MOTO 12.5: A Miniature Urban Brawler
Max and Erica Droog, the husband/wife team behind Droog Moto, are known for building a signature line of post-apocalyptic streetfighters, scramblers, and desert sleds. Earlier this year, we featured their Ninja 650 urban brawler, MOTO 12, which sold to a customer with a young son. Now we’re thrilled to feature the next chapter in the story, MOTO 12.5 — a Honda Z50R “mini brawler” built for the owner’s son!
The concept was to echo the Ninja 650 build as much as possible. Droog Moto opted for a Honda Z50R as the donor bike. The Z50R was a lighter-weight iteration of the beloved Honda Z50 monkey bike, more track-oriented than previous models. Debuting in 1979, this “sportier” evolution of the popular minibike had BMX handlebars, a new tank and seat, and the 50cc four-stroke engine from Honda’s Z series of monkey bikes.
Droog Moto has succeeded in transforming this Z50 into a miniature version of their Ninja 650 brawler — part scrambler, part streetfighter, all beast — a 50cc “mini brawler” built for the ultimate father/son moto experience! Below, we get the story on the build.
Custom Honda Z50 Brawler: In the Builder’s Words
We will start with MOTO 12.5
We recently sold our MOTO 12 to a super rad customer who was all about the Droog Moto look. After taking possession of MOTO 12 he reached back out to us and wanted to have a mini bike built for his son! We’ve never considered a Honda Z50r as a donor bike but we found one close to us and quickly got to work!
We wanted it to mimic MOTO 12 as much as possible. We designed and built a tracker plate to match along with the handmade aluminum wheel inserts. The Mini Brawler was given our signature tank treatment and we built a custom seat to flow with the lines. The rear shocks were swapped out with ones that could handle untamed terrain and the front forks were also gone through as well.
New handlebars were put in place along with new cables and lines. The bike needed to be gone through top to bottom as it had been sitting for a long time. All the electronics were replaced and we made sure this bike was ready to wreak havoc on the neighborhood. The Mini Brawler was by far one of our most fun builds and we are so glad the these two get to ride these brawlers together!
M & E
Droog Moto
www.droogmoto.com
Follow the Builder
- Facebook: @droogmoto
- Instagram: @droogmoto
- Web: DroogMoto.com
Honda Z50R “Mini Brawler” by Droog Moto - MOTO 12.5: A Miniature Urban Brawler Max and Erica Droog, the husband/wife team behind Droog Moto, are known for building a signature line of post-apocalyptic streetfighters, scramblers, and desert sleds. Earlier this year, we featured […]
Kawasaki Ninja 650 Custom by Droog Moto - From staid sportbike to urban brawler… The Kawasaki Ninja 650 is one of the most reliable, well-rounded middleweights on the market. While the bike’s 71-hp parallel twin and low center-of-gravity are hard to beat, the […]
Yamaha FZ-09 Street Tracker by Droog Moto - Arizona’s Droog Moto has quickly established their own rough-and-ready style, building post-apocalyptic desert sleds that put the “wild” back in the Wild West. Now the husband/wife team of Max and Erica Droog is back with […]
Suzuki SV650 Brat Tracker by Droog Moto - Moto 11 from Droog Moto has emerged from the den, and she’s one burly beast. This time, Max and Erica Droog chose a late-model Suzuki SV650 with the trellis-style frame. The SV650 is one […]
Honda XR600R Scrambler by Droog Moto - The husband and wife team of Droog Moto has been steadily turning out a stable’s worth of signature builds. While the donor platforms vary, the Droog Moto style has become unmistakable — raw, burly builds […]
Honda CB650 Nighthawk Scrambler - The husband/wife team of Droog Moto has become one of our favorite builders. Their bikes are burly, raw, knobby-tired machines built to blast down fire roads and tackle the daily commute. These are not the […]
Suzuki Savage Scrambler by Droog Moto - Max and Erica Droog — the husband and wife team behind Droog Moto — have quickly become one of our favorite builders. Their signature style seems to fuse the desert sled heritage of the American […]
Honda CX500 Scrambler by Droog Moto - The husband/wife team behind Droog Moto has quickly established a signature style, building post-apocalyptic trackers, scramblers, and desert sleds that Mad Max would love. Recently, Max and Erica Droog moved from scorching Arizona to Washington […]
Kawasaki KLR650 Tracker by Droog Moto - Droog Moto is a husband/wife team out of Phoenix who build some of the baddest, post-apocalyptic desert sleds ever to chase rattlesnakes and jump curbs. It was only a matter of time before the duo took on a KLR650 build. This one they are calling their KLR650 Trackster, and she's a desert-burning doozy.
Kawasaki KZ750 Brat Tracker by Droog Moto Concepts - Only a handful of the world’s builders have an unmistakable style, allowing you to identify one of their builds at a glance. Droog Moto Concepts, run by the husband/wife team of Max and Erica Droog, […]
KTM 690 Duke Scramblers by Droog Moto Concepts - Max Droog of Arizona’s Droog Moto Concepts has been turning out some of the meanest scramblers ever to jump a curb or burn down a backroad. Now he’s back with a pair of KTM 690 […]
Honda XR500 Scrambler by Droog Moto Concepts - Max Droog of Droog Moto Concepts, based in Phoenix, has been turning out some incredible builds. Recently we featured his CM400 scrambler build, and now he’s back with this burly scrambler based on an ’81 […]
Honda CM400 Scrambler by Droog Moto Concepts - The Honda CM400 was an air-cooled parallel twin available from 1979 to 1982. It was a precursor to the Rebel, and known as a particularly bulletproof starter bike. Max Droog of Phoenix’s Droog Moto Concepts […]Source...
