There’s a huge flat track resurgence happening right now, and it’s spilling over into the custom domain. Even if most of the tracker-style builds we see aren’t actually destined for oval track glory, there’s something about the vibe that people love.
The head wrench of Deus Ex Machina Tokyo is a massive fan: ?There is something magnetic about the image of a flat track rider exiting a turn,? Matt Roberts enthuses. So it?s no surprise that the latest build from ?The Residence of Impermanence? is dripping with flat track steeze. What is surprising, though, is the choice of donor.

No, it’s not a baby Ducati Monster (we had to do a double take). It’s the lesser known Honda VTR250. It’s big in Japan, but Honda never sold it in the States, and only started exporting it to Europe in 2009. In the late nineties Honda?s 249cc V-twin screamer was raced, scratched and toured across Japan, and thrashed mercilessly at the hands of a legion of Tokyo couriers?invaluable combat testing.

?The little V-twin pulls harder than it has any right to,? says Matt. ?It?s a fiend for high revs and handles better than many bikes with twice the specification.? The rev-happy pistons willingly spin upwards of 12,000rpm, with the soundtrack and poke to match.
The Ducati-esque trellis frame is another of the Honda VTR250’s selling points, but it makes customizing a chore. A simple tank swap is out of the question?especially since a chunky air box takes up...