Honda Flat Tracker
Hey Guys! We’ve built a really lekker bike. Why not bring your camera and come and have a look?” “Coffee on us!” That was the call from Russell Campbell Racing the other day. We popped in to have a look – mighty glad that we did….
Standing front and centre on the showroom floor was this glorious RS600D Honda Flat Tracker. No. Wait! Not quite. It’s a replica – but flip – you have to see it for yourself.
This bike was prepared for the House Of Machines Bike build off in the Cape – you know – the one where the winner received a cool R250 Grand. Don’t know about it. Ah! Nor did we… but it really happened and it was won by that very cool R9T Storm built by Wayne Buys.
But we digress. The Flat tracker was judged as a replica, so sadly is did not win. It is, however really cool – and not just an exercise in parts fitment.
We hooked up with the bikes owner Justin Steyn who talked us through the build and the ideas that he had for the bike.
“The idea all started at Stofskop”, he says. “I raced that on my CR250 – and decided that I’d build a proper flat tracker. It had to be a Honda because I’m a massive Honda fan. I looked up some images of Honda’s RS600 and figured that it shouldn’t be too difficult to replicate.”
This bike started life as a 1998 XR600R that Justin found for a good price. The original was pretty clean and complete, but it did have a few mechanical issues.
Justin stripped it right down to bare bones and the build started.
The standard swingarm was replaced with one from a CRF 250 – and that was shortened by 60 ml, with machining for the fitment of twin shocks.
The frame was all changed, with unnecessary mounting points removed and some new tabs welded up.
The front and rear shocks are hanging on a wall somewhere – Justin sourced rear shocks by Bitubo and front 43ml forks from an early gen Yamaha R6. Russell Campbell rebuilt the forks.
To make those fit, he had to have triple clamps hand made. Look at the front wheel. There’s nothing standard about that – that’s actually a CR 250 Hub wheel and brakes.
Mitas Rubber was selected for traction.
The body parts were all imported from RedMax in the UK and local paint man One Eyed Wayne took care of the finish.
The custom seat is by Leatherman.
Engine:
Justin stripped the engine right down for polishing and ceracoating.
It’s all pretty standard, just a .05 larger piston built by Darren at RCR.
A big 38ml flat slide CR supplies the juice.
The pipe is built by local pipe genius Mr Pincus.
Charan Moore:
A box of parts was delivered to the shop in Edenvale for reassembly. Not just the engine – but the bike too. And it was a nut and bolt rebuild.
RCR had 10 days to assemble so that Justin could get to the Cape in time for the competition.
They got the bike fired up on a Thursday at 2h30 in the afternoon. Justin collected and drove to Cape Town to be at the start of the 25km ride to the competition venue at 8am on Friday Morning.
That’s called cutting it fine!
When the bike got back to GP, we popped in to shot the vid and take pics for the feature.
Was there coffee? Maybe next time! Go and have a look for yourself, it’s a very cool build.
Credits:
Paintwork: Wayne 072-623-0070
Fabrication of clamps, frames mods and other bits: Alley Fab 065 386 6849
Ceracoating: Jake from Factory 72 083-278-1080
Worx Bolts by: Spec Bolt.
Leatherwork: Leatherman – 082-297-8727
Pipe By: PRD 082 645 8969
Bike and engine assembly: Russell Campbell Dirtbikes (011) 452- 0504
