Steampunk Vespa Scooter by Cris Cofitis

Pulsar Project Vespa Steampunk Scooter

This steampunk'ed Vespa scooter is the creation of Greek designer, Cris Cofitis, of Pulsar Project. The Damn Geeky blog has an extensive photo gallery of the scooter.

Take a look here at Pulsar Project to see other scooters and motorcycles designed by Cofitis, including the insane custom he calls "Chimera," which was an entry into the AMD bike build at the Sturgis 2011 rally.

Tip of the hat to the Design You Trust blog... we first saw the Vespa at their Pinterest board.

3D Printing Plays a Big Role in New Imperia GP Roadster Development

Imperia GP Roadster Hybrid Car

The classic Imperia marque is being resurrected in Belgium with the development of a unique hybrid-powered retro-coupe. 3D printing technology plays a big role in its development and manufacture.

Imperia Automobiles was formed in 2009 to bring to market hybrid car technologies developed by Green Propulsion, a Belgian automotive R&D firm that specializes in electric and hybrid vehicles.

The roadster's hybrid powertrain consists of a 200hp, 1.6liter gasoline engine and a 150hp electric motor.

For the roadster's drivetrain components, Imperia designers partnered with Voxeljet, a 3D printing services company in Germany, and SICTA, a French aluminum foundry. Voxeljet prints sandcasting moulds which are then sent on to the SICTA foundry.

Tip of the hat to the 3ders blog.

The Wooden "Sandwichbike" Bicycle from PedalFactory

The Sandwichbike from The Pedalfactory

The Pedalfactory is an Amsterdam-based design firm with a mission to design and sell unique bicycles. This new offering, the wooden-framed "Sandwichbike," is certainly that.

The Sandwichbike is the brainchild of industrial designer Basten Leijh of Bleijh Industrial Design Studio. Basten designed and built the first Sandwichbike concept as an entry in the 2006 International Bicycle Design Competition (IBDC), an annual industry event held in Taiwan.

Sandwichbike Packed for Shipment

The bike's frame is constructed from two flat plates of beech plywood tied together by machined aluminum tubes. The forks are also beech plywood. The design of the bike allows it to be shipped flat in a box, complete with all components and the tools required for assembly by the buyer at home.

The Pedalfactory has created a website specifically for the Sandwichbike. Buyers can order a bike online.  The first production run began shipping in Europe this month; international shipping will commence in January.

Tip of the hat to Dezeen blog, which featured the Sandwichbike in a post this month.

World's First 3D-Printed Metal Gun from Solid Concepts

Printed Metal Handgun from Solid Concepts

From the Dezeen design blog comes news of this 3D-printed gun from Solid Concepts, an additive manufacturing firm based in Southern California.

A post at the Solid Concepts blog describes the pistol and the method of its construction in more detail. It is a 45ACP model based on the classic Colt 1911 45caliber (the design of which is in the public domain). A Direct Metal Selective Laser Sintering (DMSLS) process was used to print the more than 30 parts required in stainless steel and Inconel 625. The handgrips, which are seen at the bottom left of the picture here, were printed in plastic.

Solid Concepts VP Kent Firestone says that the goal of this exercise was to prove that the DMSLS technology has advanced to the point now that it can create components that are very accurate and very strong, that the process is ready for mainstream manufacturing use... Regarding the first point, Firestone says that no finish machining was used on any part, only some hand finishing. With respect to the second point, he notes that each time the gun is fired the barrel experiences a pressure of 20,000 psi.

The folks at Solid Concepts have run more that 1,000 rounds through the gun now. The video below was made to document their 500 round endurance test. You can see more videos from Solid Concepts at the Solid Concepts YouTube channel, including one about the DMSLS printing process.

Tip of the hat to the Dezeen blog, where we first saw the gun.

Art Donovan's Extraordinary Steampunk Lamps & Illuminations

Art Donovan "Tesla" Wall Lamp

Art Donovan is an extraordinarily talented designer with a flair for steampunk aesthetics. He brings these talents and sensibilities to bear on the design and fabrication of incredibly detailed and beautifully constructed lamps, lights, clocks, and mechanisms. Donovan is also a leading chronicler of the steampunk subculture; in a post last year we featured the first edition his book, The Art of Steampunk, which featured not only his work, but that of other excellent artists and craftsmen in the steampunk scene (a revised second edition was published this past summer, see our Amazon link below).

Steampunk Tendencies Blog

Crossbow Archer from SteampunkTendencies.com

SteampunkTendencies, a great big photoblog for steampunk art, costumes, mechanisms, clockworks, lamps, and mods.

The OP-1 Music Synthesizer from Teenage Engineering

OP-1 Portable Synthesizer from Teenage Engineering

While preparing the our previous post about The Synthesizer Book blog, we found a post there about the OP-1 synth from Teenage Engineering. Looked interesting, so we did a bit of research and found, for example, this rave review in the "Cool Tools" category at Boing Boing. The author claims it's easy and fun to use, with a very intuitive color-based interface. He says that although at may look like a toy at first glance, he's recently produced a movie soundtrack and used the OP-1 for many of the sound effects he needed.

Teenage Engineering occasionally adds new capabilities and features to the OP-1's synthesis engines. The user can upload these via its PC/Mac interface. The OP-1 also contains a microphone for recording voice and sampling audio. It also contains an FM radio, so the user can sample audio from radio broadcasts.

