Often the builders we get in The Shed are nothing short of visionaries. Take Kruz Customs for example. They looked at a 1980 Yamaha XS400 Custom and saw a classy, race inspired Tracker. That takes some serious imagination. Kruz Customs, otherwise known as Brice and 'The Admiral', describe themselves as 'new to the scene' builders from Belgium who take their inspiration from the first generation dirt track racers from the seventies. They picked up this XS at the French border in a very sorry state. So a heck a lot of work went into just getting her up and running again before the project could get going properly. According to the guys the design brief was to do, 'a nice little city ride for a girl.' Which makes us question our sexuality as we'd all happily be seen thrashing around Soho on this beauty. A lot of man hours went into creating this 'girls' bike. The custom rear seat was made at Niyona's workshop and mounts neatly onto the equally custom rear loop. The coils were tucked away under the tank, which is from a CB125. It looks completely at home on the XS frame but as ever, it took a hell of a lot of blood sweat and tears to make it look that way. The other big headaches on the build were fitting the SBK spec Brembos up front, and making the custom wiring system. Other highlights that we're sure weren't totally straight forward to make fit, include the Brembo PR15 RCS Clutch, the perfectly proportioned custom headlight and fenders, the Renthal custom handlebars with a dead simple and dead classy Mini speedo, and the wrapped exhaust with stainless steel stitching. Look closely and you can see two neat LED lights built into the top of the forks. When you see attention to detail like that you know you're not looking at your average run of the mill custom build. The logo on the tank is simple, subtle, and just retro enough to be in keeping with the overall design idea. And it goes without saying that the exhaust is, er, loud with a capital L. The Kruz Customs boys are not resting on their laurels. Up on the ramps right now they have a triumph Daytona 1000 as well as a Yam XJR 1200. Be interesting to see how they apply their 70's Tracker style to those beasts. One thing's for sure, neither of those could ever be classed as 'a girls bike'. Tasteful quality pics by True Biker Spirit. Posted by Ian@TheBikeShed