“I live in the small but beautiful island of Cyprus (population 700,000) in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. I’ve always been interested in motorcycles and one of my earliest memories is learning to ride a Yamaha DT-175 at the age 7, under the guidance of my oldest brother George. At age 14 working on my Honda Chaly introduced me to the custom motorcycle world and now, along with my CB750 Cafe Racer I own a Harley Davidson Road King and a Vespa GTS 250.”

“Two years ago I came across a video about Shinya Kimura, that’s when I caught the Cafe Racer bug. It took me a year to find the right bike, a 1969 Honda CB750 and six months to finalise my design ideas. I bought the bike for 500 euro and had a budget of 2.000 euro to work with. When I found the bike it was in a terrible condition after being unused for more than 10 years and missing most of its parts. I had the chassis, engine, carburettors, exhaust and wheels.. and that’s all I needed. I couldn’t find parts easily in Cyprus so I sourced most of them online from about 10 different countries! The parts I added to the bike came from Dime City Cycles in the US as well as Firestone Champion Deluxe tires, Brooks grips, Motolana headlight brackets & engine covers and a headlight with speedometer from Nostalgia Speed & Cycles; The only parts I managed to source in Cyprus were the indicators.”

“One thing I had to deal with was that whenever I said the name ‘Cafe Racer’ in Cyprus nobody had the slightest idea what I was talking about. Eventually, I met a mechanic called Adonis Syrimis and I couldn’t have found a better person to translate my ideas. He was just starting out and wanted to show off his skills using this project. The build itself took six months to complete due to the laid back attitude here in Cyprus. Patience was a virtue I had to master. ”

“The colour for the tank and the rear end was clear from the start, I wanted a silver matte paint that would match with the light brown, used leather of the seat and the Brooks handles. The final design has changed a lot from my initial ideas, but with my design and Adonis’ mechanical skills we manage to create this gorgeous Honda CB750 Café Racer that we named ElGato!”

And to top it all off, these stunning shots of the ElGato were done by Alexandros Hadjicostas himself.