Yamaha XV920 Alpha

“Alpha” was the first build by ASE Custom Motorcycles and was meant to show what the workshop can do; the name stands for the beginning. Andy Steward deliberately picked an underrated motorcycle for it: a 1981 Yamaha XV920 Virago with an air-cooled 75-degree V-twin, shaft drive and a monoshock chassis whose frame doubles as the airbox. Nothing is left of the cruiser look. Up front sits the complete front end of a 2008 Yamaha R1 with upside-down fork, which sets the stance of the bike, and above it the tank of an XJ600 Diversion that drapes neatly over the V-twin. The rear is all new. Andy built a bolt-on tubular subframe, spent many hours sculpting seat and tail as a buck and took a mould from it for a one-off fibreglass part, topped with a tailored leather seat. Under the tail sits a motogadget mo.unit blue, which replaces most of the old relays, fuses and wiring and adds keyless ignition, an RFID key, ride tracking and Bluetooth tyre pressure monitoring. The battery moved from the side to underneath the engine, freeing up room for a custom stainless steel exhaust; the footpegs now sit further back. Once the bike was fully built and running, it was stripped down completely once more: engine vapour-blasted, frame, driveline and brackets powder-coated in gloss and satin black, plus a blue paint job with a brushed bronze-gold swoosh that follows the lines of tank and tail. Alpha was unveiled at the Bike Shed Show in London's Tobacco Dock. Andy calls it a café racer, but its stance has also earned it the label street fighter café racer.