The Bike Shed recently posted this one about Oregon-born 23 year-old Colin Darling’s first build. After being rejected from an engineering school in Germany, the aspiring mechanical engineering student splashed some dough he had saved for his planned Germanic excursion on a donor bike and start some home schooling. Colin tracked down an ’82 Virago 920 because he was taken with the simplicity and narrowness of the first generation twin, and set to work on the build with minimal initial visualisation, preferring a block by block approach to design.

As he puts it down to the Bike Shed, “After ripping the bike down, the first mod was the front end swap. The front wheel, fork, brakes and clip-ons, came from a 2010 Yamaha R6. Next up was the rear suspension which came from a 2010 MV Agusta F4 1000RR. It was a few inches shorter than the Virago shock so I built new mounting points for it in the frame. The tank came from a 1978 Kawasaki KZ650 SR and I designed the badges and had them 3D printed. The base (black part) is ceramic and the Logo is stainless steel plated in 24 karat gold. I moved the foot controls back using rearsets from Dime City Cycles and fabricated new linkage using aluminum rod. I replaced the Cycom gauge system with a single Koso digital gauge.”

“I had a lot of trouble designing the subframe as I didn’t want to obstruct the great lines coming off the tank. After racking my brain for a few months, one day I dug into the pile of old parts and found the perfect candidate. One of the totally over built top mount clip-ons from the stock Virago. Worked like a charm.”

The short diamond stitched leather bobber seat is complemented by a full 304 stainless steel exhaust, black powder coated frame and wheels, as well as a clear powder coat tank.

Colin has put the bike up for sale to supplement his Starbucks wage for a second build. He can be reached at [email protected].

via The Bike Shed