the bike and got a little carried away. It is now a long term ground up rebuild. Whilst not a traditional cafe racer style bike it does incorporate a lot the caferacer elements and follows the enthusiasm the guys did back in the day when modifying their bike to race.
This is by far the most technical adventure I've ever embarked on, my previous abilities extended to basic car and motor bike maintainence. Such an epic undertaking deserves a cool sounding name, so welcome to El >moto< loco!
Keep track of the site and the galleries for my progress pics as I work my way through the build.
I'm not a big fan of 'cruiser' style bikes like the Virago but I did love the look of the project bike I saw on the net. Without any real intentions I browsed eBay to try and find out how much an old Virago would cost as a donor bike for such a project. Call it fate or luck but there was a 1981 XV750 Virago for sale down on the Central Coast, road registered and in good working order. The bike was quite good value too and this got me thinking.......
After some deliberation I convinced myself I would buy the XV750 and use it a few days a week to cruise to work, alleviating some of the mileage on my car too. The plan was to keep the bike in usable order and clean, tidy, modify, upgrade and replace parts on the go so I could still use it as a working bike but ultimately turn into a cafe racer.
I picked the bike up on the weekend of 17th May 2010, Monday afternoon after work I began taking parts off the bike and got a little carried away. It is now a long term ground up rebuild. Whilst not a traditional cafe racer style bike it does incorporate a lot the caferacer elements and follows the enthusiasm the guys did back in the day when modifying their bike to race.
This is by far the most technical adventure I've ever embarked on, my previous abilities extended to basic car and motor bike maintainence. Such an epic undertaking deserves a cool sounding name, so welcome to El >moto< loco!
Keep track of the site and the galleries for my progress pics as I work my way through the build.
