Any custom motorcycle is a byproduct of the personality of its builder, and the brief they’re working with. And it took a very special mix of people, concepts and raw materials to create this oddball CZ 175.
It comes from GarageBoss, a small group of motorcycle enthusiasts based in Prague, in the Czech Republic. ?Our garage is the temple of sanity in our lives, which are filled with full time jobs, families and kids,? explains team member, Jan ?tádler.

Late last year, the GarageBoss crew was invited to partake in the annual Czech design exhibition, Designblok… by building a custom motorcycle to exhibit. ?We could not be happier,? says Jan, ?as there is nothing we are more passionate about than motorcycles … sorry ladies.? The theme of the exhibition was recycling and up-cycling, so the team put their heads together, and came up with a pretty zany cafe racer concept.

?Some of our country’s finest qualities are being very handy craftsmen, and top notch sinkers of the best pints of lager on the globe,? says Jan. ?So at one very fruitful session at the GarageBoss HQ, we came up with a brilliant idea: let’s find an old beer keg from the same period as a bike, and use it to make a streamlined fairing.?

The crew hunted high and low for a 1970s Czech-made CZ 175 ‘type 477’ as a donor, because it’s a bike they all had fond memories of riding as kids. When they found one it was just shy of being a full-on barn find, with wrecke...