Motorcycles

Atom Bomb’s Clay Rathburn is known for his beautifully crafted custom Triumphs. But the latest bike to roll out of his Richmond, Virginia workshop is this Harley-Davidson Sportster 1200. It’s not our usual fare, but the style and detailing on this build is hard to ignore.

Rathburn built the Sportster for his friend and neighbor John Campbell, who plays bass for the metal band Lamb of God. Campbell took a keen interest in the build, according to Rathburn. “John was over at the shop for a good bit of the project, until the band went on tour, and then we did it via phone pictures.”

Motorcycle concepts are a dime a dozen. But these renderings, from Moscow designer Mikhail Smolyanov, show an extraordinary level of style and imagination. The “GL1-m” above was commissioned by an established Russian vehicle fabricator called Alexander Bushuev, who plans to turn the machine into metal. There’s very little information on the fluoro green C-Org Trike below, but the steampunk-style design (bottom) was apparently inspired by 1920s racing cars fitted with aircraft engines.

The next AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building is some eight months away, in August 2012. Enough time for one of the freestyle entrants to take some inspiration?

To see more of Mikhail Smolyanov’s work, head over to his Solifague Design website.

At face value, there’s nothing unusual about Paul Dutra’s taste in motorcycling. He owns a heavyweight tourer—a Gold Wing, natch—and he likes to make a big trip every year. But Dutra’s Gold Wing is not a 900 lb road sofa with a sound system, sat-nav and heated seats. El Guapo (“The Handsome One”) is a rusty, stripped-down custom with hand-beaten bodywork and not a pannier in sight.

Dutra’s bike is a 1975 GL1000, with a flat-four 999 cc motor. It had been faithful to its former owner for 35 years, and although it was time to move the bike on, the original owner didn’t want to see it scrapped. He wanted it to go to someone who could completely transform the machine, giving it a new and unexpected lease of life. That person ended up being Paul Dutra of Back Alley Motorcycles in Ontario, Canada.

When Dutra arrived to collect the Gold Wing, it was sporting a Vetter fairing and a full set of Krauser luggage. “It was all decked out with fog lights and extra brake lights,” Dutra recalls. “He had taken very good care of the bike, and had spare oil filters and plugs. He even gave me a period-correct Honda sync gauge in its original box. I managed to take the bags and fairing off, then lowered the forks through the trees and stuffed it all into a very short Dodge Caravan.”

Dutra put the Gold Wing on the chopping block. With no budget for bling, he decided to turn it into a “Rat Café”. The first problem was the tank, which isn’t really a tank on a Wing: it’s an air box and glove box that leaves a gaping hole in the frame. The real tank is under the seat. “This made for a really interesting build, as there are no tanks on the planet that would fit the Wing frame … I was trying to get rid of the tank under the seat, because of the “Cafe Racer” look I was going for.” After fabricating a traditional backbone for the frame, the only thing that would fit was a rusty old tank from a KZ550.

Dutra then chopped the rear frame and fitted different angles and bends until he had the right tail. “I wanted to lower the bike, so I went with 11.5-inch shocks. That gave me the ride height I was looking for.” Dutra hammered and welded up a rear cowl out of 3/16” plate, lowered the forks through the trees, and mounted up Tomaselli clip-ons to the uppers. With help from a couple of friends—including Tim Aysan from Do The Ton—the wiring was finished and the bike was fired up for the first time.

After some final adjustments to the shocks, Dutra took the Gold Wing out for a shakedown ride. Then he immediately loaded up his backpack, and rode out to L.A.—a round trip of over 5,000 miles.

He made it there and back in nine days.

Ben Spies is one fast guy. He started racing when he was just eight years old, and in the most recent MotoGP season, won a race and stood on the podium four times, despite missing the Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix due to injury. As you can imagine, Ben doesn’t get much free time, but he was kind enough to take a quick run through the Bike EXIF questionnaire.

What was the first motorcycle you bought with your own money? Yamaha TTR 125 (below) and that was a long, long childhood time ago.

What do you think is the most beautiful production motorcycle ever built? The 50th anniversary R1 (below).

