Ludovic Lazareth and his crew are back with
another of their amazing custom builds, this time based on a Yamaha R1 and
dubbed “Caferacer Lazareth – Back to the future”.
Taking a 1999 Yamaha R1 with some history behind it
– it was customised by Lazareth, filmed, and crashed, on the set of the Vin
Diesel movie “Babylon A.D.” – he decided to have some fun with the R1, building
it his way. Since the original front telescopic forks were missing, gone to
another project, Lazareth designed and fabricated a single-sided swingarm front
end for the Caferacer.
Swingarm front-ends are not new of course, with
several manufacturers putting forward designs for the mass market over the
decades. Ultimately, the cost, complexity and weight of swingarm front
suspensions meant a lack of market acceptance, save for specials and custom
builds.
For Back to the future, Lazareth, with no customer
constraints on the build spec, clad the entire machine in carbon-fibre. The
carbon-fibre fuel tank encloses an actual aluminium unit underneath for safety
reasons, while the original R1 frame is retained, with modifications for the
front swingarm mount.
A pair of wheels from a Triumph 955 in 17-inch
diameter are used front and rear, and the swingarms are mated to absorbers
sourced from TFX Suspension. Chopped up a little at the rear-end, a new
floating link system gives the rear suspension the necessary movement.
The exhaust is a single pipe, surrounded by LEDs
that function as brake and rear lights. Everything else on Back to the future
that could be moulded out of carbon-fibre is, and Brembo supplies its usual
high-quality braking system.
In the cockpit, a set of arrow-straight drag bars
provide something for the rider to hang on to, and an Acewell digital
speedometer supplies all the necessary information. Further kit on this
Lazareth custom is taken from the Rizoma catalogue.
Back to the future handles “like
any other street bike”, but we do wonder how the front turns in with that
180-section tyre. If you are interested, Lazareth will build you a machine just
like Back to the Future, at a price starting from 50,000 euro.
