I can hear you thinking, “What is he talking about?” Well if you’re the least bit familiar with Jim Guiffra and his company, AFT Customs in Jackson, California, you already know what I’m yip-yapping about. Jim not only specializes in wild customs of the metric persuasion, but his company also specializes in providing a talented selection of TIG-welding, wrench wielding, custom motorcycle-building spokes models for the power sports industry. If you’ve been to any of the major motorcycle shows, you know the models I’m referring to. The AFT girls not only provide a bit of spice to a motorcycle display, but their involvement in making the motorcycles displayed is for real according to Jim. “The women have to be involved with each build. They learn everything from TIG welding to metal shaping to engine building,” said Jim adding proudly, “Two of the models will be racing the bike at the Mojave Mile this spring.”

 

   This is not Jim’s or the spokes models first custom motorcycle rodeo either as Barnett’s Magazine Online has featured AFT’s award winning Sentoh and Halia customs that you can see and read about by simply clicking on their names. Ain’t the Internet wonderful?

 

   Anyway, back to the bike at hand. At first glance you might surmise that this is just one more look-alike street fighter/café racer CB 750 like you have seen over the years, but you would be wrong, dead wrong, on that assumption. There’s a hell of a lot going on here than just some old resurrected and refreshed CB. According to Jim, the bike’s name, Cimeron, means wild or untamed in Spanish and I’ll just have to go along with that as my Google translator is stymied by the name. None of that matters as this bike is definitely a bit wild and untamed as I’ll explain.

 

   Jim and his model employees got to work quickly stripping down the bike to a bare frame and started from there. First up was the frame itself which went under the knife (so to speak) with the back half whacked off for the mono-shock/ swingarm revisal. Fabbing up a new swingarm with an intriguing added trellis grid work support was the first order of the day. And, yes, spokes models were directly involved from the git-go. The fabrication and engineering required to make one of Race Tech’s G3-S shocks not just be a pretty thing to look at or yap about, but something that can actually provide superior suspension to the stock POS Honda twin shocks. Besides just looking so much better than the wimpy stock tube swingarm, Jim’s conversion opens up a lot of space underneath the seating area giving a more modern feel to the build.

 

   But it’s not all happening out back as Jim replaced the stock front downtube with a new, improved version that’s quite big around for engine oil storage. Usually an oil-in-frame motorcycle hides the reservoir under the fuel tank in a large top tube, but not Jim. That oil tank is out there where cool air does its thing and is loud and proud to let you know something’s going on there even if you didn’t know Honda’s CB750 had a dry sump system. Hanging off the frame’s headtube is a beefy inverted fork to replace the wimpy 20mm tube (or so it seems nowadays) regular old fork. With the radical suspension changes front and rear, Jim was onto something special and the build was underway.

 

  Rolling stock consists of Glenndyne Design wheels in sporty current sizes shod with sporty Avon tires. Glenndyne also provided the rotors which are worked over by a pair of Beringer calipers including a radial mounted bit up front. All very sporty stuff and good for what Jim intended for this bike ─ looking wild and going fast.

 

  Speaking of fast, the 1975 CB 750 engine was a big boy back in the day, but it’s a bit of a milquetoast mill these days, so Jim got on it ─ stat. After stripping the engine down so it looked like an exploded parts diagram, he got to work on the hop-up by first increasing the capacity from an actual 736cc to 836cc. That’s gotta help just by itself, but Jim complimented the bore increase with head work, a hot cam from Web Cam, Dynatek’s electronic ignition replacing the dual points, and a one-off four-into-two intake manifold breathing through a pair of Keihin FCR 35 flatslide carbs. An AFT-fabbed four-into-one header setup runs all over the bike before spewing its combusted guts out of a seriously shortened Leo Vinci muffler sticking out from behind the rear frame section just over the swingarm. I’ve never heard it, but I know it’s gotta be LOUD. Ten-inches of make-believe muffler will do that every time.

   What little bodywork you do see is all handmade aluminum with a few special twists. I couldn’t believe the front fender was not some sort of composite plastic as that would have been the easy (and possibly smart) way out. Not for Jim, though, as it’s all fabbed from 16-gauge aluminum and welded together until he had a finished product he was okay with. Apparently Jim doesn’t do plastic except for a bit of carbon fiber trickery. Same goes for the seat hump, it’s all Atomic Number 13 stuff too. Needless to say, same goes for the fuel tank, but there’s a twist or two here that bears mentioning. See those carbon fiber scoops on the side of the tank? Those are cooling scoops or ram air scoops depending on your own personal definition, but either way, they’re pretty cool. The scoop itself is held in place by Jim’s own style of safety wire weaving through all this like it was sewn on by a guy with a very large sewing needle. Out back, the same deal applies to the seat where another sewn-on scoop cools the battery and electrics.

   When it came time for paint, Jim went to his old standby, Kirk Taylor of Custom Design Studios in Novato, California, for another round of Kirk’s handiwork. I’m sure it helps when two guys collaborate long enough that there’s no guessing as to where it’s going. May not be my favorite paintjob, but then it’s not my bike and if it were my bike it’d probably be gloss black as I was born without an imagination. The sassy little bit of leatherwork once known as a seat was nicely done by Obie Beaver of Beaver Leather Craft fame.

   So that’s the kit and caboodle on Jim Guiffra and AFT Customs. Be sue to check out AFT’s web site http://www.aftcustoms.com/ or Facebook page for more information on AFT’s builds and Aft’s models who are built. By the way, no spokes models were harmed during the building of this bike.