Tag: Design

In 1962, Kennedy was in the White House, Ray Charles was singing “I Can’t Stop Loving You” on the radio, and the Italian motorcycle company known for its high-performance racing machines premiered an on/off-road motorcycle for the American market. The Ducati Scrambler wasn’t the fastest bike on the track or gnarliest in the dirt, but it was fun, and in the age of Camelot, that was enough. Classic | 1969 Ducati 35

A completely bespoke vintage American V-twin takes center stage this week, built by the folks at Competition Distributing in the USA. Our list also includes a Suzuki GN400 bobber from Poland, a look at the new Indian Challenger Elite and Pursuit Elite, and the production-ready Trevor DTRe Vince electric scrambler.

I know, I know. I promised you wiring in this installment, and it’s been so long since you’ve seen anything about our Honda CB550 street tracker project that you forgot where we even left off. I could make some excuses, tell you I’ve been busy, but how about we skip all that and get to the point? While wiring is certainly the next big hurdle standing between us and riding off into the sunset, there was a boatload of fabrication and homework that needed to be done first. We needed to find homes for our electronics, affix our number plate and generally make a bunch of things actually function, and that needed to happen before I started worry

Jaw-dropping power plants are the ultimate party piece for a custom motorcycle build. Visually impactful engines like Suzuki’s Ram-Air 550, Fabio Taglioni’s 90-degree desmo twin or Harley’s robust Knucklehead add depth and mechanical marvel to a build, reminding us that it’s all about the connection between man and machine. But if you really want to rattle the cage, abandon pistons altogether, because after all, there’s more than one way to combust fuel and air. By day, Larry Houghton runs a successful engineering firm in Salisbury, England, but he’s recently retired to devote more time to his passions, predominantly two-wheeled ones. With time on his side, and free rein over the equipment at hi

Motorcycle dealer build-offs are a great way for brands to showcase their bikes, and for bike dealers to flex their customization muscles. But there’s a catch. Once the competition is over, those dealers often need to sell the bikes they built to recoup costs—so it pays to balance style and usability. This BMW R12 nineT street tracker rides that line deftly. It was built by Unikat Motorworks for their local BMW dealership in Wrocław, as part of BMW Poland’s custom build contest. Even though the workshop h

Michelangelo famously said, “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” I’ve long suspected that Yuichi Yoshizawa applies a similar philosophy to building custom motorcycles. The frontman of the Japanese workshop CW Zon has the ability to take even the most mundane motorcycle, stare into its soul, and turn it into something magical. This time, he’s done it to the venerable 1981 Yamaha XV1000. Known as the TR1 in some markets and the Virago in others, the XV1000 featured an oddball combination of Japanese engineering and American sensibiliti

Nick Keating is the man behind the lens of one of the most popular images we’ve ever shared on Facebook. It was a photo of a 1926 Indian Prince on a dirt road, surrounded by luscious, summer greenery. It’s a beautiful shot, but we couldn’t have predicted the viral response to the image that caused Nick to reach out and thank us. When he did, we realized he and the bike were only an hour north of us. Not only was he was living in our backyard, but his father, Brian Keating of the Keating Wheel Co., just happened to be a steward for some of the rarest and most interesting motorcycles in the country. I

England’s Pier City Cycles leads the charge this week, with a custom BMW R12 in a timeless roadster style. We also profile a Moto Guzzi V7 scrambler from Unikat Motorworks, a Suzuki DR-Z400 built to take on the Sahara, and a Harley-Davidson Sportster S from a Lithuanian parts manufacturer. BMW R12 by Pie

It’s easy to get stuck on the big ticket items when you’re personalizing your motorcycle, but it’s the little things that make the biggest difference. Most bikes ship from the factory with unsightly lights and turn signals, and swapping those out is a quick way to tighten up your bike’s overall look. My 2012-model Triumph Bonneville SE is by no means a full-blown custom build. Instead, I’ve modified it bit by bit whenever the opportunity arises. The latest round of tweaks involved installing a new LED headlight and teeny tiny turn signals, supplied by Australia

The Spanish workshop Tamarit Motorcycles has been in business for a decade, focusing almost exclusively on Triumph modern classics. So they know the Triumph Bonneville inside out—and they know how to transform it into just about anything. Tamarit Motorcycles has used this experience to build a stacked catalog of bolt-on Triumph parts and a handful of made-to-order customs. But what they relish most are the opportunities to build one-off specials, like this vivid Triumph Bonneville scrambler.