Co-incidence - a funny thing you know. After trying to get an agreed value for my Kat on the insurance I was requested to get an independent valuation. Unfortunately my local motorcycle centre was closed so I shot on down to Planet Moto in Whitehill Hants. I walked up to the only free salesman and asked about having a valuation done. He asked what I had and after telling him it was a Katana he swiftly pointed to the wall or more specifically at a picture of a heavily modded Katana - "That's mine" he said.

Carl Simons is in the enviable position of being within the trade so not only does he own a very smart Katana but he also gets to play around with and talk about bikes all day. Planet Moto specialise in more modern machinery and also those little Swatch Smart cars - you know the ones, look like half a Mercedes A-Class and can park on a coin.

Anyway, recently Carl had been having discussions with his mates along the lines of:
Mate: "I saw you today down the A325"
Carl: "No you didn't; I haven't been out all day"
Mate: "But I saw a silver Katana all tarted up with polished bits"
Carl: "Wasn't me."

Turns out that for a little while now I have been doing a passable impression of Carl on the road even though our bikes are actually strikingly different. Long ago Carl decided that the original Kat engine was starting to show its age a bit and chose to put a GSX-R11 unit in rather than renovating the old lump. Having gone down the latter route myself I can see a major financial benefit in going this way. One of the big problems with putting an R motor in the Kat frame is size or rather lack of it. Modern motors are seriously smaller than the original UJM lumps and getting even smaller with the likes of the R1 and its stacked gearbox. Carl had two choices: either put the motor forward and run a long slack chain, or push the engine back closer to the swing arm spindle and increase the length of the header pipes. Choosing option 2, Carl bagged the lot up and posted it off to Martek in Cleethorpes. Some undefined time later his package was returned. There had been one unforeseen side effect of lengthening the headers, the pipe had dropped at the front and was perilously close to hitting the deck. The only real option for Carl is to have a one-off pipe made by the likes of MHP in Chertsey, which he hopes to get done this year.

With the motor sorted Carl turned his attention to the rest of the bike. Early GSX-R running gear was inserted in either end with Ohlins shocks and Pretech calipers. The 1100H forks have been modified to remove the automatic anti-dive system. One of the most stiking items on the bike is the Z650 tail unit that has been choped and widened by 2" then nicely blended with the modified seat unit. The original Katana clocks have been replaced with yet more GSX-R parts, the top yoke given a high bar conversion and Raask rearsets now replace the original footrests.

I think you'll agree that Carl has managed to create a unique and striking motorcycle that will no doubt continue to develop and evolve over the coming months and years.