American Motorcycle Dealer AMD 174 January 2014 | Page 55

Czech café culture Written by Duncan Moore - [email protected] Café Racer inspired bikes are an increasingly common sight on the international show circuit today. However, some builders, such as Zbynek Turecek, are simply taking elements of café styling and creating bikes that defy categorisation. His 2013 World Championship entry definitely had a Café Racer feel, but was not strictly a Café Racer, which didn’t stop it from placing sixth in the Freestyle class W ILDSTYLE, a custom shop based in Prachatice in the Czech Republic, was double winner in the Freestyle class at the 2013 World Championship of Custom Bike Building. Not only did one half of the shop team, Roman Bus, make the top ten, but so did his partner in the business, Zbynek Turecek, who placed sixth with his bike Zt. The starting point for the build of Zt was the acquisition of 126ci Ultima motor and matching sixspeed transmission. The motor has been left basically The filler cap begins the stainless steel detailing that runs along the gas tank and continues through the seat hump The curves of the unique exhaust echo the curving lines of the fame, where no tube has been left straight www.AMDchampionship.com stock with the exception of the custom inlet manifold to move the Mikuni carb to the left side of the bike, and a quick shift kit has been added to the transmission. With the drivetrain package in the jig Zbynek was able to start plann ing the frame. The single downtube design has been constructed so that all the tubes used in it have a slight radius to them. Towards the The entire front end from an MV Agusta F4 has been pressed into service on Zt to give suspension performance that matches the bike’s looks AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER - JANUARY 2014 55