Auto Fabrica’s KZ400: A two-wheeled Extreme Makeover
You can judge a builder?s skills by the raw materials they work with. After all, it?s not too hard to make a Norton Commando look good. A Buell is another matter entirely, and so is Kawasaki?s mundane middleweight from the 1970s, the KZ400.
Even when new, the KZ400 was about as exciting as a baked potato. But Bujar and Gaz of Auto Fabrica have the magic touch, and they?ve just finished working their magic on the humble parallel twin.
?Type 14? began life as an import from the USA. ?It had charm in its stock form,? says Bujar, somewhat unconvincingly. ?Our plan was simple: Strip the bike back to its basics. There are a few KZ400 builds out there, but none have really shown the bike in the best light possible.?
The boys did like the symmetrical 18-inch wheel setup on the standard bike though, so they re-laced the rims and worked on the stance. ?We wanted to give it a low stance?the headstock is relatively low on the frame, and that helped us achieve a slick profile.?
A handful of builders have an instantly recognizable style, and Auto Fabrica is one of them. Their bikes have a quite remarkable simplicity and elegance, with no unnecessary lines?and not a line out of place.
Here, they?ve re-looped the back of the frame with gradual bends, losing the kink of the stock back end. ?This allowed us to manufacture the seat with a gradual curve parallel to the seat tubes,? says Bujar. ?It gives the bike ?weight? and frames the area nicely.
Flushed into the back of the new l...
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