Never mind deBolex, here’s a custom Kawasaki ZRX1200R!

DeBolex have made a name for themselves the last few years producing beautiful handbuilt café racers, and whaddaya know – they’ve done it again. This time though, it’s based on a rather special and rare machine: a Kawasaki ZRX1200R.

If you’re not familiar with it, the big Zed was a modern take on the Eddie Lawson replica, powered by a 1164cc inline four that was good for just over 120bhp. Not a bad machine 15 years ago.

The original owner sold it but then regretted the sale almost instantly, ultimately buying it back a few years later before handing it over to the boys at deBolex for their custom treatment.

“We wanted the bike to have that classic superbike feel but with our unique design touches,” says Calum Pryce-Tidd, Founder of deBolex. “As with all our projects that means a lot of metal shaping.”

They’ve become best known for their bodywork and what you see on this machine is all handmade aluminium, including the front fairing, petrol tank and subframe.

“The ZRX was probably one of our more challenging projects; features such as the quick-release headlight cover and the tank and tail design took some head scratching to achieve.”

The rest of the build was designed to extract as much performance out of the bike as possible, as deBolex believe their bikes should be able to handle just as good as they look. The suspension was swapped out for Maxton superbike units, it now runs on Dymag UP7X lightweight alloy wheels shod with Metzeler Racetec RR tyres, while braking now comes from Skandi experts ISR.

The engine itself has been pepped up a little too thanks to some Yoshimura TMR-38 carbs and a full custom stainless exhaust. Even the small details have been taken care of such a Samco hoses while a Motogadet M-Unit based wiring harness is hidden away under the seat along with the wee lithium battery. All of deBolex’s builds thus far have been one-offs, however this will be their last one for some time as they embark on their next project.

“This will be our last one for now while we focus on creating a Series run of motorcycles,” adds Pryce-Tidd. “The Series will formalise what we have learnt building one-offs for the past eight years. We aim to bridge the gap between production and complete one off custom which will enable us to produce our motorcycles in a much quicker time frame and a better cost while keeping quality and design our number one priority.”

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