Yamaha's Yard Built projects have led the way in the revival of the cool custom world. Developing relationships with the rock stars of motorcycle customising, the project has delivered an incredible line up of unique and breath-taking one-off Yard Builts based on the Sport Heritage range of motorcycles. Legendary customizers from across the globe have turned their skilled hands to proving how easy it is to customize one of Yamaha's very flexible retro machines. The exercise provides inspiration and has set new trends in the motorcycle world, making it a reality for everyone to make their Yamaha their own. 

The latest Yard Built project sees the return of long-time Yamaha collaborator Jens vom Brauck. Founder of JvB-moto, German custom builder Jens is hailed for the minimalism of his bike designs that bring out the vision of the original within a brand-new skin.

The first JvB-moto Yard Built special was the 2015 VMAX ‘Infrared’, a dragster-meets-café racer that marked the 30th anniversary of Yamaha’s iconic VMAX cruiser. Customised nose to tail from the sub-frame up, the retro Infrared cemented JvB-moto’s distinct style within the Yard Built community.

The VMAX was followed by the ‘Super 7’, the first customised version of the new XSR700 that showed off the huge range of options available (and sold by KEDO Germany) to personalise the stock bike. Re-imagining the XSR700 without any cuts or welds to the frame, JvB-moto produced yet another incredible machine that boasts clean, tidy lines while embracing the raw power and agility of the standard bike.

An Adrenaline-Fueled Concept

Four years later and JvB-moto has returned for another round of dazzling customisation, projecting their vision onto the 2019 Yamaha XSR900 to create the CP3. The bike was first presented at the 2019 Café Racer Festival where it received the Best of Show prize.

Talking about his latest creation, vom Brauck was clear in explaining his vision:

The CP3 captures perfectly the JvB-moto design philosophy of clean lines that enhance the stock bike as a base for easy customisation and breathe new life into it. While the retro theme is in part an influence on the CP3, JvB-moto’s design stresses that the bike is a Yamaha through and through at its core, and one that is easy to customise. The dark blue Yamaha racing colour used was darkened further and made matt, highlighting the new bodywork whilst retaining the stock bike’s character. Though the design is inherently minimalist, the CP3 sports a number of cutting-edge modifications that elevate it from a typical custom bike to a true concept motorcycle. Carbon fibre wheel covers house the Pirelli Super Corsa tyres, with Behringer front brake disks packing extra stopping power. Lightech footrests help reduce weight and give an assuring platform for the rider, with a new seat to accommodate the feel of the CP3. 

Ultimately JvB-moto envisaged the CP3 as a reflection of the XSR900’s powerful 850cc 3-cyclinder engine, unchanged in the customisation, and designed the bike to look how the engine feels to ride. The Termignoni exhaust amplifies the emotive sound of the triple and provides a small boost in horsepower, completing the CP3 package that raises the very high standard of Yard Built specials even further. Jens elaborated on this approach:

A Concept Bike for the Customer 

Yamaha’s Sport Heritage range is made of state of the art technology machines with retro looks – the range is an easy access to real personalization and through collaborations with professionals like JvB-moto, the brand aims to bring this creativity even closer to the customer.

Apart from bringing a stunning new concept bike into the world, JvB-moto’s CP3 above all else shows just how easy to customise and flexible the Yamaha XSR900 really is. As a result, JvB-moto is now developing a kit to enable customers to either reproduce their own CP3 or just adapt parts of it, emphasizing that the bike is a perfect fit for the vision of the intrepid customiser looking to easily make their own set of customisations to the Yamaha XSR900.

The kit includes:

• The kit includes:
• Wheel covers
• Brakes
• Footrests
• Seat
• Exhaust   
• Front fender
• Fuel tank covers  
• Handmade tail section with LED tailligh
• Speedometer relocation kit
• Tapered handlebar and raiser
• LED headlight and cover
• Front and back LED indicators
• Number plate carrier

There is also a range of parts yet to be developed. JvB-moto expect this bolt-on kit to be available to customers in early 2020, and will give them nearly unlimited options to tailor their own XSR900.