Photo credits: Pipeburn
Australia’s very own James Campbell has created one of the greatest custom bikes we could ever dream of. This retro 2006 Honda CBR600RR has been wholly transformed. However, instead of making it super futuristic, it maintains the nostalgic feel it originally had, hence calling it RRetro. According to Pipeburn, James has always been a bike enthusiast. He got his first ride at the age of five and the interest perhaps runs in the family. “My father is an engineer and my grandfather an inventor, I grew up in a very fun environment. Building things in the garage and working on stuff with my Dad, this probably laid a foundation for my future career in aircraft maintenance. For 15 years I have repaired and modified aircraft. Along the way I have picked up many skills which I now use to build custom motorcycles in my garage,” says James as quoted from Pipeburn. “I wanted to build something that wouldn’t have looked out of place on the track back in the day. But maybe taken a spill and we put it away in the garage for the past 30 years.”
Photo credits: Pipeburn
The CBR600RR had a removable subframe and a tank shroud, so a new fuel cell would not have to be made. James started off his customization by crafting a new subframe. RRETRO also comes with a new tail unit. It is made up of no less than 10 handmade parts. Campbell crafted these from a combination of fibreglass and carbon fibre. Right after that, James had to create a tank shroud. This started off with a fibreglass race unit then James customised it. “I added the hump at the back and had to fill a massive cut out on the front of the shroud where the race team previously had easy access to the ECU.”
Photo credits: Pipeburn
Photo credits: Pipeburn
The exterior of the bike is the eye-catching part. Sam Muldoon of Colourfuel managed to come up with a great colour scheme to ensure that the bike has its retro feel. The front forks are 41mm fully adjustable inverted items with easily replaceable cartridges. It also features Pirelli rubber wheels and 310mm discs that are clamped by 4 pot callipers.