Portugal-based workshop Holy Moly Motorcycles has returned to its custom-building roots with a stunning retro-inspired creation dubbed the “XT700.”
Designed to explore what a modern Yamaha XT500 might look like if built on today’s hardware, the project uses a Yamaha Ténéré 700 as its donor platform.
A Cooler T7, You Will Not Find
The workshop’s founders wanted to strip away the bulky bodywork and rally-bike complexity of the standard T7, aiming for the nimble, dual-sport philosophy of Yamaha’s classic 1970s icon.
Visually, almost every piece of stock bodywork has been replaced by in-house engineered components.
The build features a tight 10-litre fuel tank, side covers, front and rear guards, and a long flat seat that heavily borrows from the original XT500 aesthetic.
Up front, the tall rally navigation tower was swapped out for a clean round headlight supported by MADWORKS fabrication and a minimalist speedometer.
Beneath the vintage exterior, Holy Moly retained modern performance architecture while drastically cutting weight.
Through careful component swapping, the finished XT700 tips the scales at a remarkably light 175 kg while remaining fully street-legal.
The bike rides on high-end Tractive Suspension, Excel rims laced to Haan hubs, and aggressive block-pattern tires. Powered by Yamaha’s reliable 689cc CP2 parallel-twin engine, the machine received a serious performance bump.
A custom ECU map, a high-flow Boost airbox, and a bespoke MADWORKS high-mounted exhaust push output past 85 horsepower.Shorter final-drive gearing was also added to maximize acceleration.
Proving it is far more than just a showpiece, Holy Moly debuted the bike at Wheels & Waves and raced it up Punk’s Peak, securing a third-place finish against much larger competition.