What motorcycle do you despise? Probably none. I like Harleys also, but I do not like the annoyingly loud ones. What is the point?

What is your idea of perfect happiness? I think for me it’s being content with the surroundings at that moment. That’s happiness.

Electric motorcycles: Yes or No? NO.

What is your favorite journey? It has been travelling cross country in the USA. Whether I stop and run up a mountain, or cycle with a mountain bike or do some training on my road bike (bicycle) or touring in my coach. With my profession as a motorcycle racer, I do not mix pleasure with business.

Which ‘everyday’ modern bikes do you think will become future classics? The equivalent of the Honda CB750 or Moto Guzzi V7 Sport, if you like? Probably the Ducati Desmosedici (below). It’s already rare.

Who are your real-life motorcycling heroes? Kevin Schwantz and Wayne Rainey.

Are you optimistic for the future of motorcycling? Absolutely. With emissions, crowded cities and parking spaces, fuel costs and pure enjoyment for less money than cars, there is a tremendous turnover in Europe and Indonesia

The seventh in our Silodrome Selection series, an occasional round-up curated bySilodrome editor James McBride.

The exoskeletons enjoyed by insects and crustaceans have a big advantage over our endoskeletons. In the event of an impact, they distribute force over a greater surface area and reduce the damage sustained in any one location.

If that sounds like the sort of thing you’d like to have strapped over your squishy bits before you ride, then I have good news for you—there are now dozens of companies building and selling motorcycle armor. It’s the sort of gear that significantly improves your chances of ending up in the pub after a motorcycle accident, rather than in the hospital.

If you visited the BMW Museum in Munich a few months ago, you might have noticed an interloper: a brawny custom with a Yamaha XT500 tank. Sharing space with a BMW concept car and an immaculate 1982 R100 RT, the custom looked like a pit bull amongst immaculately coiffed poodles.

The juxtaposition was not as incongruous as it seemed, though. The ‘Yamaha’ was actually a BMW R100 RT, just like its neighbor on the stand, albeit in disguise. It was built by the controversial French workshop Blitz Motorcycles and is called ‘La Parisienne.’

Confused onlookers who failed to recognize the bike can be excused—this R100 has been customized almost beyond recognition. The rear frame is completely new, and fitted with a bespoke seat and a mono shock. The frame and forks have been powdercoated in dark gray, and the engine, bars (from an R100 RS) and wheels powdercoated in a sinister black.

The bike has also been rewired with simplified electrics; a compact li-ion battery now hides in a box under the transmission. Mini switches control the blinkers and the digital speedometer display, and the engine start button is screwed into the bracket of the front brake lever. The levers (shortened) and brake master cylinder are from a Yamaha R1.

Vintage-style lights add a retro touch, along with 18” Coker rubber. The carbs sport handcrafted intakes and the shorty muffler is painted a high-temperature black on the outside and red on the inside. And yes, the tank really is from vintage Yamaha XT500 enduro—mounted on the frame exactly as it was found.

The effect is brutal and even disorientating. But it still caught the eye of the BMW museum curators. Maybe the Teutonic purveyors of motorcycling efficiency do have a sense of humor after all.

By David Edwards — All you need to know about Nick Roskelley’s budget-built café-racer can be found hanging below the right side of the fuel tank. That’s where you’ll see a shiny aluminum bicycle tire pump. Like most of the components on this bike, it was not store-bought. In fact, “It was bent like a banana and thrown in a dumpster,” says the 54-year-old retired commercial diver. But the price was right—so home it went to Paignton, a small seaside town on England’s south coast. After numerous meetings with a rubber hammer and the polishing wheel, it now looks good as new.

Roskelley calls his creation the “Harleyton 45” a rolling amalgamation consisting of a 45-cubic-inch (750cc) Harley-Davidson flathead V-twin housed in a 1960s Norton Featherbed frame. The engine, of 1942 vintage, was originally found in a WLC model, the Canadian-spec army bike, one of 90,000 military motorcycles Harley built during the war. An odd pairing of motor and frame, for which Nick takes no credit. He purchased the rolling chassis for the princely sum of $2000 just before the owner was about to turn it into a chopper, perish the thought. To date, he’s laid out a total of less than $3500 in bringing the bike to the condition you see it here. That doesn’t include numerous trips to the scrap bin for parts and many late nights in his small workshop persuading them to fit.

