Chef and legendary traveller Anthony Bourdain left the world having passed on many lessons for life, and perhaps his most profound was simply to explore ‘Parts Unknown’. And it was with this sense of adventure and discovery that Loek Janssen ventured to Japan and headed for the nighttime back streets of Tokyo, to explore the way the locals live. He then ventured to a small village to experience the quiet life that is also on offer in the land of the rising sun and came away with a new appreciation for the country that birthed his 2017 Yamaha XSR700. Returning home to Portugal, he wanted to combine his love for simple motorcycle technology with all that he’d learned on his travels, and teaming up with UNIK Motorcycles, they’ve built this neo-punk street Scrambler known as Nikkō.
What Loek loves about the Yamaha product is that it provides all of the reliability of a modern motorcycle, while retaining a raw analogue feel, not overloaded with endless tech and rider aids. “I wanted to pay respect to Japanese engineering and Japanese quality, and I wanted the bike to be related to my memories of my travels in Japan. Traveling alone I spent some rainy days in the darker streets of Tokyo sampling food and beer with the locals, which served as the main inspiration for the neo-punk Tokyo vibe that’s embedded in the bike’s ethos. After the Tokyo visit, I took a trip to Nikkō, a very lush and rainy offroad-heaven village north of Tokyo which is a big contrast to the narrow and dense streets of inner Tokyo.”
Back home and living in the centre of Lisbon, there was an obvious choice of workshop for Loek to partner with, as it’s also home to the award-winning UNIK Motorcycles headed by Tiago Gonçalve. Together they sat down and came up with a game plan for how the bike should perform, with the looks already locked in. “There are a lot of scrambler-ready off-road areas if you take the bridge to the south or going north to the Sintra woods. I wanted a gnarly scrambler that’s 50% road, 50% hard dirt/gravel/fire roads, so it should ride decently well in the twisties without losing confidence.” So, the first change was an easy one, fitting a set of Pirelli’s excellent dual sport rubber in the form of the Scorpion STR Rally.
Time to get stuck into the looks and a trip to JVB’s online store netted their full Super7 kit, which would be complemented by some additional parts and pieces. The design for the fuel tank was drawn up by Loek on an iPad in ten minutes to give the fabricator a rough idea of what he wanted. But the guys loved the look so much they went with it, crafting an aluminium top cover that is then welded to the stock tank. The SW-Mototech crash bars help to give the new tank even more of an industrial feel, and the front high-rise fender comes from Mugellos in Thailand. Then the Super7 kit can be unleashed, with the single seat conversion and rear fender with integrated brake light capturing the scrambler vibe.
Also from the kit is the very nice JVB headlight conversion, a far neater look than the factory offering, the number board like surround and LED headlight look a treat. The rest of the kit includes the rear splash guard for more protection, a set of fork covers to further black out the bike, a radiator guard and a new belly pan from SW-Mototech. Then to get painting and a large amount of matte black is used to capture the dark back alley vibe, with Japanese text used to spell out the name of the village that gives the bike its name. The nation’s flag provides the red, which is used sparingly across the build, and the radiator side covers feature the flag and the name of Yamaha’s HQ.
All of which serves as an excellent canvas for a bike that is built to be ridden, and be very practical. To aid steering duties the stock bars have been swapped out for the ever popular LSL enduro type. These are then kitted out with BikeMaster grips, going over the top of a Yamaha R6 quick-action throttle. New levers improve the riding experience and come from Puig, and the pegs are JVB’s toothed items which have been hit with more of that black paint. The braking and suspension package hasn’t undergone too big a change, but that K-tech Razor R shock is a massive improvement over stock, and really allows the bike to be tuned for any road conditions.
The same approach was taken to engine modifications, creating more power without going silly and making the bike as versatile as possible. To extract a few extra ponies and shed some weight, the exhaust is a full titanium system from Akrapovic. There is no dB killer fitted, but a Druijff Racing electronically controlled exhaust valve ensures Loek has full control of the sound. The airbox is ditched and replaced with a set of Hordpower dual filters, which have had the inner ring painted red to match the graphics and rear shock. To get the tuning spot on, the 02 sensor is deleted, and a PowerCommander 5 has been wired up and tuned to make the most of the modifications. Then the addition of a 525 chain and a 44 tooth rear sprocket gets the gearing bang on for Scrambles type riding.
The little details haven’t been forgotten either, there is an SW-Mototech kickstand, to keep the bike from falling over when parked on rough surfaces. While an ABS switch has been wired in, so the interfering system can be turned off on those same rough roads. Then to ensure the Yamaha would pass Portugal’s road registration laws, the guys fitted up new mirrors and front indicators from Motogadget and a full three-in-one rear light setup from Highsider.
A JVB relocator kit moves the stock gauge to a more usable location and the number plate now sits neatly behind the rear tyre. Loek came away from his time in Japan with a true appreciation for those gruff and gritty alleys, and with the help of UNIK, he’s turned an XSR700 into just the right bike to blast the backstreets and then head to the hills of any village and motor through the mountains.
[ UNIK | Loek Janssen | Photos by Tiago Almeida ]