Bikes: Iron Cobras' Yamaha WR450F

Every rider has had a few of those long nights in the shed, tinkering or making your own ‘custom’ changes to give your bike that spice to set it apart from others. Evan Scott has taken bike customisation to the next level with this beast of a retro Dakar inspired Yamaha WR450F. The guys from Bike EXIF caught up with the man behind the machine to give us an insight into what makes this bike truely one of a kind. Take it away Bike EXIF…

If you’re a fan of blasting big trail bikes down forest roads, the Yamaha WR450F is probably on your shopping list. And if you also love the brutal beauty of the early Paris-Dakar bikes, Evan Scott has built a machine just for you. The man behind Iron Cobras has hooked up with Answer Racing to build a custom WR450F that amps up the retro rally raid vibe without sacrificing performance.

Despite his reputation, Evan hasn’t been a lifelong biker: he only got into riding about 17 years ago, and after a misguided obsession with modern sportbikes, he got into dirt riding and never looked back. He now builds custom motorcycles and exhaust systems, with a growing sideline in metal fabrication, and caught the attention of the motocross gear maker Answer Racing.

“Answer contacted me about eight months ago,” Evan recalls. “I met with creative director Scott Sagud, and we came up with concepts for two Dakar-inspired bikes: one modern-style rally bike, and one retro bike.” Evan and Scott worked together on concept drawings, blending the ideas each wanted to see in the builds. “Our focus was not only on making sure the bikes looked good, but also making sure they performed like the Dakar racers we were using for inspiration.”

“To me it’s one of the most classic racing bikes of all time. The huge desert tank, the gold rims, and the livery are just amazing. I wanted to take a lot of those aspects and use them in our build. So we handmade the six-plus gallon tank out of aluminium, and incorporated the factory fuel injection.” That beautiful tank, it’s worth noting, has no body filler on it. Evan painted it himself, right down to the classic Yamaha graphic.

To read more about this Retro Dakar Build, visit www.bikeexif.com