Tag: Motorcycle

We have a particular affinity for modern Vespa scooters around here. Our founding editor, Chris Hunter, used to commute on one in Sydney, I used to commute on one in Cape Town, and our good friend, Winston Yeh, bops around Taipei on his (a black one, naturally). But we wouldn’t have the first clue on how to customize a modern Vespa. They’re cute enough as they are, begging to be lightly accessorized rather than heavily modified. It takes a lot of imagination to look past the iconic bodywork and see something radically different. Luckily, Adam

On paper, the late-2000s Honda CB600F Hornet is a great bike; a lively four-cylinder middleweight, widely praised for its rideability and reliability. But in the flesh, it’s hard to get excited about. Like most of Honda’s naked bikes, the steadfast Hornet lacks panache—which makes it prime material for customization. This Honda Hornet café racer comes from Sébastien Vernaison in France—a part-time custom builder that works as Seb Kustom Motorcycle. He bought the bike a few years ago, customized it, and then decided to put it back under the knife to add even more swagger. And we’re glad he did,

It’s been too long since AC Sanctuary graced our pages, so this week’s lead bike is an unapologetic Kawasaki KZ1000 from the Japanese masters of excess. We follow that up with a ridiculously potent Simson S51, a fresh club-style Harley-Davidson Sportster 833, and an immaculately restored BMW R80 G/S Paris Dakar.

Countless motorcycle manufacturers popped up in the 1920s and ’30s in Britain, but somehow, none quite as cool as Vincent. High-end speed machines, combining old-school big-displacement twins, monochrome finishes and titillating names like Rapide and Black Shadow, a Vincent V-twin welcomes you into any roundtable of motorcycling, and it’s not hard to see why. A seat rarely opens at the Vincent Owners Club, even more so when you’re talking about an ultra-rare first-series Rapide.

As Taiwan’s relatively young custom scene continues to flourish, we have the privilege of watching plucky startups become established players. Take Twentytwo Custom; this custom Suzuki TU250 Grasstracker is only their seventh build, but it perfectly showcases their skill at turning lightweight commuters into spicy little scramblers. Twentytwo is the custom arm of the Taiwanese moto culture and apparel brand, Persist Motorcycle Company. Working in collaboration with the custom workshop Tough Tracker, the crew’s forte is customizing sub-500 cc UJMs with a deft mix of modern and vintage flair.

Marc Holstein might be German, but he’s a massive fan of Japanese culture—and an even bigger fan of Japan’s spellbinding motorcycle scene. The ace photographer splits his time between Frankfurt and Tokyo, is a regular face at the uber-popular Mooneyes show, and has been behind the workshop doors of some of Japan’s most enigmatic custom builders. Marc’s latest adventure took him two hours northeast of Tokyo, to the picture-perfect coastal town of Oarai for the annual Oarai Sun Beach Sand Flat’s race weekend. Now in its second year, the Oarai Sun Beach Sand Flat’s event is a throwback to the American beach

Motorcycle enthusiasts are probably not as familiar with NEIGHBORHOOD as fashionistas are, but the powerhouse Japanese streetwear brand does have a strong connection to motorcycling. NEIGHBORHOOD’s creative director, Shinsuke Takizawa, is a huge fan of motorcycles and the culture surrounding them. Now he’s celebrating the brand’s 30th birthday with a limited edition custom Harley-Davidson Street Bob, created by the one and only Rough Crafts. The seed for a NEIGHBORHOOD x Rough

The most unlikely custom motorcycle tops this week’s assortment of machines; a Ducati Indiana flat tracker. We also profile a Honda Transalp from Bolt Motor Co., a cheeky Yamaha XSR155 scrambler, and an ex-Barry Sheene Suzuki TR750 that’s up for auction at Bonhams. Ducati Indiana ‘Von Tracker’ by Francis Von Tuto History may have forgotten the Ducati Indiana, but those who liv

Before Ducati took the Monster in a lamentable direction by removing its signature trellis frame and swathing it in plastic, the Ducati Monster 821 was the best new Monster you could get. Stacked alongside the smaller, air-cooled Monster 797, and the totally bonkers, liquid-cooled Monster 1200, it was more refined than the former and more manageable than the latter. The 821 was a perfectly proportioned package, packing a 112-horsepower wallop, and dripping with Italian swagger and brutal elegance. This custom Ducati Monster 821 pulls back some of that elegance, and dials the 821’s inherent brutality up to the

Our friends at Malle are nothing if not adventurous. When Robert Nightingale and Jonny Cazzola aren’t designing impossibly stylish motorcycle luggage from their London HQ, they’re out on the road testing that gear during the myriad events they organize annually. Events like the epic Great Malle Mountain Rally. The Great Malle Mountain Rally is a supported 2,000-kilometer [1,243-mile] regularity rally, stacked with around 100 riders of custom, classic, and modern-classic motorcycles. Running over six days, the event starts in Austria and ends in Monaco. But what makes it so ambitious, is that it runs across the entire Alps mountain range—from east to west, and north to