Based in Malaga, Spain, Matt Black Custom Designs is a relatively new entrant into the custom scene. Having opened its doors in early 2012, the company brands itself as not just a motorcycle workshop but a custom design studio, crafting bespoke furniture and decorative structural metal work when they’re not designing and building custom bikes.

This particular project, dubbed Cafe Racer 57, started life when a client named Daniel bought in not one, but two motorcycles – a 2006 GSX-R600 track bike that he no longer used, and a tired old 2003 883 Harley-Davison Sportster. While the initial plan was to swap out the Harley bits for Suzuki forks, wheels, and brakes with an intent on making it handle better, Matt Black’s Anthony Partridge was already having a grander scheme for things to come.

The term cafe racer is a bit broad these days, with every builder applying a unique perspective to individual builds. The crew started out by designing and machining a set of custom triple trees to fit the GSX-R front forks and a swingarm as they wanted to use the Suzuki axle, brake and the same rear adjustment system. When the bike came in, it had a battered old Norton Manx replica tank and a poor excuse for a tail section. Anthony took one look at it and decided to sort the tank and redesign a one-off rear section that was different than your average open ended cafe tail section. Even the idea for the paint scheme came from a tin of Heinz beans!

After getting the overall shape of the bike and idea for the paint work, the project simply could stop there. So what came in for a quick turnaround, ended up as a complete ground up redesign and rebuild. From stripping and rebuilding the brakes and wheels to 3D machining the triple trees, foot controls brackets and redoing the rear sets, then chopping and re-fabbing the rear section of the frame and custom building a new rear swing arm. It needed new custom tank mounts, horn bracket, coil bracket and most other brackets that hold every other components. Anthony hand sculpted the rear section, seat, license plate holder, rear internal mudguard. Then we shaved and machined the cam cover.

The Sportster’s 883cc v-twin motor was upgraded to 1200cc with an Andrews cam, accompanied by an S&S Super E carb and Crane Ignition system. Other highlights include one-off header pipes, wrapped and finished with a MIVV GP race silencer, custom wiring loom, Motogadget speedo and a V-Rod headlight.

Let us know what you think of Matt Black Custom Designs’ Cafe Racer 57 in the comments below.