In 1665 a certain apple was fortunate enough to fall onto a certain gentleman’s head and it obviously knocked some sense into him because 25 years later Sir Isaac Newton had not only formulated the universal laws of gravity but had gone on to invent calculus and a revolutionary new design which even today still forms the basis of all large optical telescopes. He managed to achieve all this at a time when your average Briton was worrying about what the kid with the matches was doing down Pudding Lane and trying to figure out how to avoid the plague .

Another man who has trodden a long and lonely path is the owner of this stunning Katana – Bart van Venrooy. I first came across Bart when an e-mail landed in my inbox in early 1998. As the owner of the Katana Specials web site I get my fair share of "I’m just building" e-mails so I provided the usual polite response and got on with life. A year or so later Bart was in touch again but this time to show me the fruits for his labour which you can see in the pictures. As part of the Mechanical Engineering team at the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes on La Palma for the last five years, Bart has had to do all the engineering, welding, fitting, finishing and design work himself. On an island of just 706 square kilometers with a population of just 80,000 you can imagine competent performance shops can be counted on the fingers of the average local dolphin.

The bike you see here was born as a 750S to Dutch parents in 1982, however, a hard life of nearly 150,000 miles prompted a move to sunnier climes off the west coast of Africa in 1995 beginning a major programme of rejuvenation. First in was the VFR750 rear end. This required major surgery to widen and strengthen the frame at the swinging arm pivot. The suspension set-up does not allow for an adjustable ride height but it has been given an additional 50mm which allows the Kat to turn in exceptionally well yet maintain stability on the straights. The rest of the frame was left largely untouched except to remove the original footrest hangers and replace them with a Raask rear-sets which have been engraved with the Katana Logo. Having mono-shocked the frame Bart was then left with the age-old problem of where to put the battery. With the Katana tail unit being too small to house a battery Bart decided to do a bit of lateral thinking and built himself a combined splashguard and battery box out of Sheffield’s finest stainless.

Whilst the big one was being inserted up the back the pointy end saw the addition of a complete GSX-R750WT front end. This was affixed by the simple step of machining the R spindle to match the Kat head bearings. A very trick one-off top yoke with a 30mm offset (again engraved with the Katana logo) was machined by Bart and pressed into action to keep the exhaust off the floor and hold the now less that stock clocks. Not being happy with the original clocks Bart had decided that a new billet face was required along with an electronic speedo. The speedo is actually just that ubiquitous item supplied by the local push bike merchant but re-housed along with an amazing set of internal levers to operate all the function buttons.

Even with the offset yokes the bike still rides low at the front so to stop it toppling off the side stand a new shorter item was fabricated. Not being happy just to have a side stand Bart scavenged a few old telescopes parts and continued to build himself a paddock stand for the single sided arm including all the bearings to allow him to spin the wheel. The paint set is still the one that had previously adorned the bike as not only does it look striking but it was also all his own work. The matching seat, previously re-covered by a guy in Assen, was also left well alone.

The motor is currently the standard 750 item which has been blasted and resprayed, external oil lines added on the head, K&N filters and polished cases. The motor also had to be mounted 10mm left and 6mm forward to give correct chain alignment and sufficient clearance for the VFR arm. Although the motor makes adequate power Bart doesn’t consider the 750 worth developing and will be looking to insert an 1100 motor he has waiting in the wings, hopefully along with a suitable turbo unit. An unfortunate miscalculation on the gearing of the 530 chain conversion left the Kat with a top speed of just 96mph or put another way it would be outpaced by a knackered 350LC. Hopefully this has all been sorted by the time you read this.

I’ve been incredibly impressed by what Bart has managed to achieve in a location that most of us would just have said "damn it" and got the sun lounger out. He has worked very hard, tapping into whatever knowledge he could find and come up with a result that would put many mainland specials to shame, obviously being able to do a turn with the welder and CNC machine helps a little.

Looking to the future, apart from the motor, other things on the "to be changed" list include the handlebars which limit riding to under 30 minutes (wuss). This is fine on a small island but not much use now Bart’s back in mainland Europe and wanting to cover a couple of thousand miles down to the Bol D’Or. The pipe, despite being a new and unmolested Harris, will probably be junked in favour of a bespoke high-rise unit now that he has access to professional pipe builders (seems there is something that he can’t do after all). And lastly some additional polishing and anodising. But lets face it specials are never really finished; just work in progress.