After Walt Siegl moved from Austria to New York in 1985, he built motorcycles as a hobby. Three years ago, he moved his workshop and his family to an old mill town in southern New Hampshire to build motorcycles full time, and he’s quickly made a name for himself as an old-school craftsman. (After all, how many builders have made it into both the Wall Street Journal and DicE magazine?) For his latest bike, Walt has mixed his retro influences with a very contemporary café racer look. The MotoBe XLX is minimal and monochromatic, built around the 60 ci motor from an ’83 Harley Sportster. The Sportster also donated the frame downtubes, motor mounts and neck—on which the VIN number is mounted—but Walt has used chromoly steel tubing for the rest of the frame, making it much lighter than stock. He’s also lowered the front forks 35 mm, hooked them up to a custom-made upper tree, and fitted Progressive springs. The bars are custom clip-ons, fitted with Magura controls and sitting behind a custom headlight assembly. And that striking bodywork—including the gas tank, oil tank, fenders and seat—was all crafted by Walt himself, to his usual superlative standards. Check out the Walt Siegl Motorcycles website for more pictures of the MotoBe XLX and a gallery of his delectable earlier creations. [Images by Eric Ahlquist Photography.]

PS: The Bike EXIF Archives are now up and running, with a complete listing of all 450+ motorcycles we’ve featured since December 2008. You can access them here, or via the tab at the very top of every page. Just make sure you have a comfortable chair, a drink to hand, and a good amount of time to spare …