Minus the mid-century innovations by Yamaha, Honda, and Suzuki, one could argue that motorcycling might be a lost art today. With their small engines, low profiles, and street-rider stances, these lightweight hallmarks of design give new riders all over the world a way into the fray, and experienced riders the perfect minimal ride.
These days, Yamaha motorcycles are at the core of the custom scene. They offer the perfect platforms for stylish urban rides with cheap price tags.
Models like the Yamaha XS650, SR400, XSR700 and XSR900 are among a legendary line of Yamaha motorcycles that beg to be turned into café racers, bobbers and trackers—and they fill our galleries of great builds.
North East Custom have never been bound to one style. We’ve already seen the Italian outfit build cafe racers and street trackers—but they seem to have the most fun when they’re building scramblers. That’s because brothers Diego and Riccardo ‘Riki’ Coppiello are passionate dirt bikers. When I met them at the Italian Wildays festival a…
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A Yamaha Virago with Ducati superbike suspension from the US, a stripped down Ducati 1198S Corse from France, a Norton Commando from Japan, and a very sporty Sportster Roadster from Spain.
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A show stopping Yamaha GTS 1000 from Italy, a neo-retro Yamaha XT250 from Australia, and a very slick body kit for the BMW R nineT from France.
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Eastern Spirit Garage have mastered the art of building cafe racers. They nailed the formula when they broke onto the scene seven years ago—and have produced consistently good results since. But the Polish shop likes to break the mold once in a while, by deviating from their hallmark genre. Because, as shop boss Sylwester puts…
Read more »In the mid 70s, the Yamaha RD 200 delivered more fun than a small capacity motorcycle had any right to. A compact…
Read more »Did you know that the evergreen Yamaha XS650 was launched over half a century ago? Although the production line closed down in…
Read more »Building a competitive flat track racer is downright scientific. Countless factors like weight, geometry, power delivery and gearing all have to be…
Read more »It’s always the hardest article to write, but also the most fascinating to research. Our annual roundup of the most popular customs…
Read more »We’ve seen some truly out-the-box builds come from K-Speed. They’ve done everything from Honda Monkey cafe racers to a Yamaha XSR155 that…
Read more »We love customs that have that ‘well sorted’ look—where you get the impression that everything is in the right place, it all…
Read more »Olivier Ortolani has a flair for the dramatic. This is a guy who once wrapped a Ducati Panigale 1199 S in hand-shaped…
Read more »Lots of people build a bike with the sole purpose of thrashing it. But it’s usually a ‘beater,’ with very little time…
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