Much of the stainless-steel used throughout the bike was harvested from a secondhand set of kitchen cabinets, including the peashooter silencers. After bronze-welding stubs into the exhaust ports to work with headpipes found in another bin somewhere along the way, Nick hand-beat the stainless remnants into shape using an old Norton fork leg stretched between two axle stands as a kind of crude anvil. Welded up in the workshop, they were polished at slow speed on his lathe at home.

Fuel tank is from a Norton Dominator 99, repainted in Nick’s shop, adorned with a script Harleyton 45 logo designed by a signpainter friend. Another strip of discarded stainless-steel, beaten pretty, secures the tank to the frame. Much effort was expended on the primary case, lineage unknown, taking power from the Harley crankshaft to a Norton four-speed gearbox. “An old guy told me it’s off a BSA B33, but whatever it’s from it doesn’t leak,” Nick says with more than a little pride. Keeping ATF inside the primary where it belongs involved subtle machining, modern seals and a half-inch cork gasket.

If Ducati has NCR, Moto Guzzi has Ghezzi Brian. Based in the lakes region of northern Italy, the company builds small runs of Guzzi-based sport bikes and created the MGS-01 superbike for the Mandello factory. (The odd name, in case you’re wondering, refers to the founders Giuseppe Ghezzi and Bruno “Brian” Saturno.)

The Ghezzi Brian Super Twin 1100 was designed to give road riders a taste of race bike dynamics. In the 1996 Italian Supertwins Championship, Giuseppe Ghezzi’s Super Twin prototype won nine of the 32 races it entered. So four years later, Ghezzi & Brian was set up to produce a short run of replicas.

This is one of those replicas. In beautiful original condition, it has been recently updated with a Duilio Agostini crankshaft and a Power Commander to optimize the fueling beyond the standard ECU.

The motor, as the Super Twin name suggests, is a 1064 cc V-twin. It pumps out 87bhp and is taken from the V11 Sport, albeit mildly modified from stock—with a balanced flywheel to smooth out the power delivery and a bespoke exhaust system. It’s a stressed part of the steel single-beam frame, which also holds the oil tank and airbox. The wheels are forged aluminum Marchesinis and the front suspension is a Paioli upside-down 41mm fork with three settings. An Öhlins monoshock brings up the rear.

Braking power is substantial, with perimeter discs attached to the front wheel rim and 4-piston calipers. The dry weight of the Super Twin is 192kg, so performance is strong rather than S1000RR-annihilating. Top speed is 140 mph (225 kph).

These images come from True Biker Spirit, a group of Belgian motorcyclists dedicated to photographing and filming unusual motorcycles and their owners. “Through our images and videos, we try to highlight the real bikers and the real spirit in the motorcycle world,” the group says. “We shoot, we ride, we share.” TBS has just released its first magazine,Stay True, a beautifully designed publication that you can savor online

Old Empire Motorcycles, despite the magnificent name, is one of England’s newer custom builders. The Norfolk-based company, led by Alec Sharp, creates hand-made bikes with a strong bobber influence and a proudly Made In Britain ethos.

This is OEM’s first commission-built motorcycle, the EFI. It’s based on a 2009 Royal Enfield Bullet Electra, a machine which can trace its roots back to the days when England had a thriving motorcycle industry. “We were approached by a customer in late 2012 with an idea inspired by a bike from the very talented Rajputana Customs in India,” says Alec. “It was a fine looking motorcycle but there were a few details which we thought we could improve on.”

The stance and look had to be out-and-out bobber, and the customer wanted a ‘chunky’ looking bike. The stock Bullet Electra has rather large 19” wheels, so OEM fitted British-made chrome 16” rims with stainless spokes, shod with Avon Safety Mileage Mk II rubber in a classic block pattern.

“We decided on a USD front end to keep the squat chunky look,” says Alec, “and lowered the rear end with a new set of Hagon shocks. A new double-tubed swing arm was fabricated, wider than stock but the same length. It was important to keep things compact and not ‘stretch’ the bike out.”

