YAMAHA XS750 CUSTOM

The Yamaha XS750 was produced from 1977 to 1979 before being replaced by the larger XS850, the model never saw the same production numbers as the wildly popular parallel-twin Yamaha XS650 but we’ve been seeing more and more custom XS750s coming to light in recent months – like the one you see here.

It isn’t often that we come across a custom bike builder based in Montana, I imagine it’s because the residents of Big Sky Country have better things to do (like running away from bears) – so when New Zealander Colin Cornberg moved to Missoula 2 years ago he set about finding himself a motorcycle and getting to work on it.

He found a 1977 Yamaha XS750 being sold nearby in Bitterroot Valley and went to have a look, the bike was in terrible condition and had clearly suffered a great deal in the last few years of its life. The original engine’s electronic timing unit had been barbecued in an engine fire and had one bent valve and one that had broken off completely – fortunately the sale included a spare engine that was in far better condition and so Colin’s first major task was to rebuild this spare engine, remove the original unit and bolt the newly refurbished powerplant into place.

Once this was done, Colin set to work stripped the bike back to the frame and rebuilding it as his own interpretation of a minimalist, survivalist motorcycle – the sort of thing MadMax would ride if he happened to live in Montana when the world ended.