Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Reviews Cobra Unveils RS750 Tracker

Reviews Cobra Unveils RS750 Tracker


Joining the Scrambler and also built by Deny Berg, chief fabricator at Cobra's Special Projects Division, is the RS750 Tracker, the second concept based on the Honda Shadow RS that came to life from Cobra. Unlike the Scrambler, which evokes the CL77 Scrambler 305 from the 1960, the Tracker is the incarnation of the 1980s factory flat-track bikes that Ricky Graham and Bubba Shobert rode to race wins and season titles in the AMA Grand National Series.

According to Cobra, the RS750 Tracker took a bit more work than did the RS750 Scrambler. While the front part of the frame is mostly Honda, the rear half is all Berg.

For the Cobra Street Tracker, he drew inspiration from the flat track bikes Ricky Graham and Bubba Shobert rode to numerous victories in the 1980s. He kicked off the second project by chopping up the back end, cutting everything off the frame behind the swingarm. He did away with the dual shocks, reinforced the swingam with a brace and mounted a Progressive monoshock under the seat. Berg jacked up the back about 1.5-inches and lowered the front fork by an inch to give it a dirt tracker stance and steepen up the fork angle. To give it more go, a high-performance, forward facing air filter is mounted to the right side of the stock mill.

Working for Cobra, you’d expect the exhaust to be top-notch and Berg outdid himself with the custom ceramic-coated pipes he crafted for the Tracker. Just like the Scrambler, they were built from bins and welded together. He muted the sound with two 24-inch perforated core bafflers but the bike still rumbles with plenty of character. To add to its racing pedigree, he fashioned up a metal front numberplate with two small holes cut out for twin projector-beam headlamps. He used the stock RS tank but smoothed out the seams and grafted on an aircraft-type filler. In true dirt tracker fashion, the foot pegs are offset, with the left side raised up a bit over the right. The final piece to the puzzle is its NS750 Flat Tracker seat, with a few customizations by Kevin Lehan thrown in for good measure. “Chivo” again provided the paint to capture the period-correct look.

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