Yamaha's Yard Built projects have led the way in the revival of the custom motorcycle world. Developing relationships with the rock stars of bike building, the project has delivered an incredible line up of unique and breath-taking one-off Yard Builts based on the Yamaha Sport Heritage line. Legendary builders from across the globe have brought their skills and expertise to show how easy it is to customize Yamaha's intuitive and adaptable retro-style bikes. The project has given inspiration and set new trends in the motorcycle world, making it a reality for everyone to make their Yamaha their own.

Every rider dreams of their own custom bike. Featuring the iconic Yamaha Sport Heritage XSR700 model as a platform, for the first time in Yard Built history Back to the Drawing Board gave consumers the opportunity to design their dream XSR700 which would then have the chance to be produced by a custom specialist to make their vision real. With an extensive back catalogue of boundary-pushing Yard Built designs to draw on, the 2020 Back to the Drawing Board project united the inspiration of consumer designers with the creative brilliance of customisers and the excellence of Yamaha machinery to discover future trends and inspirations together.

With dreams of his own custom Yamaha, Italian entrant drawer and XSR700 owner Ugo Coppola projected his vision of a road-going dirt track bike onto the Sport Heritage icon with his RD350 Tribute, an homage to Yamaha’s beloved 1970s RD350. Leaving the bike’s lightweight steel ‘backbone’ frame and chassis as standard, Ugo used a range of OEM parts from various modern Yamaha models to blend cutting-edge motorcycle design with the RD350’s heritage. With the RD350 Tribute, he has created a unique fusion that celebrates Yamahas past and present.

With engineering experience in Formula 1 and other forms of motorsport, Garage221 founder Pier Francesco Marchio operates his Rome workshop along with sons Massimiliano and Alessandro. Garage221 customise bikes so that they  emulate and represent their rider, working with perception and style in mind to achieve incredible results that have won praise from motorcycling circles all over the world.

The RD350 Tribute makes innovative use of a range of Yamaha OEM parts, fusing elements of varied models together for a unique Yard Built machine. At the aggressively designed front, the steering assembly and handlebars are taken from the MT-07 along with the fork covers. To capture the scrambler bike twist in the design, Garage22 also used fork bellows, an optional extra of the stock XSR700, and an original fender cut of their design. For the lighting they replaced the stock headlight holder with the smaller and flattened holder from the SCR950.

Moving along the bike, Garage221’s clever adaptation of various Yamaha OEM parts continues with an XJR1300 seat unit for the racer look. A double exhaust with short pipes gives the XSR700’s raw 689cc engine an even more emotive sound, with the rear of the bike finished with an SCR950 light unit. Garage221 also added a range of other modifications and Yamaha OEM parts to the RD350 Tribute:

• MT-09 indicators
• XJR1300 number holder
• XSR700 optional radiator guard.
• MT-09 plate holder and arm
• MT-07 end bar mirrors

This tribute to a classic Yamaha was finished in a black and orange livery on the headlight, seat unit and tank, an evocative nod to the original RD350’s striking colours, including a new interpretation on the graphics of the 1972 bike. In combining elements from so many classic Yamahas together on the RD350 Tribute, Garage221 have elevated classical elements to an exciting new retro status, and demonstrated the creativity behind Back to the Drawing Board.