This week’s edition of Speed Read kicks off with a stonking supercharged Suzuki GSX-R / GSX 1100 hybrid from Finland, built for flat track racing of all things. We shift gears to profile a svelte Honda CB750 café racer from an award-winning Japanese workshop, before focusing on a Baja racing-inspired kit for the Yamaha Ténéré 700.
Supercharged Suzuki flat track racer by JL Meccanica
The builder of this incredible flat track racer, Janne Leiman, is a man of many talents. Operating out of his workshop, JL Meccanica, in a little Finnish town called Mänttä, he can do all sorts of fabrication—but he specializes in custom race bike frame building and suspension.
“I’ve made frames and bikes for vintage road racing, drag racing, motocross, enduro, and trial, so I thought maybe now was the time to promote my business to the local flat track community,” says Janne. “This bike was made mainly from leftover parts from other projects, with a purpose-built frame and swingarm.”
Starting with a bunch of parts and a pile of steel tubing, Janne got to work assembling the engine. A Suzuki GSX-R750 crankcase was mated to a GSX 1100EF top end with a GSX-R crankshaft. The con rods are custom, and the pistons are from a Kawasaki ZX-10R.
The GSX-R transmission was converted to a four-speed, and a single Keihin 48 mm carburetor with twin float chambers feeds all four cylinders through a custom intake plenum. Why would a single carb need two float chambers? It’s because the engine is being force-fed enormous servings of air thanks to an Eaton M24 supercharger.
Taken from a Volkswagen, the supercharger is driven from the clutch shaft via a chain drive, with the spent gases being spat out through a custom stainless steel exhaust and muffler. The JLM logo on the left side of the engine is a particularly nice touch.
With the engine done, Janne started on the frame and suspension. The aforementioned pile of tubing was bent and welded into shape around the engine, and a swingarm was made to match. Janne used Indian’s wildly successful FTR750 flat track bike as the design and geometry inspiration, and it shows beautifully.
The front suspension is from a Kawasaki ZX-9R, and the rear ZF-Sachs monoshock is a mixture of Moto Guzzi and Husqvarna parts. Flat trackers are allowed to have front brakes in Finland, so Janne found the smallest disc he could and mounted it up front with a small Brembo caliper.
The rear is in charge of most of the braking forces, so a four-piston Brembo was adapted to fit.
The flat track seat and the front number plate, which has integrated fork guards, were made from fiberglass, and the steel fuel tank was donated from another custom bike project. The tank was narrowed and treated to a new tunnel, and an Acerbis fuel cap was threaded in. The seat cover (from a moped) was stretched over a plastic seat base, with minimal foam needed, since it’s a race bike.
Visually, we can’t fault this iteration—it’s so well executed that you’d think it was put together by a factory race team. We’re sure this won’t be the last time we see an incredible custom build like this from JL Meccanica.
Honda CB750 by Motor Force
With the champagne stains still clearly visible on the trophy from their Best Café Racer win at the 2025 Yokohama Hot Rod Custom Show in Japan, Mikio Yamada and the Motor Force team are back with another stunning build. Starting with a 1980 Honda CB750, Yamada-san wanted to show off the beautiful DOHC inline four and build something that was quintessentially Honda.
Yamada-san and the Motor Force team started in their Hashima City HQ, tearing the bike down and strengthening the frame to reduce flex. The forks were rebuilt with springs that sit three inches lower, and then polished to a mirror shine. The reverse Comstar wheels are from a Honda CBX 1000, chosen for their large vented brake discs.
This also meant that the rear drum brake was converted to disc, with the rear caliper adapted to a CB750 swingarm. Braided brake lines provide a more modern feel, while a short front fender sits below a classic round headlight.
A Motogadget Motoscope Tiny speedometer was mounted to a custom top fork yoke, which was milled from billet aluminum to account for the lower ride height. Clip-on bars lay the rider low over the tank (which was lifted from a 1978 CB750 Super Sport), with Tarozzi rear-set pegs on custom mounts taking care of the foot controls.
The waspish tail unit was made from scratch, tailored to the bike’s silhouette. The battery was relocated to its own custom housing under the swingarm, and a pair of fully-adjustable rear shocks was bolted on.
The big inline four was rebuilt, with the cases and rocker cover polished to within an inch of their lives. A set of Keihin CR carbs from Bito R&D was fitted, along with fresh pod filters. One of our favorite parts of the bike is the cut-down quad exhaust—each pipe gets its own slash cut muffler set at just the right angle, which would give this 750 a mighty howl.
The bike was painted a wonderful shade of dark metallic green to finish it off, complemented beautifully with gold pin-striping and a dark grey frame. This is classic café racer style at its very best. [Source]
Yamaha Ténéré 700 kit by Holy Moly Motorcycles
Holy Moly made a splash last year with their Retro kit—a bolt-on system that redresses the popular Ténéré 700 adventure bike as a big enduro. Now they’re back with a second option, this time drawing influence from the legendary Baja 1000 desert race.
The new Holy Moly Baja kit not only has a fresh look, but it adds extra functionality, too. As before, it doesn’t require any cutting, drilling, or hacking. With some mates and the right attitude, you can completely transform your T7 in an afternoon.
Punching an ungodly number of lumens directly into the retinas of roadside wildlife and oncoming traffic, the new twin LED headlight setup is built for business. A tubular cradle protects the lights, and the whole thing bolts directly to the T7’s headstock with a laser-cut bracket—no modifications required.
For off-road and ADV bikes, when the going gets rough, the last thing you want to be thinking about is whether you missed your turn or not. So Holy Moly has added a dedicated spot on top of the new lighting frame for a navigation system. It doesn’t matter if you use a smartphone, a tablet, a Garmin, or use SP Connect or Quad Lock brackets; they all fit.
The new lighting and navigation options join the rest of the Holy Moly kit, which consists of aftermarket and 3D-printed parts. The front fender is paired with an extension to cover the back half of the front wheel, and a 3D-printed mount relocates the T7’s dashboard to the handlebars.
Just like the existing T7 Retro kit, the radiator guard, tiny LED turn signals, and brackets are also supplied. R-Tech side plastics are used, and the kit includes new decals, with each one designed by Sérgio Almeida from WKND Customs.
If you have a Ténéré 700 and like what you see (or were sitting on the fence about getting one), the kit will be released in six color options—but it’ll be limited to just 30 units worldwide. Considering how popular the Holy Moly Retro kit was, the new Baja kit should be a winner. [Holy Moly Motorcycles]
