kawasaki w650 custom – shaken fist | garage project motorcycles

a few days ago i received an email from damian (aka rex havoc) from the aussie shop garage project. he regaled me with a story of a bike that was on bikeexif and how he built it specifically to **** off certain regular critics on the blog. that’s amusing. jerkoffs like richard pollock (aka **** bollocks) and stephen pate (aka suicide in five, four, three…) spew raving acid all over everything they didn’t do themselves.

even so, it seems the drama must draw more viewers. personal attacks are hysterical, right? and who would have ever thought it would be me calling for civility? don’t confuse me with a biker. i’m a writer. neither am i a builder. i’m a poet.

too often the comments on bikeexif make it seem as if jerry springer has a motorcycle website.

anyway, let’s keep the rant short, rex sent his anecdote, it made me chuckle, and he told me about some of his other bikes with links to nice art directed pro foto studio pix. here is the first, the “shaken fist.” it’s named after those who shake their fists at him and his mates when they ride. i dig it.

he told me that after being inspired by the creations of deus, he was on the lookout for a kawasaki w650 to customise. on a trip to bondi beach he saw one for sale in front of a pub for $9,000. he went in, found the owner and haggled until it was his. according to rex, this is how it went:

Rex: How about eight grand?
Owner: Nah, nine.
Rex: Eight and half?
Owner: Nine.
Rex: C’mon, give me something! How about $8,800?
Owner: How about nine grand and I buy you a beer.
Rex: I’ll have a Heineken.

seems rex would have had better luck slaying a 20-foot long crocodile with a kitchen knife. also, what is your bank account number?

having procured his latest dream machine, rex hooked up with a dude named brad whose w650 flat tracker beat his with a first place at the “2010 perth *** bike show.” they changed the 18″ wheels to 16″ excel rims with sticky rubber, removed the pipe wrap and ceramic coated the pipes. then they black chromed a lot of the bolts and the rear sprocket to clean up the look. he tells me the bike lost over 40 pounds from its stock configuration.

rex also wanted to take the bike on a few track days and see if he could upset a few sportbike riders. this guy is a troublemaker. so brad and rex installed progressive springs up front, placed ikon shocks at the rear, and mounted rear sets that had him blowing the competition up in the corners…. only to be blown away himself on the straights.

currently the bike is back in the garage “to have it’s engine bombed.” they’ve done head work, installed a big bore kit, given her a hot cam and oil cooler along with flatslides and pod filters. they’re also installing a keyless ignition and carbon fiber seat cowl as well as making a few other detail changes which should be done by the end of the month.

he wonders if he’ll be finished then. keep a lookout on bikerMetric to see the update and find out if rex managed to beat the rice rockets…

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