After a while, a lot of custom designs tend to blend into a homogenous soup: variations on a standard recipe, slightly tweaked by the individual chefs.
A handful of top builders specialize in less mainstream flavors though. One of them is Calum Pryce-Tidd of the south London workshop deBolex Engineering, who often starts with unconventional ingredients?such as an Energica Eva or a Yamaha MT-10.

The latest build from Calum and his offsider Des Francis is based on the mighty Kawasaki ZRX1200R, an intoxicating bruiser that was sold for a few years after the turn of the century.
Although it was something of a throwback, the big green machine was no slouch: it could run the quarter mile in less than 11 seconds, and pass the timing light at 125 mph.
That?s comfortably faster than Kawasaki?s current Z900RS retro replica, thanks to around 122 horsepower hitting the back wheel, courtesy of a water-cooled inline four fed by quadruple 36mm Keihin CV carbs.
That would be enough for most folks even today, but Calum hasn?t just given the ZRX a distinctive new look?he?s lifted its performance to an entirely new level.

?It was a commission from a friend, the London collector Alex Shepherd,? he reveals. ?We met while on the Malle Rally a few years back, and that led to this project.?
Alex bought his ZRX1200R new and later sold it. But he regretted the sale, and bought it back a few years later?luckily with very low mileage, and still in great condition. He met up with Calum, an...