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Jennifer Englund (left) and Brit Shelstad (right) shot with the MotoGP werks Katana for the 2012 Fast Dates Calendar. Chris Redpath's's 1st Place Sportbike The 19th annual edition of Calendar Bike Building Championship of the 2010 LA Calendar Motorcycle Show Weekend again features many of the world's top Pro and Amateur street bike builders in attendance to compete in the Calendar Show Bike Building Championship with a bulging purse of $86,000 in cash and awards. There were a lot of cool custom built modern turbo Suzuki Hayabusa's at this year's Show in the Sportbike Class, but the winner turned out to be a 30 year old beauty that could probably still best them on a roadrace course! Chris Redpath, owner of MotoGPwerks In nearby Orange, CA, a sportbike tuning and repair shop, made his first visit as a competitor at the Calendar Show with this incredible 1981 Suzuki Katana that has been restored and retro mod ed to the max and went home a winner. You have to look closely at the bike to realize that Chris had used his involvement and contacts in World and National Championship motorcycle roadracing to upgrade this Katana well past what it was capable of some 30 years ago when it was first introduced as the best Superbike for its time. The modified Katana "Wes Cooley" is named after Yoshimura Suzuki's Wes Cooley who rode a Katana to the 1981 AMA Superbike Championship. And coincidently enough, I worked at Moto-X Fox/Fox Shox at the time and developed and tuned the Fox Shox on Cooley's Championship winning Katana! Now the Katana boasts White Power GP forks from a 1993 Yamaha YSR500, Harris triple clamps and swingarm, mono block 4-piston Brembo brakes, and current technology Works Performance twin shocks (unfortunately the incredible performing Fox Piggyback Twin Shox went out of production nearly 20 years ago when dual shock sportbikes changed to monoshock systems). What really brings it up into the 21st Century though, is it's modern day MotoGP telemetry with wheel speed sensors, suspension travel sensors and traction control. The engine is also pure race history, given to Chris by Don Sakakura, now President of Yoshimura R&D USA, the contracted National Superbike team for American Suzuki. Rather than the Katana's original GS 1100cc Big Block motor, this is a left over 1990s Kevin Schwantz era GSXR750 Superbike engine bored to 836cc with all the goodies including Yoshimura Cams and a Dry Clutch. Chris added modern Keihin FCR41 flatslide racing carburetors (the original magnesium Mikuni flatslides were long gone) and his own shop brewed MotoGPwerks Exhaust System.
Like this bike, Chris has an incredible history in the sport of motorcycle roadracing. Originally from New Zealand, Chris first went to work for the legendary John Britten in the early 1990s at Britten's home workshop, building the revolutionary Britten V-10 Superbike. When Britten brought his bike to Daytona to race and decimate in the Battle of the Twins class, Chris hooked up with Yoshimura R&D of America and Don Sakakura who was the team's team manager at the time and went to work there. Then a few years later it was off to Europe to work for a couple of Grand Prix teams, his source for some of the GP parts on this Katana. Chris later returned to Southern California and opened up his own sportbike tuning shop MotoGPwerks in Anaheim Hills. If you visit Chris' shop you'll get to see his extensive collection of some 43 sport racing bikes, many of them with Championship winning credentials. Now that "Wes Cooley's Katana" is finished and a Show winner, its time for Chris to move on to his next late night project. This will be building a brand new 1993 Britten from the ground up, using a spare engine that John Britten's wife recently gave him. Chris Redpath's Katana was photographed by Jim Gianatsis on Monday after this year's Show to also appear in the 2012 Fast Dates Racebike FastDates.com Calendars.
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