The motor has been boosted with a carb conversion kit from Hitchcocks Motorcycles: it includes a 32mm Amal MK1 Concentric carburettor and filter, ignition box, magneto flywheel and extractor. OEM has also fitted a custom-made chromed ‘shorty’ pipe with internal baffles.

New tinware was then fabricated; a Harley Sportster tank was modified to fit and scalloped for looks, with twin pop-up fillers added. The fenders are Wassel-ribbed with hand made struts. The rear portion of the frame was modified to fit the custom seat pan and mountings, and up front, the new clip-ons units were fitted with custom microswitch housings and controls wrapped in Brooks’ finest leather.

The customer wanted a foot-forward riding position, so OEM designed a detachable unit that enables the Royal Enfield frame to accommodate foot controls with custom stainless linkages. The electrics have been revised too, with the mass of wires from the essentials (as well as a clever box of tricks that works the microswitches) now housed in the dummy oil tank.

“We’re very pleased with the build,” says Alec. “It showcases the adaptability of the Royal Enfield EFI motorcycle. And it’s the first opportunity we’ve had to make patterns for specific components.” If you own a Royal Enfield, keep an eye out for those parts (and new builds) on the Old Empire Motorcycles website and Facebook page.

One of the most famous Vincent motorcycles of all time has just gone up for sale. Marty Dickerson’s Rapide—best known as the ‘Blue Bike’—is on show at Altai, a design studio in Los Angeles.

The Blue Bike has an illustrious history to match its stunning looks. It’s a ‘Series B’ Touring Rapide that was raced for almost half a century, ending with a final stint at Bonneville in 1997. Marty Dickerson himself was a remarkable 67.

Dickerson bought the Vincent in 1948 when he was a mere 18 years old, attracted by its reputation as the fastest motorcycle in the world. He quickly pressed the bike into service, taking on the finest street-racers and drag bikes in Southern California. And he invariably crossed the line first, leaving established reputations in tatters. The Vincent dealership in Burbank, struggling with non-existent sales and stock languishing in showrooms, took notice—and hired Dickerson to race throughout the southwest states in a drive to raise interest in the marque.

In the early 1950s the salt bug bit Dickerson and he went after the speed records. The Vincent was repainted in its now familiar colors, and from that point on, became known as the ‘Blue Bike.’ In 1953 Dickerson took the Class ‘C’ record with an average of 147.58mph, a mark that stood for over twenty years until a change of regulations and fuel grade allowed a trick Kawasaki to finally beat it.

Paul d’Orléans, writing for The Vintagent website, said: “The number of motorcycles worldwide which have endured serious competition for 50 years can be counted on one hand. Within this very special group, machines which have taken world records at Bonneville, and cemented the reputation of an entire brand in recognizably stock form, can be counted on one finger. The Blue Bike is unique.”

Deus has opened shop in L.A., on the corner of Lincoln and Venice Boulevards. And this is the first full-blown custom motorcycle to roll out of its doors: an intricately crafted machine packed with high performance parts and a healthy dose of attitude. It’s called ‘The American’, and it began as a personal project for Michael Woolaway, Deus’ Design Director in the US. Woolaway’s goal was to convert the legendary C&J Low Boy dirt-track chassis into a street legal cafe racer, using as many American parts as he could.

Woolaway located a C&J frame and sent it to Dr. John’s Motorcycle Frame Straightening in Anaheim. After it came back dead straight, the motor was installed. And this is no ordinary mill: it’s built up with a Harley Sportster five-speed lower end, bob-weight-balanced crank performance rods, forged J&E high compression pistons, and Edelbrock big valve cylinder heads.

The front suspension is Buell, with triple clamps hand-made at the dirt track specialists Durelle Racing. The hand-built rear shocks come from Works Perfomance, the Sun Rims from Buchanan’s, and the knock-off hubs and brake hangers from A&A Racing. The characteristically minimal Motogadget speedo and electronics add to the race-inspired vibe. It’s all topped off with typically luscious paint and a pair of SuperTrapp mufflers that look the business (and no doubt sound even better).

