Despite its 43-year production run ending in 2021, the SR400 remains a hot favourite amongst riders in Japan. The SR400’s popularity can be attributed partly to how Japanese licencing laws favour 400cc motorcycles, but the SR is also affordable and easy to maintain. This made the SR offering appealing to younger riders which in turn led to its popularity as a base for customisation.
Kyohey Sugimoto, owner of Berry Bads Motorcycles knows a thing or two about modifying Yamaha’s evergreen SR400. From choppers to bobbers, brats and cafe racers he’s fettled the SR400 into just about every style imaginable. But being a racer, it’s the cafe style that appeals to him the most and he’s applied it beautifully to this 2001 Yamaha SR400. At the request of the owner, this bike’s look is heavily influenced by classic Norton’s and Kyohey-san has thrown in a bunch of serious performance upgrades to boot.
Kicking off the list of changes is an Avon-style front cowl. Sporting a clear perspex bubble over a classic round headlamp it screams of 1950s British race bikes. Mounted into the dash is a single Pivot tachometer for keeping a close eye on the engine’s revs. To accommodate the fairing the stock bars have been replaced using Magura clip-ons and they are mounted to the original forks.
For this bike, Kyohey has performed a twin disc upgrade which was done to compensate for the lack of stopping power delivered by the SR’s drum rear. To do this he added a second right-hand fork lower and flipped both forks around to relocate the callipers to the front of the wheel. To complete the brake upgrade the new 2-pot Brembo brakes have been mounted using custom-made hardware. Both forks feature upgraded internals and are held in place by a Stinky Japan top bridge. The Yamaha’s spoked wheels use matching 19-inch F.R. Excel rims wrapped in classic look modern rubber.
Moving rearward there’s a Norton-style aluminium fuel tank finished using a classic silver with black pinstriping scheme and a Monza filler cap. The seat is a generic aftermarket item that’s been trimmed to fit and there’s a Wassel-style cowl rounding off the rear end. To further emphasize the Yamaha’s Norton vibe, Kyohey has fabricated an oil breather catch can that resembles an oil tank complete with feed lines and brass fittings. Both front and rear fenders are svelte aluminium items and there’s a retro brake light sitting over the license plate. To revise the riding position alloy rear sets replace the mid-mount controls.
These changes completed the visual aspect of this SR’s cafe racer transformation, but Kyohey had much more in mind regarding its performance.
Once a mild-mannered small capacity 400cc single, the engine of this bike is now a mid-sized 600cc monster. The huge increase in capacity comes courtesy of a Tressel billet cylinder with large cooling fins and a performance piston. Inside the motor, there’s also a Yoshimura cam and an Araki F Machine dry clutch kit. To feed the thirsty engine an FCR 41mm flat slide carb hangs off the intake while the beast exhales through a hand-bent stainless steel header and titanium megaphone silencer. Keeping operating temperatures in check is a front-mounted oil cooler and power is delivered to the rear end by an Enuma chain.
The steel swingarm Yamaha traditionally used on this bike is gone. In its place is an Over Racing polished alloy unit that drops even more weight and extends the motorcycle’s footprint by 1.5cm. The addition of Nitron rear shocks levels out the rear end and improves the overall ride. Leveraging his learnings from years of racing motorcycles, Kyohey has also given this bike’s chassis a complete overhaul. Along with trimming the rear to accommodate the new tail unit he’s gusseted it and used his own engine mounts to stiffen things up.
The finishing touch on this extensive Yamaha cafe racer conversion is the ‘R.I.P. Cheesy’ lettering on the fuel tank. It’s a reference to a song of the same name by Japanese hip-hop artists ID and Mu-ton. Kyohey-san offered no explanation for the owner’s decision to add it to the bike, so, like Yamaha’s upsetting decision to discontinue the SR400 range, it will remain a mystery.
