The French have an interesting phrase for an unconventionally attractive woman: jolie laide. The English equivalent would be “pretty ugly,” but the ambiguity of the French meaning is lost in the translation.
The phrase sprung to my mind when I first saw this BMW, a 1978 R100/7 that lay in bits and pieces in a garage for years. Restored and running again, it’s far from beautiful—but it has a transfixing quality that would stop the traffic even in blasé Paris. Read More
I’ve always been fascinated by the Rokon Trail-Breaker. It’s got charmingly oddball looks, and it’s two-wheel drive. But there’s a surprising dearth of information about these curiosities on the interwebs. So I was overjoyed when Robert Galbraith of Rochester, Minnesota, emailed me with images of his own Rokon.
Galbraith’s interest in Rokon was piqued in the mid-90s after he read an article in the Old Bike Journal. “Like many others, I had occasionally seen pictures of the Trail-Breaker in motorcycle magazines when I was younger—but gave them very little thought. I was amazed to find that the machines are still being made today.” Galbraith promptly bought himself a new 1996 Trail-Breaker. Read More
The first incarnation of the Multistrada was an awkward machine. But this unusual custom has transformed Ducati’s ugly duckling into a swan. It’s called “Biuta” and it was created by Carlo Roscio of Pavi, a town in Lombardy some 35 kilometers south of Milan.
With the help of his brother, Carlo has built a mongrel of a machine. The suspension is Honda-spec Öhlins all round—with forks from a VTR1000 SP-2, and shocks from an unspecified CBR. The headlight is from a Yamaha MT-03, and the tail is modeled on the Aprilia RSV unit, recreated using carbon fiber. Read More
It was only a matter of time before the nascent custom motorcycle industry started to blossom in China. We already have Bandit9: now here’s another recent start-up, Black Bridge.
Black Bridge is the nom de plume of Beijing-based Adrien Macera. Macera has been tinkering with motorcycles for as long as he can remember, but this Honda CB400 is his first commercial build. “The bike was for a friend who owns a bunch of restaurants in Beijing,” says Adrien. “We normally ride on trackdays with a group of friends. But for this project, he asked if I could build a smaller-capacity cafe racer, for commuting around town.” Read More
Early Japanese superbikes seem to get more appealing as the years go by. The Honda CB750 is still going strong, and so is Kawasaki’s KZ series. This classy, understated KZ1000 is the work of London’s Untitled Motorcycles, and it’s owned by Anthony van Someren of the UK website the Bike Shed.
“My Ducati became more and more customized and pretty, and less appropriate for my daily five-mile commute into the West End,” Anthony says. “I needed a second bike. Something that would balance bullet-proof reliability with custom looks.” Read More
The Triumph Scrambler must be one of the hardest bikes to customize. Along with Moto Guzzi’s current V7 and the Kawasaki W800, it’s one of the few production machines that have a retro-slash-custom feel right from the start. This hasn’t deterred the Triumph Tridays team though. The Rumbler accentuates the Scrambler’s classic good looks, and cranks the performance up a notch. Read More
The small German town of Zschopau is famous for its motorcycling heritage. It was home to DKW and MZ, marques whose luminosity has dimmed in recent decades. But there’s now a chance that Zschopau could return to its motorcycling glory days. This is a prototype from a new company called ZPmoto; it’s a vintage-styled enduro inspired by the 1960 MZ ES 250 Geländesport. Read More
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