The guys at Emporio Elaborazioni describe this build as being pretty difficult. Not only was the donor bike very rusty and in bad condition, but the frame design of this 80's bike was hard to work with - but whatever the back-story, the end result looks lean, mean and aggressive and it's hard to imagine that this bike started out as a pretty nasty old 1984 XJ600... as you can see below: Christened "Sriscia Nera" (Black stripe) the guys worked hard to strip this bike back and rebuild it into something aesthetically pleasing and to meet their own ethos in creating a smart, thin, elegant cafe/city bike. The guys upgraded the carbs, reworked and simplified the loom and electrics, rebuilt parts of the frame and fabricated a scooped cafe seat. The gauges were replaced and a simple speedo where the key had been, which looks very neat and is unique as far as we have seen. The lock was replaced with a battery key switch on the side of the bike. Deep red paint and a wide black racing stripe finishes off the tank and complements the stitching on the cafe style seat.

Love the way the EE logo makes a spanner icon... Nice.

To complete the bike the guys re-used a lot of strange parts including bits of a crash helmet, Ikea stuff, some pieces of a mattress and even the knobs from a set of drawers. The finished moto is very fast and easy to ride, and loud enough to carve an easy path thru Rome's insane streets. When the Dutchess saw these photo's I thought she'd comment on the bike being on the living room carpet, but her only observation was that the carpet and sofa didn't line up properly. That's my girl. See more of Emporio Elaborazioni's bikes on The Bike Shed's EE pages and on their own Website.