Written by Andrew Jones
EICMA’s November 2017 show, held in a typically chilly Milan, is the place that many big manufacturers choose to reveal their new metal. This last event saw us flooded with new bikes, including the Royal Enfield 650 Twins, the Husqvarna Svartpilen 701 and the superb new Kawasaki Z900RS. But hidden away from all the glitz, glamour and wildly inappropriate booth babes was this little gem. From Italy’s Officine 08, it?s a Yamaha Virago cafe with a unique mix of the very traditional and the very unique which definitely has our Nippon-loving radars a-pinging.

Officine 08?s Michael d’Angiolo takes up the story. ?The origin of this bike is pretty simple; a customer showed up last autumn asking for a custom bike. He didn’t even own a bike at the time, he just showed us some photos he took from the internet. They were of Viragos done in a cafe racer style. He didn’t give us precise directions,  instead he just told us to give it a similar cafe racer touch.? Sounds like a dream brief, don’t it"
One week later, he came back with a ?93 Yamaha XV750 he’d just bought. The only downside" The bike was the ?newer? version with twin rear shocks as opposed to the original design?s central monoshock. ?It’s a nightmare to work on when compared to the older monoshock version, but we obviously accepted the challenge.?

The first thing done was cutting off the rear ? and decidedly most fugly ? part of the frame...