Dirt and Trail MAY 2021
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KLR650 CUSTOM BUILD<br />
Seat: Modified Suzuki GN250<br />
Rear mudguard: Suzuki GN250<br />
Temp <strong>and</strong> Speedometer: After market (Banggood)<br />
Rear suspension <strong>and</strong> wheel: 2005 Kawasaki KLR650<br />
Side number boards: Made out of Plexiglass<br />
On 15 March <strong>2021</strong>, 1 month after I started I took the bike for its<br />
first test ride at 19:35.<br />
To date I have 835Kms on the bike with no problems what so<br />
ever. There are always going to be little things here <strong>and</strong> there<br />
that will be changed or added so she will never really be finished.<br />
The bike h<strong>and</strong>les very well which was a big surprise to me.<br />
Gunny only weighs 152kgs. The weight is nice <strong>and</strong> low down<br />
giving it a good light feel. The weight distribution between the<br />
front wheel <strong>and</strong> back wheel is only 12kgs. The front being the<br />
heavier of the 2. Due to the light weight, torque <strong>and</strong> acceleration<br />
is great. I have another KLR 650 which I bored out to 692 <strong>and</strong> it<br />
is running a CR flat pumper card.<br />
Sharing spaghetti with my<br />
assistant.<br />
The bike that inspired my love for four<br />
strokes.<br />
Retro Scrambler Custom.<br />
Rory Lawson does it again!<br />
The CMW 650RS retro build.<br />
If you follow this here mag, you might remember a<br />
custom KLR 650 that we featured a year or so ago. Rory has done it<br />
again – this time merging a Kawasaki KLR with a Suzuki GN250. We like!<br />
He tells the story:<br />
I started riding off-road with my Dad in the early 70’s. My dad had bought<br />
me a Yamaha TY80 but most of the other people we rode with had modified<br />
road bikes or commuter bikes.<br />
I remember one bike very well. It was owned by a friend of my dad. It<br />
was a turquoise 1972 Honda SL350. In our group which was 90% 2<br />
strokes this was a fire breathing thumper. I was 9 at the time <strong>and</strong> this<br />
beast left a lifelong impression on me. Skip forward 7 years <strong>and</strong> my dad<br />
built me a 1973 Honda SL 250.<br />
I was smitten. This was my move from 2 stroke to 4 stroke <strong>and</strong> I never<br />
moved back.<br />
Last year March 2020 at the start of the COVID<br />
lockdown, I suddenly had lots of time on my h<strong>and</strong>s because clients could<br />
not drop-off <strong>and</strong> fetch their bikes from my workshop <strong>and</strong> I was confined<br />
to my house <strong>and</strong> workshop.<br />
To top it all my wife was teaching in Nantong China for a year so I did<br />
not have the “Honey-Do List” problem that other poor married men were<br />
faced with.<br />
I started thinking about building myself a custom Retro Scrambler with<br />
a few modern safety features. Because I have restored to showroom<br />
condition many 70’s <strong>and</strong> 80’s dirt bikes in the last 10 years,<br />
I had a good idea what I wanted.<br />
The bottom line was that it must really look old (mid 60’s to mid 70’s) but<br />
have good suspension <strong>and</strong> good stopping power.<br />
I had a donor Kawasaki KLR650 <strong>and</strong> a Suzuki GN250 plus lots of other<br />
parts laying around. On 14 February this year the build started. This is the<br />
breakdown of what Gunny, my Retro Scrambler is made of.<br />
Engine: 2005 Kawasaki KLR650 motor<br />
Frame cradle: 2005 Kawasaki KLR650<br />
Bash Plate: 1984 Honda XR500R<br />
Sub-frame: H<strong>and</strong> built from 25x2mm mildsteel tube<br />
Front end: 2012 Kawasaki KLR650<br />
Front Mudguard: Suzuki GN250 (Cut short)<br />
Front Light: Suzuki GN250<br />
Radiator: 2011 Kawasaki KLR650 (Turned sideways, It works well)<br />
Tank: 1979 Yamaha XT500 (Aluminium)<br />
62 DIRT AND TRAIL MAGAZINE <strong>MAY</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />
With both bikes in 5th gear at 60kmh you open the throttle wide<br />
<strong>and</strong> keep it there until you hit 120kmh. Gunny is quicker on<br />
the initial pull <strong>and</strong> ends up only 1 bike length behind the 692 at<br />
120Kmh.<br />
The bike is most happy at 100kmh. I find that I am often at<br />
90kmh on the open road. You just feel like you want to cruise<br />
slowly. In town though it is a completely different story. The<br />
combination between, sound, torque <strong>and</strong> the view over the tank<br />
makes you want to blast off from stop street to stop street.<br />
The plan is to build a Café Racer next, then a Bobber. If the Café<br />
Racer <strong>and</strong> Bobber attract attention like Gunny has, then I will be<br />
willing to build to order. Until then I plan on really enjoying this<br />
machine.<br />
Builder: Rory Lawson<br />
Business: Creative Motorcycle Worx (CMW)<br />
Email: camoklr@gmail.com<br />
Cell: 0716878545<br />
DEGREASER<br />
083 237 0833<br />
081 245 9792<br />
Instagram @motocartel_za<br />
info@motocartel.com -- www.motocartel.com<br />
DIRT AND TRAIL MAGAZINE <strong>MAY</strong> <strong>2021</strong> 63
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