Cardsharper Customs is a shop in Lublin, Poland first founded in 2012 that seemingly specializes in professional-grade large-displacement cafe racers and bobbers. While hundreds of other reputable customs shops are also building cafe bikes, the folks at Cardsharper do phenomenal work with their bikes often featuring ample handmade custom bodywork. Pipeburn featured a ridiculously cool 1975 Honda Gold Wing cafe build entitled “Cestus”, that the Polish shop featuring custom handmade air intakes that blend into the rest of the stylish bespoke bodywork. The fit and finish on Cardsharper Customs’ bikes is top-notch and their machines not only look aggressive and sporty, but always boast the necessary component upgrades to actually walk the walk (so to speak). This particular 1982 Yamaha Virago XV750 cafe build entitled “Rouge One” was one of two similar Viragos Cardsharper built in tandem, and luckily, the cooler one is for sale.
After bringing the ’82 Yamaha to the shop it was stripped down to the frame, where said frame was then altered and a new bespoke subframe was created. In its stock form, the Virago has dual rear shocks, so the chassis had to be modified to accept a monoshock unit. Up front the Virago 750’s stock fork was chucked out and a new upside-down fork (that appears to be from a GSXR) was swapped in its place. Rear-sets and clip-ons were also added to give the Rouge One a much more aggressive riding position. A pair of oversized pod-style intakes were tacked on as well, one on either side facing near-opposite directions. A new one-off handmade exhaust was also fabbed-up, with routing leading to (what I’ll call) a belly pan, and then protruding out and running halfway-back along the right side of the back.
A gorgeous handmade metal tail-section was created that sees the subframe run along and stick out from the sides of tail, while custom LED tail/brake/turn-signals are also housed inside said tail-section. The fuel-cell was also a handmade one-off unit that works wonderfully with the tail and front cowl which drapes around a trick quad-bulb LED headlight. The aforementioned front cowl resembles a traditional cafe-cowl, but has a sleek modern twist. The use of multiple shades of matte grey looks fantastic, as does the “Garage Manufactured Yamaha XV750” script written in negative space on the tank. Yellow highlights outline the tank and bodywork, completing the professional paint digs. The entire frame, subframe, and swing-arm are all adorned in flat powder-coating which matches the rest of the matte livery on the Rouge One.
A new digital display fits neatly behind the one-off front cowl, keeping the “cockpit” particularly tidy. An individual bar-end mirror hangs from the end of the left clip-on while a Rizoma reservoir sits atop the right clip-on where it mounts to the fork. Micro-LED indicators stick out on either side below the headlight, and a Nissin front caliper was added to give the custom Virago a little more bite, as were Barracuda brake pads. This is obviously a good looking build, but it appears to also boast some decent performance thanks to its components upgrades. Both of CardSharper’s Virago builds were actually featured in some advertisement for the company Shima.
There are so many subtle details on the Rouge One that it doesn’t come as much of a surprise to hear this custom Virago took over two years to complete. The Japanese V-twin engine was broken down and rebuilt, and the electrical system was also redone to accommodate the new instrumentation and LED lighting found throughout. According to Cardsharper, the last three months of this build were spent making minor tweaks and adjustments, ensuring everything would be just right. The use of a Rizoma brake reservoir is admittedly not a big deal, but it does tell me that the guys at Cardsharper genuinely do scrutinize even the less substantial aspects of their builds.
You can find the Rouge One 1982 Yamaha Virago XV750 cafe build for sale here on TheBikeShed in Kalisz, Poland with a price of $14,550.