Taking on a garage project can be daunting. First-time builders often find themselves in a downward spiral of costs, time and motivation?and vow never to pick up a wrench again.
Not Dimitri Chaussinand though. He pulled off his first project?a cute Yamaha TW125?in the underground parking garage of his apartment block, on a limited budget. And when the Lyon-based architectural draughtsman sold the little TW, he already had a new build in mind ?

?I wanted to build another motorcycle in the same vein,? the carefree Frenchman tells us. ?But with more displacement, and with a little more work put into it.?
Dimitri found a suitable donor in the legendary Honda XR600R. The 1995-spec thumper had been outfitted with a pair of 17-inch supermotard wheels, but Dimitri quickly returned it to the stock 21F/18R setup, as befits a machine that has won the gruelling Baja 1000 race four times. ?I love the original large wheels, they give it a very balanced silhouette,? he explains.

With the basic stance back on track, it was time to get stuck in.
?I wanted to keep the neo-retro style of my TW125, so I selected a fuel tank from a 1980 Honda XL125S.? The pocket-sized tank turned out to be a good fit for the frame rails of the XR600R.

Dimitri decided to embrace the tank’s compact dimensions?by keeping everything else as tight as possible. So the subframe was cut-and-looped, and adorned with a slim, compact perch.
The rest of the bike is equally bare. ?I didn’t want to spoi...