Speed Read, 9 May 2021
This week’s custom motorcycles come in all shapes and sizes—from a pint-sized flat tracker, to a stylish BMW R18. Plus we take a look at a tidy BSA bobber, and a Norton Atlas with a Harley-Davidson WLA motor.
Read more »Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson is an icon of American culture and the most popular marque for custom builders. Shortly after the company was founded in 1903 in Milwaukee, customizers started bobbing, chopping and dirt tracking the famous V-twins.
After WW2 Harley motorcycles were at the center of the bobber craze, and kept their lead as Californian bikers turned to choppers in the late 1950s. The 45-degree engines have their own nicknames and folklore: from flatheads, knuckleheads, panheads and shovelheads to today’s Evolution and Milwaukee-Eight motors.
The Sportster is the basis for more Harley-Davidson customs than any other model. Originally fitted with an ‘Ironhead’ motor, it turned 60 years old in 2017. It’s probably the single most customized motorcycle on the planet, and certainly has the largest supply of aftermarket parts.
Speed Read, 2 May 2021
This week we’ve got a smokin’ hot XSR155 in John Player colors from West Java, Harley’s cool and classy Electra Glide Revival, and a Moto Guzzi eBay bargain. Plus a brief appreciation of Dick ‘Bugsy’ Mann, who passed away last Monday.
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Review: Riding the new Harley-Davidson Pan America
“I got to say, you’re looking older.”—Ellis “I am older.”—Sheriff Ed Tom Bell Amongst my Rushmore of cherished films, No Country For Old Men anoints the viewer with myriad lyrical gems and witticisms. The above exchange percolated to the front when, not five minutes into my arrival at Harley-Davidson’s press launch of their new Pan…
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Hidemo Style: A 1970s Shovelhead from one of Japan’s best
The Japanese custom scene sets rather than follows trends. Japan’s top builders each have a unique and instantly recognizable style, and the machines they produce are usually hard to pigeonhole. This 1970 Harley-Davidson FLH Shovelhead from Hideya Togashi of Hide Motorcycle (that’s ‘Hee-day’) illustrates my point beautifully. Togashi-san’s client simply asked him to build a…
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History repeats itself: A Canadian XR750 returns home
Most of the customs we drool over on these pages have little or no history. They’re usually modified after a few mundane…
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Speed Read, 28 February 2021
If you’re a fan of Japanese inline fours, this is your week. We’ve lined up Kawasaki GPz1100 and Kawasaki KZ1000 restomods, and…
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Bruiser: A Harley Softail drag bike from Belgium
We’ve followed the wacky Sultans of Sprint race series since day one, impressed by the outrageous purpose-built machines that some of our…
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Umbra: Crooked’s Harley tracker is straight-up goodness
Crooked Motorcycles is a name worth watching on the custom scene in Europe. Just a couple of months ago, they impressed us…
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Obsidian Fighter: A Frisco-ed Sportster from Rough Crafts
Even though there’s been no official word from The Motor Co., it looks as if the venerable Harley-Davidson Sportster is slowly fizzling…
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Salt Flat Dreams: MB Cycles’ S&S-powered Softail
Over the past fifteen years, Martin Becker of MB Cycles has carved out a reputation as one of the best custom Harley…
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Clean Green: A Czech H-D Sportster cafe racer
Even though they require similar skills, the custom motorcycle and car worlds are vastly different. But they do sometimes meet. In the…
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Add Lightness: A wild Softail street tracker from SMCO
Suicide Machine Company build machines that go fast and turn well. Brothers Aaron and Shaun Guardado have a taste for speed, and…
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