The Moto di Ferro creation is the latest in the long line of Yamaha Yard Built customs. This particular example is a flat track inspired Yamaha XV950 from the Italian custom shop whose name means Iron Motorcycle in English. Builder Marco Lugato has been creating bikes under that name since 2010, following some time as a professional road racer, so it’s not entirely surprising that the sporting side of motorcycle racing comes into play a little
Apparently based in the steel and engineering centre of Venice (We thought it was all canals and gondolas?), a team of three have created generally stripped down version of various European and Japanese motorcycle marques so far. Not bad considering that Venice itself is made up of islands without roads, and also has the notable handicap of being twinned with the equally beautiful and romantic town of Wolverhampton in the UK.
Yamaha is always keen for builders to adapt the Yard Built bikes in a way which doesn’t alter the basic bike too much. The idea being that any Yamaha owner could create something similar – and Marco plans to make various parts available so you can attempt your own version.
It also means that the builders are encouraged to raid the Yamaha parts bin from other models. In this case the fron forks and calipers are both from the Yamaha VMAX.
The wheels are from Borrani, currently wearing Metzeler Marathon Ultra ME888 tyres for some extra girth without overdoing it and making the Speed Iron unrideable.
Probably the most eye catching and unusual change to the Yamaha XV950 are the new handmade aluminium tank and rear seat unit. They give the narrower, stripped down look, and also save some weight at the same time. Plus they also look great.
Some motorcycles look best from the front, but hopefully Marco won’t be offended if I say that the Speed Iron looks best from the rear. The combination of the new tank and seat unit, the up-swept Arrow exhaust and the fatter rear tyre give a nice and mean look from the back which suggests it’s about to leave you behind quite quickly.
See what we mean? It looks like it should be in front of you at the lights and just about to take off at high speed through town. That’s helped by the handmade rear frame, along with some custom aluminium side panels.
In addition to the Yamaha VMAX calipers, the front brakes are enhanced with larger 320mm front discs. The odometer is from Acewell, and looks great mounted just above the tank. Other rider luxuries include the Tarozzi footpegs and LSL bar end weights.
We weren’t ignoring the front of the bike earlier, which benefits from a new headlight. Meanwhile the indicators and brake lights are integrated into a tiny unit which looks great but might raise a few questions with any unkind police officers and myopic car drivers.
So there you have it. An American flat track inspired Japanese motorcycle which has been tweaked and changed in Italy.
The result is rather pretty. Especially from the rear, as we might have mentioned.
Venice is known for being made up of 117 islands, and being the home of a number of great painters and composers, including Vivaldi and Caneletto, famed womaniser Casanova, and thanks to Moto di Ferro, some very nice custom motorcycles.
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