YAMAHA’S ‘Yard Built’ series of modified show bikes has finally spawned a machine you can replicate yourself
You might argue that building a ‘one-off’ entirely from off-the-shelf bits somewhat defeats the object of having a customised bike in the first place. And you’d have a point. But for those of us not gifted with godlike welding skills and the vision to create something unique, it may be as close as we can get.
The GibbonSlap was a version of the newly reintroduced SR400, built as a show bike by Wrench Monkees. Now German parts firm KEDO is offering all the bits to make a copy yourself. You just need a stock SR400, a few spanners, a bit of time and some spare cash. Quite a lot of spare cash, actually, since they’re not under-charging for the bits.
All the parts can be bought from GibbonSlap, with prices ranging from €6.95 (£5.60) for a replacement horn to €250 (£200) for a silencer. In total, buying all the bits to make a GibbonSlap replica would set you back something like £2,600. Plus the time, paint and effort to complete it. And an SR400, of course (£5,199 to you, sir.)
Of course, you could probably halve the parts bill by ignoring the less visible bits (or even fabricating a few yourself!) and the result should still look pretty close to the original concept.
Yamaha has also announced that its next ‘Yard Built’ concept will be an XV950 café racer created by Marcus Walz, proprietor of chopper-builders-to-the-stars Walz Hardcore Cycles.
