The Yamaha XJR1300 is a relic from a bygone age, and we say that with a tinge of regret. It’s a big, brutal muscle bike that unfortunately has no place in today’s highly regulated market.
The hefty, air-cooled inline four still has an ardent fan base in Europe though, despite the engine being a rejigged version of the unit that powered the mid-80s FJ1100. And one of those fans is a Polish rider called Tomek, who commissioned Unikat to build the very solid café racer we’re looking at here.
“Tomek contacted us more than a year ago,” says shop founder Grzegorz Korczak. “He set the level of expectations high: he’s an experienced rider, and owns machines like a Kawasaki Ninja H2.”…