There’s nothing unusual about building a custom motorcycle with the primary purpose of taking it to a show. But what if the show in question has absolutely nothing to do with custom motorcycles" That’s a cool twist.
This sharply styled Yamaha SR500 flat tracker is the pet project of 27-year-old Maxime Fontvielle. He’s an application engineer at the French operation of the US machine tool company, Hurco?a career he got into thanks to a love of two wheelers.

?When I was a teenager,? he tells us, ?I was passionate about mopeds. While looking at the forums, I saw people making parts for competitive 90s mopeds and I thought, that’s what I want to do! I went all the way in with apprenticeships at different companies, then I arrived at Hurco.” Maxime stumbled upon a wrecked Yamaha SR500 for just ?100, and had a bright idea: rebuild it as a showpiece for his company, to take to machine industry trade shows.

?Every year at the trade shows,” he says, “all the manufacturers show their new machines in action with classic parts from the aviation industry, etc. I thought it lacked a bit of passion and soul.?
?I wanted to make a beautiful bike with machined parts on it. I proposed to my boss that I prepare this bike as a real flat track beast. American discipline, American company… this is a match!?

Maxime’s boss wisely gave the OK?but there was a tight three-month deadline before the next show. So Maxime decided to divide...