Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Vintage 032
Sunday, October 26, 2014
BMW K100LT ‘Old Brick’
I probably have an unhealthy attraction to ratbikes! It’s a genetic defect, I believe, and draws me to these abominations like a moth to an industrial sized bug zapper. I would take this beast to a concours d’elegance just to ruffle some feathers! Yeah, the lack of a muffler would get old, quick, (Now for the exhausts... Don't worry there are not "ear bleeding" but if you like the sound of a WWII Messerschmitt then the bikes for you! They have been made to a high standard with baffling deep in the tubes. Yes they do spit some flames at night but it will clear your leg. Great winter warmer... Is how the builder summed them up!) but otherwise I’d park her in my stable!
How could you not love this thing, especially when the Ebay seller promotes her like this…Treat yourself, treat your wife, treat someone else's wife. Either way, this slice of fried gold could be on your driveway.
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Sjakk Lucassen’s Snow Yamaha
It’s coming, and there’s no denying it. Winter, that time when, if you live where the mercury drops down below the 40’s, you hook up the trickle charger to your battery and let your mount take a long nap. The lucky ones in nicer climes don’t have that problem, and apparently neither does Sjakk Lucassen. He’s the mad genius behind this Yamaha snow machine. Apparently he does this all the time, crazy bastard, but it proves you don’t have to let the snow stop you. Well, it stops me, but then I’m not loony enough to go riding in it!
Biker Chick 075
Friday, October 24, 2014
Consuela By TPJ Customs
When I first saw pictures of this bike I thought it was a Photoshop mockup. Minimalism has been taken to the extreme, with nary a wire showing just about anywhere. While it’s not a daily driver, so to speak, it does make a very satisfying impression, and fits the theory of less is more!
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Donald Calder’s Honda Cafe
I’m not completely sure that Donald Calder is the builder, he just posted the pictures on his Google+ page, but we’ll go with it for now. There’s a lot of custom work here, and the bike looks very polished and complete, almost like it’s a factory model. The carburetors are intriguing, as it looks like there’s only two feeding four cylinders, but I could be wrong.
Public Service Announcement
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Saving Grace By Saint Motorbikes
While this bike borders on being a chopper, it’s close enough to a bobber for me! Triumph’s engines always look great, and fit this build nicely. Even the babyshit green paint works, wonder of wonders! Vintage car tires make for a very aggressive look, not sure how bad they affect the handling, but it has to be significant when leaned into turns! Bah, this is more of a show bike than anything else, anyways.
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Curtis’ Honda CB360
Made by Scott Toepfer’s friend Curtis, this build has a bit of a back story that’s a bit, well, strange. reading the BikeEXIF article on it, you get the impression that Curtis took a grinder to the bike, and this was the happy result. There’s a little more to it than that, with a custom seat, some welding and painting of the rear frame, custom throttle, nicely hidden electrics, and such. yes, she has a very rough and ready demeanor, but there’s a lot more going on here than the story says!
Those Were The Days 031
Monday, October 20, 2014
Hammarhead Moto Guzzi V7 Wayward
Yeah, this is pretty much just a Moto Guzzi V7 reduced to it’s bare essentials. There is nothing ground breaking, and she even comes with a nostalgic story about “a trip to Southeast Asia, I rode a beat up Honda XL185 for a few weeks. Traveling light with only a daypack and not much of a plan, I found myself back in the game. I began thinking about a Hammarhead bike that could excel at the urban commute—and also break free for fast and light travel.” No, I don’t see the soul of a beat up XL185 in this build either, but apparently every bike has to hearken back to your biking beginnings to be significant (and sellable!).
What I see when gazing upon this Guzzi is steel. Raw, naked, bare to the wind and rain and sun, and that makes me smile. Steel, unlike plastic, has character and depth. It’s strong yet flexible, durable but vulnerable, and has a heft to it that plastics and composites just can’t match. I look at the gas tank, and I see more than just a vessel to hold liquid dinosaur. I see the history of steel: blacksmiths and miners and steel mills, tremendously tall smokestacks belching out billowing smoke, the acrid smell and taste of steel in the air. Steel from a blue-collar perspective, with all the positives and negatives left in, not whitewashed for some false sense of “authenticity”.
It’s probably not what Hammarhead intended, but it’s what I envision when I look at this Guzzi. To each their own!