Like all good artists, the best custom builders have a handful of regular customers. They?re usually folks with an eye for quality and shared tastes, and they?re gold dust.
Iowa-based Greg Hageman has been in this business for many years now, and one of his most steadfast customers is Mike Martens. ?Fat SR? is the fifth bike that Greg has built for Mike over the years, although it?s really for Mike?s partner Sally.

?This bike is a 2015 SR400 that I purchased for myself,? Greg tells us. ?But Mike was looking for a bike for his girlfriend to ride, and I ended up selling it to him. Kinda wish I had kept it?they are hard to find for a decent price now, since they discontinued them here.?
?Fat SR? is a classic example of moderate tweaking having a massive effect, so we were intrigued to see how Greg managed to make the humble Yammie look so good.
He started by stripping everything off to take a look at the bones of the machine. ?I cut the rear of the frame off, made a bolt-on hoop unit, made up a seat pan, and shipped it out to my friend Chris at Tuffside for upholstery. Then I stenciled a Yamaha logo on the back of the seat.?
The tank was entrusted to a local painter, Joe Manley. He laid out a Candy blue color and a retro stripe that Mike had decided on?inspired by the early 70s Yamaha AT3 enduro color ?Brigade blue.?

Greg and Mike decided to go for the fat tire look, so they got Buchanan?s to lace stainless spokes to 16×3.5 alloy Takasago rims.
After the hubs an...