Two in one bike

Hello there, a very Happy Year 2020 to all!

A few months w/o news from me, but don't think I have been sleeping… I was working on the Sunburst.

When I bought the Sunburst I loved its look, yet I had no personal reason to be proud, as it was Kenny Cummings’ design.
So, I decided to have something to be proud of and… I changed its look entirely!
Don't shoot the pianist: I have kept unmolested all the parts from the Sunburst and I can go back to the original in just a few hours.
My goal was not to do better than Kenny, but to do it different, to do it my way.

Here are the changes I made:
I bought a top fairing from a Velocette Thruxton Veeline, new, from Trevor (Sprint Manufacturing UK), with a light smoked screen.
You will not find more Classic or more British than this fairing. The quality is top notch, but the delivery time was 6 week....
I changed the tank, the new one is from my own design, gorgeously built in aluminium by Frank (Streug Metal shop), great work Frank!
I adapted a Ducati 900 SS seat which matches the tank line perfectly.
I installed new Smiths speedo and tacho, full electronic, (with a spaghetti of wires to connect).
My friend Luc Hens made me for free a bracket to hold the instruments.
I bought a new front mudguard from Minnovation, same shape as the Sunburst original, but like I said before: I wished to keep the original parts from the Sunburst. So I decided to paint a new one.
The paint work was done by Pierre Vangin, a genius in painting and design.
I gave him total freedom to do the job, the result is amazing, in my opinion at least.
The colors are Mobutu black, BMW Alpina white and gold stripes.
Pierre is a former workmate from the time we where both working for the Belgian Kawasaki distributor,
later, Pierre was working during 10 years for Bell Helmets and was sent by Bell to all the F1 GP’s!
Pierre painted countless helmets for legendary F1 riders like Senna, Prost, Schumacher and many others.
He also painted my former Seeley the “ Big Spender”.
And in the name of 40 years friendship, he also did it for free. Great man!
Thanks also to garage Jadoul, who let us use their paint booth.
So to me, the bike as it stands now is the ultimate classic motorcycle of my dreams, I hope you will like it too!
Thanks to JagBruno for the pics that follow.

Yves.

Hello all,

here are some pictures taken today from Yves’ masterpiece:



















upload picture site

And for reference, Yves with the original Sunburst a few months ago:

Wow! Very nice Yves.

I forgot to say: the seat is from a Ducati 900 SS
Yves

Happy & Healthy New Year Yves !!

I love, love, love the new look (not knocking the old look though, but I know what you mean about being yours). You know, I think you are right about the Veeline fairing it really sets off the whole package. The tank stripes as well, they look like left or right bends that you can power through at WOT.

My only mild criticism is the Harley style number plate, can't you put it under the seat ?


Cheers,

cliffa.

cliffa said:

Happy & Healthy New Year Yves !!

I love, love, love the new look (not knocking the old look though, but I know what you mean about being yours). You know, I think you are right about the Veeline fairing it really sets off the whole package. The tank stripes as well, they look like left or right bends that you can power through at WOT.

My only mild criticism is the Harley style number plate, can't you put it under the seat ?


Cheers,

cliffa.

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Hi Cliffa,
The Harley style number plate will move in the next days and there is more work in progress to do, but nothing mecanical or just a new oil pump
Happy you like the new look
Yves

That looks so much better the Sunburst seat looked like an afterthought from front to back the bike looks right. Great work.

Well, I loved the Sunburst personally.

But what you’ve done Yves is stunning.

Enjoy !

Sweet!

Fast Eddie said:

Well, I loved the Sunburst personally.

But what you’ve done Yves is stunning.

Enjoy !

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Yes it was and YES it is....
Well done...

You've made it yours Yves well done to you

The main problem is still my healt, 15 months after my crash it's not going mutch better.
My hip is still broken, and a chiurgical intervention will take four hours, with a very deep narcose.
My cardioloog say don't do it, you will not wake up
Marina and me decide not to do it, at the moment I can walk 300 feets and I can ride 60 miles a day and this is OK to me.
I work every day four hours and it's still painfull.
I recover very slowly, I can put my leg over the seat now, W/O help.
I still believe that live can be wonderfull and my bike help me, my friends also.
Thanks for your support guys
Yves

Yes a truly beautiful and well thought out bike...is that a quick release clip to secure the rear of the tank? I imagine this bike sounds great can you post a start up video so we can hear her?

It looks very sleek and the paint is awesome, I understand you wanting to make it your own with a few changes. Glad to hear your a little bit better and able to ride without help now.

The springs on the exhaust look kinda racy and just might solve that common loose Commando header problem. Maybe its using a stub as well?
I remember suggesting using springs as on my MXer exhaust many years ago when I was new to Commandos and new to the forum.
One of the oldtimers here went up one side of me and down the other at the suggestion of putting such a hideous apparatus on the priceless machine/ art that is a Commando.
But there it is on a very pretty Commando Special.

Glen

I absolutely adore what you have done here Yves. The paint us gorgeous (and matches my old Davida pudding basin)! The tail is so sexy too.

I actually think this looks better than the Sunburst.

So very well done. Congratulations!

And keep up the good work and best wishes for continuing improvement on the health.

Gorgeous. I’d love to hear it. So beautiful.

Mic said:

Yes a truly beautiful and well thought out bike...is that a quick release clip to secure the rear of the tank? I imagine this bike sounds great can you post a start up video so we can hear her?

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Yes, it is a quick release clip that hold the entire tank via the aluminium strap.
I will not ride the bike before february, I have still a lot of details to fix, yes the bike sounds great; I will try to do a start up video
Yves

worntorn said:

The springs on the exhaust look kinda racy and just might solve that common loose Commando header problem. Maybe its using a stub as well?
I remember suggesting using springs as on my MXer exhaust many years ago when I was new to Commandos and new to the forum.
One of the oldtimers here went up one side of me and down the other at the suggestion of putting such a hideous apparatus on the priceless machine/ art that is a Commando.
But there it is on a very pretty Commando Special.

Glen

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Glen, you are right. It uses a stub as on a Triumph T150 for instance. Much better system than the original Norton misery...
Best,
Bruno