Written by Ian Lee.
The big single. The thumper. No matter how you refer to it, the large displacement single cylinder motor has been putting smiles on motorcyclists? faces since the dawn of motorcycledom. The simplicity of the mechanics, the ease of working with one and (of course) the noise they make all add to the benefits of using a thumper bike in a custom build. Tomas Customs, based in Brussels, has shown the quality of build that is possible when the right workshop has the right cycle on the bench. Utilising the Honda FMX650, Thomas Jeukens and the Tomas crew have taken the plastic-wrapped Super Motard and released the urban tracker hidden inside.

This is the second build that Tomas Customs has carried out for this customer, the last build being a smaller Honda engine. The brief for this bike was a “view to a minimalist build, a sober and neat project, for road/city use.” After a long discussion over coffee, it was decided that the donor bike for the build would be the Honda FMX650. Relatively easy to find on the second-hand market and factory-fitted with inverted forks and 17? wheels, the VMX was a great platform to start the build with. One idea that was put forward at the initial build brainstorm was that the bike would be built as an urban version of the Super Hooligan motorcycle style.
With the Super Motard delivered to the Tomas workshop, the whole lot was stripped back to the frame, engine and wheels. Luckily, the customer?s office was nearby, s...