AKA-TOMBO. Deus Indonesia's YardBuilt Yamaha XSR155

Yamaha’s Yardbuilt isn’t new but it wasn’t until the release of the XSR 155 that it moved into Indonesia.

The Deus Ex Machina Temple of Enthusiasm’s Bengkel (‘Bengkel’ is Workshop in Indonesian), was chosen as one of four Bali based ‘Bengkels’ to show what could be teased out of the very street looking donor bike. Yamaha gave us two stipulations on the build. Don’t touch the Delta frame and don’t touch the engine. The rest, as you can see, was fair game.

The final design reflects the true usage of what we ask of our bikes, what we do day in and day out. They needed to carry us to the beach for a pre-work surf. Head home after, strip off the racks and then head back into the office. Nights we might pull on some trousers, a collared shirt and head into town for a dinner for two.

The great thing about this build was that it was a true team design effort. No one of us input more than the others. Good ideas heard with the best ones used. Iqbal was the keeper of the multilayered Photoshop file that he worked tirelessly on. Ano wanted to add in a pipe lattice look to the swing arm. Arthur was super keen to get a headlamp cowl on. Something that grabbed onto the shocks, rounded sides, bulbous and round. The tail unit went through about ten different iterations, Dylan spent a huge amount of time mocking it up. All parts of what became the whole.

As a homage to the first bike Yamaha ever made back in 1955, the YA-1, we chose the name Aka-Tombo, Japanese for Red Dragonfly, we referenced it again when choosing the deep red for the body work. But that’s where the similarities stop. Our build is visually big and heavy, to juxtapose the small CC of the actual bike. It’s tall too, we went for upping the wheel size to 18” and dropping on a brutal set of Pirelli Scorpion Rallys to set a ride height over whatever Bali was ever going to throw in our way.

We removed most of what came standard. The fuel tank cover and fuel cell being front and centre of what to get rid of, add to that the stock seat, stock rear frame, the plastic side panels, fenders, bash plate, lights, as well as the overflow tank. 

Hand built metal body work, is something of an Indonesian national specialty, and as you can see, the Deus ‘Bengkel Boy’s’, Arwin & Koko, they are the real hero’s here, everything you see is hand forged, Stainless, Aluminium and even the cast resin in the tail light. Their tools are rudimentary, an English wheel and a big old block of Iron Wood that they hammer sheet ally out on. Everything was smashed out; fenders, front fork stone guards, the bash plate and radiator side covers, which are just one big piece. The shape of the cast swing arm was all wrong for what we were angling for, instead making a statement with the lattice made from stainless pipe.

Rather than lose all the niceties of the electronics that come standard, the stock speedo was lifted from where it once was in front of the handlebars and dropped down in front of the new Ally tank, in front of the bars cleaning up the head look. We also lifted the OEM fuel cap off to keep the key lock. Speaking of locks, there is a hidden key hole under the tail which pops the tan leather seat to give access to the battery and electronics, just one of their wonderful little details.

There was a bit of machine help in the build with the perforated side panels. After cutting the aluminium plates from carboard templates we sent them out to be CnC drilled before the plates were teased into their final shape, flowing from the subframe and tail into the delta frame below, finally folding the flanges and marrying them in for mounting.

The extra height meant we could sling an imported Supertrapp Shorty Exhaust in underneath, we were rewarded with a warm rich sound that is nowhere near offensive. We upped the lumens with a Daymaker LED headlight wrapped in a custom aluminum cowl, we added bar end front indicators onto the ends of the Ariete grips on Japanese Hurricane Street Tracker black handle bars opting to keep the OEM switches.

As the Delta Frame was a must keep from Yamaha’s side, we decided that should be our main identifier. Running a full text DEM logo as large as possible along both sides. Grey on silver. When it came to the tank we wanted references of the Aluminium to shine through and reversed out the Deus Piston of Power and the angled sides of the tanks knee recesses.

We chose to use Challenger Automotive paints on this project. Lunar Silver for the frame, Glistening Grey for the Deus Ex Machina logo along the Delta and a Mitsubishi P26 Red for the tank, fenders, headlight and so on. Rohin, our master painter also dropped a few coats of High Sheen clear across the top to seal the job.

We get to keep this bike here at the Deus Temple of Enthusiasm, Yamaha gave it to us as part of the deal. We can’t sell it, it just becomes one of our shop bikes. We knew that going in and it was another massive factor in the design process.

 So, you can see, this really is a bike built for us.

Full list of modifications

• Built in 2021.
• Custom sub frame.
• Custom hand built – alloy gas tank, alloy side covers, alloy head light housing, alloy fenders, alloy fork guards, alloy engine & radiator guard, alloy tracker tail, alloy wheel well with integrated seat lock.
• Custom stainless-steel swing arm.
• Custom cast LED tail light. Custom header + SuperTrapp “Shorty” exhaust.
• Hurricane handlebar.
• Ariete hand grips.
• 18” Sprint XD alloy rims.
• TK Racing spokes.
• VND billet alloy hubs.
• 140/80-18 Pirelli Scorpion Rally tyres.
• Upgraded rear sprocket.
• DayMaker LED head light.
• Removable surf racks

All photographs by Didit Prasetyo Adiwibowo