If you have been following the South to Sian journey as it has progressed though its various locations and terrains, you will have undoubtably seen The bikes that Harrison and Zye used along the trip. Both bikes were custom built for the guys and were strapped to the back of an old Land Rover as they traversed the Indonesian archipelago, being unloaded when there were waves only accessible by motorcycle or when its was time to play in the dirt.
We will get to Zye’s bike in the next post, but today we are focusing on Harrison’s ride.
Both bikes started life as humble Yamaha Bisons, a popular 150cc commuter bike here in Indonesia. Yamaha kindly donated two Bisons to us, expecting that we would be transforming them into some slick cafe racers but we flipped the script and made them into some all-terrain dirt bikes, capable of anything the Indonesian wilderness had to throw at them, but doing it in style with a understated vintage aesthetic.
The Bengkel boys, made quick work of stripping them down to the bare-bones and resurrecting them out of the ashes in their new form. Heres a rundown of what we did to Harrison’s bike.
We had to tinker quite a bit with the engine to get the amount of bite we wanted from the little 150cc thumper. Its Cam-shaft got modified, we bored out its cylinder to 200cc’s and added an over sized piston then did some valve adjustments to make sure everything was playing nicely together. We also changed up the gearing ratios to get more out of the low end, to suit the off-road riding the bike would be doing.
Its whole frame has been custom rebuilt and reinforced, stripped of all the unnecessary tabs and mounts. It received the the upside down front shocks from a YZ250 motocross bike and its back springs are Ohlins YA917’s. Up top we have Renthal handlebars, a tank from a Suzuki DR650 which given a subtle tan paint job and a custom shaped and wrapped seat. The rims and tires are 21 by 140 in the front and 18 by 215 in the rear. Oh and the braaap sounds come courtesy of a custom built exhaust and muffler.
The boys definitely didn’t hold back in their riding and we were actually very impressed with just how well these unassuming workhorses took the punishment. From pinning it across volcanic dunes to navigating through shallow rivers and tight trees in the forest, these bikes took it all in their stride and survived to tell the tale. If you ever come to the Temple of Enthusiasm in Bali, have a ganger at these resilient machines on our retail floor.
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