Saturday 13th March, 2010
The Japanese motorcycle most commonly associated with café racer conversions is the ubiquitous Honda CB750. But we haven’t seen anything like this one before. It’s raw and different, with a rough ‘n’ ready look that strangely works. It was built by the Alabama shop Garage Company Customs—not to be confused with Yoshinobu Kosaka’s Garage Company [...]
When I first saw this sensational street tracker-styled Kawasaki W650, I thought it was from a Tokyo custom shop. But I was 3,000 km off the mark: this is a Taiwanese bike. It’s 2002 model customized by Qing Chen, editor of the slick Taipei-based magazine Free Biker. After tracking down Qing, more details emerged. Power [...]
Thirty years ago, if you were looking for a powerful motorcycle to take you from one end of continental Europe to the other, the Moto Guzzi 1000 SP would be near the top of your list. It wasn’t the best-looking bike to roll out of the Mandello del Lario factory. But it did have a [...]
James Roper-Caldbeck doesn’t churn out bikes by the dozen. So when a new one rolls out of his Copenhagen, Denmark shop, it’s invariably worth a close look. And this lean green Harley-Davidson bobber is a curious mix of components that work well together. You’re looking at a 1937 flathead engine and gearbox, sitting in a [...]
Uli Brée, the organizer of the huge Triumph Tridays event in Austria, dropped us a line with details of his personal bike. As you might expect, it’s impressive. Brée bought the bike in 2005 and then set about turning it into the ultimate custom Thunderbird Sport, which he calls the TBS-Tridays. Here’s how he did [...]
Wednesday 3rd March, 2010
There are literally hundreds of custom motorcycle builders in Japan. They flourish in a climate created by the stringent taxation of new motorcycles, plus the relentless desire of riders for customization and one-upmanship. Over the years, a small handful of shops have risen to the top of the premier league, and one of those outfits [...]
Every few months, a vintage motorcycle comes along that literally stops me in my tracks—a machine so sculptural and beautiful, it would almost be criminal to subject it to the rigors of the open road. It happened three months ago when pre-release images of the French “CP Project #1″ Triton arrived in my inbox. And [...]
Saturday 27th February, 2010
Marcus Walz of German custom builder Hardcore Cycles is not the shy and retiring type, and neither are his customers, it would seem. This latest bike—the Veyron China 1, to give it its full name—was delivered just before Christmas to a Chinese businessman in Hong Kong. According to Hockenheim-based Walz, “18 months ago, the client [...]
Thursday 25th February, 2010
Triumph has used the Thunderbird moniker for four completely different motorcycles since WWII. The first appeared in 1949—predating Ford’s use of the name—and became famous as the bike Brando rode in The Wild Ones. Then came the short-lived TR65 from the early 80s, a machine that died when the Meridian factory closed. The bike you’re [...]
