Black Beauty: Brett's Nemesis Cafe Racer
// By Sol Invictus
The founder of modern architecture Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe once famously said "less is more" in relation to beauty in design; and that philosophy is ever-present in this classic cafe racer we built for Brett.
The general design brief was based on a few subtle nip and tucks as well as the addition of a few select parts to streamline the overall look of the motorcycle.To clean up the tail section we removed the rear fender and the whole tail light assembly and replaced it with a custom fabricated numberplate holder and LED tail light strip. The rear indicators were also swapped for tiny "thumb sized" LEDs.
One part that contributes to the beautiful lines of this bike is the seat. We custom made the seat pan to line up with the frame and also had the seat profile shaved down by 20mm. It was then covered in that wonderfully textured Alcantara suede black fabric and stitched in the classic diamond pattern.The 2-into-2 OEM exhaust already sounds awesome on the Nemesis Classic 400 so we decided to keep it and simply just wrap the headers in black DEI heat wrap.
Brett was keen to have that authentic cafe racer look so we ditched the much higher stock bars and fitted clip-ons and CNC bar end mirrors. We also changed over the instrument gauges from the two large sized stock ones and replaced them with a black 60mm diameter single gauge.The finishing touches included shortening the front fender and wrapping the chrome rims with Shinko's classic E270 tyres.
We think old Mies Van Der Rohe would have loved this custom cafe racer with its less is more philosophy, we certainly do and more importantly, so does Brett. PARTS LIST:
• Header heat wrap
• 60mm Black speedo
• Sol Invictus CNC bar-end mirrors
• Sol Invictus diamond grips
• LED indicators
• LED taillight strip
• Cilp-on handlebars
• Shinko E270 tyres
• Custom seat pan and upholstery
• Custom front fender
• Rear fender eliminator with numberplate bolt lights