Mining; the extraction of a valuable resource from the crap that surrounds it. When Miklos abandoned his career in mining to pursue his dream of restoring and customising the superbikes of his youth he may well have noted the key similarities of his daily actions, stripping away the rest to reveal the best. His outfit has grown steadily, and in 2o14 he formalised it as 2WheelsMiklos, today the shop has a collection of classic bikes plus a well-resourced workshop doing restorations and customisations, this 1981 Honda CB900F cafe racer is the latest machine to roll out of their Guildford base. "The design idea was to build a muscular, elegant and rideable café racer which turns heads, especially in the summer sun. We wanted to build something we could ride on long straight roads at speed…" Miklos and Alan saw the big CB as the perfect donor and quickly set about extracting the essence of the machine, discarding what was not up to the task and revitalising what had drawn them to the Honda in the first place. They opted for race components to ensure the bike could be used in the manner for which café racers were originally built. "We decided to mate the very strong Honda engine and frame to much more modern Triumph Trophy 900 forks and front and rear wheels. Ohlins shocks, EBC Contour brakes, a Brembo Radial master cylinder, Maxxis tyres and Harris clip-ons rounded out the rideability aspect of the brief." The team are keen to spend as much time above the engine on the road as they are beneath it, tinkering in the workshop, the quality of the parts they select attests to their commitment to the dynamic abilities of their bikes. The air box was replaced by pod air filters (with carb jetting to suit) and the mid frame was kept clear with the fabrication of a battery box that fits snugly under the tail piece to house the tiny Shorai lithium battery. Highly polished Marving 4-into-2 header pipes lead to the in-house made mufflers, one per side. When it came to bodywork Miklos decided to stick with the distinctive CB900f tank with the drooped rear following the line of the frame, but when it came to deciding on the finish of the tank, he definitely decided to twist. The bright chrome plating positively sings in the sunlight, aping cafe racers of yore whilst providing a perfect reflection for the rider to admire his beard. Of course, despite its splendour, Miklos is quick to point out the predictable problem with a tank such as this… it is a bugger to keep clean. The bodywork is completed with a tail piece from a Kawasaki Z1 and a Norvil nose cone, both finished in pearl white metal flake. The combination of body styles and more modern running gear lends the bike a real multi era character pulling highlights from different slices of the motorcycle spectrum. Over on the 2WheelsMiklos website you will discover that the team have a fondness for bight colour schemes, a selection of their BMW and Harley creations leave the CB900 looking positively demure in comparison. But when the sun is shining high in the sky and the roads open up before it, this machine is at its zenith, leaving them all trailing in its glistening wake.