Yamaha XSR 900 Yard Built - Alter par Dab Motors - 2018 — Specifications

Imagine a motorcycle that doesn’t come off an assembly line, but from an ideas laboratory, where digital technology sculpts matter. This is the essence of Yamaha’s Yard Built project, and the version signed by Dab Motors is its most radical interpretation. Far from simple vintage reinterpretations, the Biarritz workshop threw the XSR 900 into a futuristic acid bath, to extract the ALTER, a proposition that resembles a racing prototype more than a collector’s item.

The starting point remains the solid base of the XSR, with its inline three-cylinder engine of 847 cm3, as explosive as it is temperamental. The original 115 horsepower are still there, but it’s everything else that has been filtered through a vision. Dab Motors didn’t tinker, it designed. By using massive 3D modeling and additive manufacturing, they created parts such as the steering head, rear frame, and headlight brackets, giving the motorcycle a unique structure. Even the bodywork plays the card of innovation with linen fibers, a lightweight and surprisingly resistant material.

The mechanics are not left behind, with a significant upgrade to vital organs. Öhlins suspensions, NIX 30 fork, and STX 46 shock absorber, promise precise adjustment, while Brembo radial calipers handle the braking. The custom exhaust and low handlebars complete the transformation of the riding position. This is far from a simple aesthetic custom, we are touching here a conceptual competition motorcycle, where every gram and every angle are optimized for efficiency and pure emotion.

Who is this machine for? Certainly not for the Sunday rider. With a price tag approaching 14,000 euros, it targets the demanding aesthete, the collector of unique parts, or the enthusiast of cutting-edge technologies who considers the motorcycle as a mechanical work of art. It is a rolling sculpture, a demonstration of strength that proves that artisanal know-how can embrace the tools of the future.

Faced with traditional customs, the ALTER by Dab Motors takes a bold turn. It doesn’t evoke the past, it anticipates a future where personalization goes through code and 3D printing. It is both its greatest asset and its limit: it is so specific, so conceptual, that it seems almost too precious for the road. But that’s also what makes it a fascinating object, a stone thrown into the tranquil pond of classic customization. A motorcycle for those who think the next revolution will come from a workshop, not a factory.