Earlier in the year Kawasaki reached out to me at Deus wanting to meet up in regards to a secret project. The project was, customising the very first 2018 Z900RS in the country — Making it the first official collaboration between our two brands.
Of course, do’s and don’ts were given from Kawasaki, but the stage was ours! The idea was to take the bikes in a completely different direction, but to also preserve some of the new tricks from Kawasaki’s new star child.
Our donor bike was picked up from Kawasaki HQ in Sydney, this was to be our first encounter with the newest member to the Kwaka family. Once I removed the box, there it stood and my brain started to think a million thoughts a second. It was impressive to say the least, the shape, details and lines — it was extremely Kawasaki!
Together with me on this project was Carby.T’s right hand man, Saxon Shing. Once the Z rolled into our Camperdown workshop, we together began plotting what could be done and how.
After a few weeks of digital rendering & research, the sum of our combined enthusiasm had created a Tracker concept. Something stripped WAY back and raw — It was time to get on the tools!
With the concept drawing pined on the workshop wall, I wasted no time and began ordering all the ingredients needed to put this bike together.
Next up, removing all that was not meant to be. Plastic bits, be gone! I began to install the basics, bars, cabling and brake lines. Modifying brackets and sending wheels off to get blasted, all in days work.
Day one had officially wrapped up with much more to come.
Words by Jeremy Tagand.
