Spirit's W800
By Anthony van Someren - 04 Dec 12
Spirit of the Seventies' W800 Scrambler has already done the rounds online and at the NEC Motorcycle show on the official Kawasaki UK stand - as they commissioned the build themselves - but as SOTS are one of our own we had to get in there with a few extra pics, taken down at Spirit HQ in Kent.
Building a custom bike out of a manufacturer-supplied commission means taking a great deal of care, so every component had to be perfect and not detract from the donor machine.
The choice to build a scrambler rather than a cafe racer, and the retro green paint scheme, were all voted for by the Kawasaki UK News Facebook followers, and although some of us (ok, just me then) had hoped for a more radical cafe treatment with clip-ons, the finished bike in the flesh is bang-on and just begs you to jump on and rip up a farmyard track, weight on the base of the tank and elbows up.
Grafting on an undersized headlamp with LSL brackets is standard fare for a Spirit custom, and they worked with Co-Built on a custom high-level double barrel exhaust with removeable baffles. Glenn Moger built the seat on the Spirit rear end, finished with Oberon indies at front and back. The Spirit paint scheme was executed to perfection by Revolution.
Motorcross bars take care of the steering and riding position with Oury grips. High level stainless fenders and custom machined sump guard with Conti Trail Attack dual-purpose chunky tyres take care of the scrambler's functional looks.
Suspension was upgraded with progressive shocks, which can be hard to set up but provide a great balance of softness over small bumps and firmness when the going gets harder.
Best of all, Spirit can build build you your very own one of these, or even better, change it up with a different paint scheme, different seat, flatter bars - whatever you want. ...You know you wanna.