There are few more pleasing sights than a shiny yellow Speedblock paint job on an old Yamaha, and as this one’s also bathed in mellow Dorset evening sunlight it’s doubly lovely.
You might be wondering what it is – it’s often mistaken for a modified XT500 but it started life as an SR500, although there’s very little that hasn't been rethought, replaced or improved. Apart from the glowing yellow paint, the delightfully retro Astralite wheels and the nicely scrubbed race tyres, there are loads of little details which anyone who’s ever built a special knows look simple but take hours of attention and years of experience to get right. It’s a process of alchemy which has seen a nearly-scrap field rat turned into a flat track-inspired race bike which attracts admiring glances wherever it goes.
Now, I could tell you everything I know about this beautiful creation, but instead I'm going to let Kirsty
