I’m a sucker for a W, so when the boys from Ton Up Garage in Portugal sent through their latest Kawasaki W650 build I had no option but to share it. Shop owners Pedro and Daniel are avid off road enduro riders and had wanted to build a Tracker style custom for some time. They wanted a bike that would deliver just as many grins off the road as it could on, so when they got their hands on an lightly modified ’04 W650 they knew that time had come. I’ll let the Ton Up Garage guys take it from here…
“The W650’s engine remains stock, it’s a great performer so we haven’t changed a thing. To squeeze a bit of extra power out of the bike the airbox has been replaced by a pair of pod filters and carbs re-jetted. The exhausts were designed and handmade, every bend and curve carefully cut and laid out before welding. The rear loop was shortened and off-road racer style plates were added to both sides of the rear of the bike. The seat itself was totally redesigned, it is now a single seat with a tracker style tail section and minimal rear fender.”
“On the front we’ve used a grilled headlight to give the bike more of an off-road look and it was painted it in white pearl. The goofy stock Kawasaki indicators have been replaced with small units that can hardly be noticed, again to play on the off-road style. We’ve chosen a very small speedo, an off-road handlebar and clutch lever and we decided to use white handlebars to combine with the other white parts on the bike. The wheels were painted in black and fitted with semi off-road tires and the original rearshocks were replaced with top of the range Ohlins gas charged shocks. Regarding the mirrors, they didn’t fit anywhere that looked right so we opted to leave them off…(who wants mirrors on a bike like this anyway?)”
“We’ve decided to paint the bike combining three tones, black, gold and pearl white. The bright gold was chosen to “bring out its youth spirit” but also use colors that give the bike a certain distinction. The original W650 tank was replaced with a smaller unit to help narrow the bike making it much more suitable for bush tracks.
Ton Up Garage will be selling the Gold Digger in November so if you’d like to own this bike keep an eye on their facebook page.
