scrambler cycle | vintage metric motorcycle repair, restoration, and customization

a strange thing happened on my way to the market yesterday. i received an email from kevin hahn, proprietor of a wisconsin shop named scrambler cycle, which specializes in vintage metric and european motorcycle sales and repair.

the bike that started kevin’s “guzzi sickness”

he also likes to keep his work it to bikes that are older than he is, so stuff post-1975 isn’t his favorite grab bag, but money talks so that doesn’t mean your 1981 cb750f super sport will be turned away. it’s just a thing he has in his head. i call it “denial.” it’s often found in egypt.

he also works on urals as an authorized mechanic because even the new ones use 40-year old technology. if someone shows up with a chinese scooter, kevin will even work on that if they give him a good enough sob story.

scrambler does complete restorations as well as custom one-off metric and euro choppers, bobbers and cafe racers. meister hahn digs it when he gets a bike that hasn’t seen the road in 20 years because it’s not a resto and only needs the proper stuff to run well and safe. owners of these bikes are easily thrilled with their old motors running wild again.

scrambler cycle has a large stock of nos (new old stock) yamaha and kawasaki parts with some honda stuff, too. at scrambler, kevin tries try to keep parts on hand that most people need to keep their old metric motorbike on the road. he carries hard to find heidenau tires and has been selling quite a few to vintage bike owners worldwide. these tires still come in sizes measured by the inch and fit rare, old wheels that most manufactures no longer offer.

kevin built the xs650 chopper seen here from the frame up, starting with the girder front end and building the bike from there, fabricating many parts.

this one-man operation opened a year ago, and scrambler cycle can be reached by calling 715.458.0894, where you’ll find kevin, not some lackey-of-the-week or a recording machine you know better than to leave a message on because you’re not in the cool group so they’ll never call back. kevin will call back asap. unless your bike is newer than 1975. then, well, then, um…. you better be cool!

george w. bush, ladies and gentlemen. give him a round of applause to mask the sound of gunfire.

kevin procured the honda 305cc below from a guy who had it in a woodshed at his lake cabin for over 30 years. it survived and was in decent shape even though it hadn’t run since the late 1970’s.

within two hours, kevin had it running again.

this yamaha xs360 was a ****-ugly bike in its stock form.

kevin picked two of them up and went to work, disassembling each down to their frames. he then cleaned everything, painted some stuff, made a few modifications and ka-BLAMMO!™, you have what you see here. he says he still can’t get over how well it ran and handled. it is now being wailed on by an owner who enjoys beating the **** out of it.

kevin’s honda cb750 cafe has received a lot of mods. the frame and some of the engine components are powder coated. the fairing is an original read titan and the seat and tank are from ****’s cycle west.

doc benway would love that.

kevin built it with rassk rearsets, tomasselli clip-ons, a kerker 4-into-1 exhaust, koni shocks, andrews coils, electronic ignition, remote oil pressure gauge, velocity stacks, nos tach and speedo, nos handlebar switiches, and much more. reat looking bike. currently, the tank tank was made in the 1970’s and not designed with current resins that are now resistant to modern fuels so it’s about to be lined again and new paint will be applied.

kevin also likes ice racing. dig his customized 1964 bridgestone 175cc two-stroke screamer:

as you can see, kevin’s one man shop at scrambler cycle is versatile and able to do what you need from a simple “get this beast running again” to fully customized projects of any sort. he doesn’t plan on being the biggest kid on ebay’s block, but instead is concerned with keeping the simple joys of vintage motorbikes alive for generations old and young.

now for a beer and some fishing. i’m gonna catch a turtle in the pond…