Yard Built Gets the Iron Treatment with Moto di Ferro's XV950 'Speed Iron'

Yamaha’s latest Yard Built creation is a true Italian beast, a tracker style build with understated design showing true metallurgy craftsmanship. The Moto di Ferro Yard Built XV950 ‘Speed Iron’ is the brainchild of Italian builder Marco Lugato.

Marco is one of those builders that has genuine oil in the blood, riding from a very early age, first off-road and then as a professional road racer, his credentials are without question. After a career in racing followed by some years honing his craftsmanship in various workshops Moto di Ferro (Iron Motorcycle) was finally born in 2009 as a custom house to build the motorcycles that Marco dreamed of.

The collaboration with Yard Built came about following an encounter in Wheels & Waves between Marco and Yamaha Motor Europe’s Product Manager Shun Miyazawa and Marketing Coordinator Cristian Barelli. They chewed the fat, exchanging ideas and rode each other’s motorcycles before agreeing a collaboration was a must. An XV950 was chosen and delivered and the project was born.

“As we met and talked in Biarritz with Marco it was clear we shared the same passion and love for motorcycles,” commented Cristian Barelli. “One of the most important aspects for us when considering Moto di Ferro to work together on this collaboration was that Marco doesn’t consider this to be just a one-off machine, but a concept he can build based on the XV950 for multiple customers. Marco has shown the maximum expression for him of the XV950 and I’m really happy with the ‘Speed Iron’. It has a clear Moto di Ferro design whilst retaining the simplicity and performance of the XV950, it’s a beautiful bike that is still very much fun and rewarding to ride, and potentially available for a wide audience of Yamaha riders to own.”

The concept for ‘Speed Iron’ comes from Marco’s passion for speed. He wanted to create a motorcycle with strong design queues combined with soft lines. Thick tyres were important but not at the expense of rideability. Those thick tyres were wrapped around beautiful Borrani rims with the front suspension getting swapped out for VMAX forks.

A handmade aluminium tank and rear seat unit take the weight down and complement the handmade aluminium side panels. The front brake discs increase to 320mm and benefit from VMAX calipers for proper stopping power. An Acewell odometer provides just the right amount of data for the rider and an Arrow exhaust adds the soundtrack.

Various other pieces complete the look, including Tarozzi footpegs and LSL dumbbells. A handmade rear frame sets the clear line across the bike and an aftermarket headlight and stop lights integrated into the turn signals keep everything super clean.

The great news for XV950 owners is that Marco plans to make various parts from the ‘Speed Iron’ build available so you can create your own Italian custom, or even better hand over your XV950 to him and have it made for you.

For more info on Moto di Ferro visit their website: www.motodiferro.it