A YZ250 Shrunken for the Track: Anton Bongaerts races motorcycles on a track… ie a go-kart track. Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Stevelot, Belgium, or Spa as locals and patrons call it, is a Formula 1 Grand Prix track just over 7 kilometers (4.35 miles) long that will let you go for a run -kart inside narrow and attractive track for only €50 a day on a bike. So yeah, why not?
The sharp turns of the go-kart track make larger bikes feel a bit bulkier and slower. Twenty years ago, Bongaerts built, raced, and even won a local championship riding a homemade bike with a Minarelli 70cc engine on small track. He graduated with supercars, but decided they were too big and heavy to be really fun. So, in 2018, he bought this “smashing” 2001 Yamaha YZ250 two phases off-road bike, rebuild the engine and then scale it down to Moto3 specs for go-kart racing missions.
The two-wheeled kart track star features OZ Racing wheels wrapped in track slips and a 296mm donkey disc clamped by Beringer grips. He built the subframe from used Honda CBR600RR tubes. The radiator core is taken from a Kawasaki KLX650R, the carburetor is a Lectron Billertron trick and Bongaerts manually smashed the fuel tank. Swooping under the frame, the chamber expands like a python has just eaten an opossum, which Bongaerts also built himself. The stout homemade swingarm is crafted from 6082 T6 aluminum and features a chiseled design similar to the gas tank.
When it was completed, he submitted it to Roland Sands Design’s #dreambuildoff competition, where it placed second in the under 750cc category in 2022. If you’re in the area, expect to hear the tiny zinger. This terrorizes the local kart tracks around Belgium this summer. You can find more Bongaerts builds on Instagram.
Womprat touches Bullseye: Chris Elliott said: “This bike has been through a lot of challenges. It was a survivor, pulled from a barely running garage for a tidy sum of $300. Elliott rolled it out and stuffed it into a station wagon, literally. It even survived a garage fire. Now, after a complete rebuild, it’s seen a lot of trouble getting around Phoenix, Arizona.
Like the pests Luke Skywalker would target Tatoonie from his T-16 booster, this Womprat continues. “I came across the bike by accident and it was cracked, but still in good running condition. I’m a huge ‘Star Wars’ fan and a lot of the bikes I build, they’re for dunes and other things. That’s the origin of the name,” said Elliott.
“I built it because that’s what I wanted to build. I build bikes to my whim,” says Elliott. His Womprat is most of a year 1978 KZ400 with some mods made for the desert running around Phoenix. He tried to use as many OEM parts as he could, “but rearrange them,” he says for a custom look, working at the community. Eleven 10 store in Phoenix. “A lot of people were attracted to Honda, but a lot of Kawasakis outnumbered everyone at the time,” he said. “This works well,” and looks even better.
His use of off-the-shelf parts gives the ‘rat a simple yet effective style. Combined with rodent names and catchy graphics, this Kawi proves that even the simplest bike potion from the back of a station wagon can make great machines. great. Please nod to Chris Instagram.
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