This one is a 1973 CB500 started as a customer build.. he then sold it back to me, and I added my own custom touches to it. I was really going for that vintage race bike look
We recently did a feature on the crew behind central Indiana's vintage restoration shop Hoy Vintage Cycles and their lead tech Kim Wroblewski was nice enough to fire up his Yamaha XS650 rephased big bore street legal flat tracker and we couldn't wait to hear a little more about it. When you see this bike in person it's one of those things where it certainly looks fast sitting still and looks even faster going down the road but we wanted to know all the details of what makes it such a trip to ride so we sat down with Kim in the shop and got a little backstory on this really cool piece that was the combined effort between him and one of Vance and Hines top flat track specialists.
It's a 1977 cb750, in a santee frame, with a 14 over Springer that was pieced together. It's got a 19" invader front wheel and a Henry Abe 16" rear wheel. Henry Abe bread box, santee oil tank and electrical box. I made the bars and controls and the exhaust.
In the era of late 1970’s to early 80’s superbikes Honda was leading the way by continuing to improve on their innovative designs.In 1980 Honda released the CB900F using a race inspired 901cc DOHC engine (which was a step above the previously released dohc CB750F) with its longer stroke and hotter cams which made 84BHP @ 8500RPM, offered in the USA only in 1981-1982. Then in 1983 Honda released the bike to trump both of the previous models, the CB1100F. Using hotter cams, larger pistons, and redesigned combustion the CB1100F produced 108BHP @ 8500RPM. Honda also increased the rake and added a 1/4 fairing for a bit of wind deflection and style. These 1100F were the pinnacle of the Honda motors company at the time and the only other bike to really rival it in that era in terms of notability and impressive looks would have certainly been the just slightly slower but larger than life Honda CBX.
In the history of custom choppers as soon as the Japanese inline four motor was on the market people were pulling them and putting them in custom projects. Companies like Amen made this even more accessible in the early 70's and with the introduction of the Kawasaki 750, 900, and 1000cc motors they adapted to include these in their lineup of ready to install chopper frames. However these Kawasaki Amen frames were much harder to come by years later than the CB750 Honda counterpart which dominated the market leaving any KZ chopper out there rolling a real head turner. Flash forward to the 2017 Biltwell El Diablo Run when we had the chance to meet Robbie Hardbarger on his Amen framed Kawasaki Z1 chopper. The bike absolutely screamed down the baja Mexico highways and despite the extreme heat performed amazing. After the run he knew he wanted to change things up and spent several years getting it to the stance he wanted. Just before the 2021 EDR he had it ready to hit the road to San Felipe again and we met up with him once again to relish in this amazing Kawasaki chopper full of awesome road stories.
