Le Motographe / WR450F Skeleton V2

Less is more, many times we have heard these words and every time they prove to be correct. With this line of thought, the Le Motographe studio reduced this WR 450 to the bone, leaving only the skeleton and little else, creating a lean but efficient bike with an aggressive look that was at the same time clean and elegant, so they were able to combine shape and substance

Thanks to our contact, the photographer Guillaume Ducasse Photography who provided us with a large gallery of photographs, we even managed to do a brief interview to explain to us who they are and work they did on this motorcycle.

• Please tell us a bit about yourself, your history with motorcycles, and your workshop.

« Le Motographe » is a french workshop based in Montpellier (south of France), we build iconic bikes only by order then we can build bikes specially for one pilot based on his background and how that pilot want to ride. Every of our bikes are made for ride, we never build « show bike » cause for us a bike have to be efficient and usefull.

The team is composed by Jerome (Professional product designer and passionate about bikes since childhood) and Yvan (professional welder and metal shaper, passionate about bike since childhood too).

We also build many parts by our own to sell them as custom parts, specially full exhaust systems, mufflers, aluminium fenders, pegs,..

All our projects are a surprise for the customer, the customer will never see the bike until its finish, then they need to trust our capacity to build a bike even better than what they expect. We always have a long discussion about the bike before starting ans then let’s go.

• What’s the make, model, and year of the bike?

The base of this project is a 2004 Yamaha WR450F.

• Why was this bike built? (Customer project, company promotion, personal, etc.)

That bike was build for a american client living in LA.

But the supermoto version we just finished is for the company promotion and track racing. (This one is not yet shot, maybe it could be the subject of another post later, the exhaust, headlight, wheels and brakes are not the same, this one will be presented in The bike shed London in May.)

We will build another kit for put it as a flat track and do some races with, like in « wheels and waves event in france or whatever. To show that our bikes are really made for ride hard.

• What was the design concept and what influenced the build?

The customer just ask us to build him an offroad and street legal bike and that’s it, that’s why we choose an efficient enduro base. The point of this project is simple, build an iconic bike like nobody have never seen but which is more efficient than before, then we created that tuff handmade frame, which could be set on any WR450F from those years as an « extreme full kit ». 

So the bike is 10kg lighter than before and 5hp more thanks to the new handmade airbag with K&N performance air filter and our full handmade exhaust which is larger than the original one then the bike can breath.

• What custom work was done to the bike?

We just kept the original engine and a part of the frame to keep it legal on the road, then we created an additional frame which support a handmade gas tank, airbox, exhaust, mufflers, headlight and a red leather seat. Shock are prepared specially for the rider and an enduro use. We also put a lithium battery ans a lot of part are engrave with the name of the pilot, with our brand « Le motographe » and the yamaha logo. We also engraved « the sound and the fury on the exhaust and all the regular inspection and instructions recommander by Yamaha directly on the gas tank, just under the seat, then its easy to take care of that bike as it should be.

• Does the bike have a nickname?

That bike dont really have a nickname, this is the 450 V1 enduro, we could call it « skeleton » I guess. Then the supermoto is the « skeleton V2 » 

• How would you classify this bike? (Cafe racer, street tracker, scrambler, brat, bobber,

streetfighter, restomod, etc.) I think that bike is out to those categories because nobody customize real efficient enduro bikes, but it could be like an « extrem scrambler » with real offroad capacities. 108kg with all fluids in (gas, oil and water) for 55hp on the rear wheel.

• Was there anything done during this build that you are particularly proud of?

Probably the all project, the design is made to be insane and efficient at the same time, every welds are really clean and well done and every parts are unique. Every materials are very good quality and the sound is like a beast. I think we are proud about the concept that bring a new vision of custom bikes.

Photo by Guillaume Ducasse Photography | Facebook 

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