Last June, Abhi featured a Droog Moto bike built around a 2000 Suzuki Savage, and now that a year has gone by the Southwestern shop has another build for sale. The whole Mad Max/post apocalyptic-look isn’t for everyone, but if it is your thing then you’re probably going to love Droog’s latest project, dubbed “Moto3”. Built around a Yamaha 2015 FZ-09, this modern street scrambler has just finished making its rounds at prestigious events like Austin’s Handbuilt Show and LA’s OG Moto Show, and is now ready for a new home.
While the Moto3 isn’t the most off-road oriented build, Droog did more than just slap a semi-knobby set of Continental TKC80 tires onto the bike when increasing its performance potential in the dirt. The Yamaha received a two-inch suspension lift fore and aft to increase ground clearance (slightly bumping its travel up to 7.4” in front and 7.1” in back). A custom subframe and seat mount were also created before being capped off with a one-off black leather saddle. Custom side panels fill the space between the bottom of the seat and the bespoke subframe, and a custom-made high-mounted sliver of a front fender now sits beneath the build’s one-off, hand-built, tracker-style number plate housing the bikes aftermarket, street-legal, LED lighting.
While the build retains the FZ’s stock fuel-cell, Droog thoroughly reworked the factory tank, adding several paneled sections, smoothing out the areas previously covered by plastic bodywork, and adorning the tank in the shop’s trademark, weathered, post apocalyptic finish. A bespoke radiator cover was also cooked up for the project, and the custom handlebars were designed and built in house by Droog prior to being wrapped in a set of Biltwell grips. The stock bike’s instrumentation’s off-set location was repositioned to the middle, now resting just behind the one-off front number plate. A small engraved metal plaque is fixed to the back of the display, reading: “NOT LIKE THE OTHERS”.
The FZ’s wheels were given custom solid inserts — a design choice that has seemingly made a major resurgence as of late. The Yamaha’s stock muffler was jettisoned in favor of a shorty-style carbon fiber slip-on unit, and an aftermarket air-filter was also thrown into the mix. Because the 847cc crossplane inline three is already such a capable machine, Droog opted to leave the FZ’s engine untouched aside from the carbon fiber slip-on and new filter.
Founded in 2016 by husband and wife Max and Erica Droog, the Arizona-based shop is a fairly recent addition to the customs scene though it has already received a decent amount of recognition, and rightfully so. Droog’s work has been featured on big name sites like Silodrome, Motor1, BikeExif, and HiConsumption, and as previously mentioned Droog’s work has graced a myriad of high-profile customs shows. I personally really dig Droog Moto’s stuff, but like Classified Moto, Droog’s builds all carry a really similar visual theme. I know this is Droog’s signature aesthetic, but based on how cool customs like the Moto3 are, I’d love to see Max and Erica design another type of build with a theme other than post apocalyptic as I bet it’d kick ass.
Photo by Tim Huber
According to the ad, the purchase price for the bike includes free US shipping to “your nearest port for pickup”. The Yamaha is currently registered for the road and has a clean title. I got a chance to see this bike in person at the 2018 Outlier’s Guild Motorcycle Show and it really is a pretty awesome build. For anyone interested, Droog Moto builds custom bikes for private clients starting at around $15K. For more visuals you can click here to check out the Droog Moto website or you can check out this video the shop put together for the build:
You can find Droog Moto’s 2015 Yamaha FZ-09-based “Moto3” custom for sale here on Craigslist in Bellingham, Washington with a price of $17,500.