It’s always good to see an established builder move out of their comfort zone, and even better to see them land a king hit at the same time. I’d never have guessed this vintage-themed dirt bike was from Clay Rathburn of Atom Bomb Custom, but his signature attention to detail is evident throughout.

“As long as I can remember I’ve thought dirt bikes were some of the most beautiful motorcycles made,” Clay reveals. “I think some of that influence shows up from time to time in my rigid customs.” So nearly two years ago, Clay started planning the frame for this bike. “Beyond ‘build a Triumph dirt bike’ there wasn’t much of a firm plan,” he admits. “I had a Yamaha front end on hand, and some shocks from a Husqvarna.”

Somewhere along the way, the project took a turn towards a serious all-out custom build. When Race Tech got involved with the suspension, Clay knew there was no turning back. “The madness took over,” he says. “One thing you don’t see very often is a full-on custom dirt bike. So I decided to go full bore on making this bike as functional and nice as I possibly could.”

The motor is from a 1974 Triumph Bonneville, but it’s a little big for a dirt bike. So Clay cut the front motor mount ‘triangle’ off the cases, so he could slide the engine much closer to the front of his custom-designed frame. It also meant he could build a swing arm 3.5” longer than a stock oil-in-frame Triumph, with no increase in wheelbase.

The stock Bonneville motor points the carbs outboard at a wide angle, which gets in the way on a dirt bike. “Logic would dictate switching to a single carb head … but 10-bolt single carb heads are difficult to locate, and I really wanted to keep it twin carb, so I decided to relocate the intake ports. After a three-day weekend of welding, milling and working with the die grinder, the head now has intake ports that are moved inboard about an inch and a half—and the carbs point straight back.” Everything now tucks nicely inside the frame.

The other parts are all beautifully thought out. “I gave the rear hub to my machinist pal Chris Morris and asked him to make it lighter,” says Clay. “Two days later he handed me the most beautiful conical Triumph hub I’ve ever seen—with every surface turned down, and flutes cut into the area behind the sprocket. It’s just beautiful, and over a pound lighter than stock.”

I’ve always thought that the stock Triumph Scrambler has lots of potential for an edgier vibe. And Jim Good of Ohio was obviously thinking along the same lines when he set to work on his 2008 model bike.

He’s given the 865cc engine a power boost with a Wiseco 904 kit and K&N filters, and attached a low-slung D&D Thruxton TT exhaust system. He’s also upgraded the suspension with Progressive components, with new fork springs and 970 Series piggyback shocks. The tidy-looking back end is thanks to a British Customs fender delete kit, and the rearsets are from LSL.

The look of Jim’s bike is dominated by the tires, though. They’re Continental TKC 80s, a well-regarded dual-sport tire fitted as original equipment to some BMW GS bikes and the KTM 690 Enduro R. The new rubber is attached to lovely Excel rims: 19” at the front, and 17” at the back.

The finishing touches come from classy Oury grips, JMF mirrors and bars, and a subtle paint job from 8up Kustoms. It’s not a huge deviation from the stock Scrambler, but doesn’t it look good?

When I hit my twenties, the BMW K1 was impossibly glamorous. It was the poster bike for motorcycling. As a casual observer, I didn’t realise it was BMW’s attempt to appeal to younger riders, seduced by Japanese sportsbikes such as the Suzuki GSX-R1100. And I didn’t know that BMW’s engineering and quality control—for once—was deeply flawed. To me, the K1 was the kind of motorcycle Luke Skywalker would ride if he existed in real life: a blend of warp speed power and futuristic styling.

It was a machine straight from the pages of JG Ballard’s Vermillion Sands: glossy, lurid and bizarre, a vehicle for the wealthy and disaffected. (For what little it’s worth, it was also the world’s first production motorcycle with a three-way catalytic converter.) The 987 cc, 100 bhp K1 sold less than 7,000 units between 1988 and 1993, and its dynamics were trumped by machines such as the Honda CBR600F. But it’s still beautiful two decades later. And it broke the mould in the realms of styling and marketing, catching the eye of people who would never have otherwise looked at a motorcycle. I’d still choose one today over any 1990s Japanese or American bike—and not just because it’s the only motorcycle you can ride while wearing a scarlet leather one-piece.