There is said to be an extensive world-wide users community. For example, the OhPeeWon.com site is an independent site created by OP-1 enthusiasts.

The Synthesizer Book, a Blog About Synths & Electronic Music

Richard Martinez shares his passion for all things synthesizer at his blog, The Synthesizer Book. If you share his passion for synthesizers and electronic music, check it out. You can also follow him at his SynthesizerBook Twitter account.

"Cafe Racers Today" Motorcycle Blog

Vintage-Styled Honda CB350 Featured at Cafe Racers Today

Today we found another cool blog that focuses on cafe racers, Cafe Racers Today blog at tumblr. The Honda CB350 from Vintage Customs, pictured to the left, is a fine example of the bikes you'll find there. Check it out.

Sucker Punch Sallys Thruxton II Cafe Racer

Sucker Punch Thruxton II

Last year we featured a post about the Sucker Punch Sally's Triumph Thruxton cafe racer. (That build was commissioned by Fender Guitars.) We recently found this new Sucker Punch Triumph Thruxton custom at The Bullitt Blog.

Photo Credit: The Bullitt Blog

We Have a Winner: Greg Hageman's Star Bolt Takes First Place Honors in Build-Off

Hageman Bolt Scrambler

Greg Hageman of Hageman Engineering (formerly known as Doc's Chops) won first place in the Star Bolt custom build-off with this retro-styled scrambler. He had stiff competition: Yamaha shipped Bolts to ten top custom bike builders, including Hageman, last Spring. Each builder was free to design and build his own vision of a Bolt-based custom. Yamaha setup a Facebook page where viewers could see and vote for their favorite build.

A photo album for the bike can be seen at professional photographer Erik Runyon's Facebook page.

We first became aware of the Bolt build after finding online articles about the street tracker-styled entry from Roland Sands, which is, in fact, our favorite here at Cool Stuff We Like blog.

JPD Customs Yamaha Star Bolt Street Tracker

JPD Customs Entry in Bolt Build-Off

Pipeburn has a post up about the JPD Customs entry into the Star Bolt build-off.  Builder Jeff Palhegyi, the proprieter of JPD Customs, was one of ten top custom bike builders selected by Yamaha to participate in the Star Bolt custom build-off last summer. He went the street tracker route, a style that really suits the V-twin from Yamaha's Star division.

A Lot of Customs at Shaw Speed & Custom

Shaw Speed & Custom CRXR Cafe Racer

Check out the dozens of beautiful custom Harleys at Shaw Speed & Custom, like the CRXR Sportster based cafe racer pictured here. 

Shaw Speed & Custom Martini Sportsters

The crew at Shaw Speed & Custom, a UK custom bike and Harley dealership, to enter a bike in the prestigious London Masterpiece Art & Design fair earlier this year. They went all out to make a big splash, entering not one but two Sportster 883 customs. Both bikes feature a retro scrambler look and a vintage Martini Racing paint theme.

Some of the components used, such as the handlebars, rocker boxes, and derby covers, were sourced from Roland Sands Designs (RSD). See a post about these bikes here at the RSD blog.

Back in 2012 we featured an earlier Shaw custom here.

Raven MotoCycles Unique, Handbuilt Moto Guzzi Custom

Raven Moto Guzzi Based Custom

We just saw this unique, handbuilt custom up for sale on eBay and followed a link in the listing to the maker, Raven MotoCycles.

The Raven is the creation of moto artist Jeff Gundlach, who, according to a blog post about the Raven at Pipeburn, has designed many covers for motorcycle magazines like Cycle World and Cycle News. Years ago he sketched up a concept drawing of a custom bike based on a 1971 Moto Guzzi Ambassador 750 engine mated to a Norton gearbox. A few years ago he decided that the time was right to actually build one.... you can see a gallery depicting the design and build process at the Raven site here.

The frame is Jeff's own design that incorporates wheels, swingarm, brakes, forks, and steering stem from the 1968 Honda 350. The buyer can specify a 750cc, 850cc, or 1000cc Guzzi engine. Check out the video of Jeff riding his Raven to Daytona 2012 below.

Revival Cycles Classic '75 850T Moto Guzzi Cafe Racer

Revival Cycles Moto Guzzi 850T Cafe Racer

We just saw this elegant 1975 Moto Guzzi cafe racer featured at Pipeburn Motorcycles blog. It was built by the crew at Austin's Revival Cycles.

Revival Cycles also has a great line of motorcycle accessories at their online store, such as this retro gauge from Motogadget in Germany.

Classified Moto Movin' On Up

Classified Moto XV920 Cafe Racer

John Ryland and the crew at Classified Moto have recently announced that they are moving out of their suburban garage into an historic building near downtown Richmond, VA. Their new shop will be located in a former cable car stable in the Manchester district of Richmond. Congratulations from us here at Cool Stuff We Like blog... Classified Moto bikes are greatly admired here, and we've featured several of their bikes, such as the Honda KT600 custom they built for Battlestar Galactica and Longmire star, Katie Sackhoff.

The Saietta-R Electric Motorcycle from Agility Motors

Saietta-R Electric Motorcycle

We just saw this high-tech electric motorcycle, the Saietta-R, in a feature at the Wired website. The Saietta-R is the first product from Agility Motors in the UK. Agility claims 0-60mph time of 4 seconds, and a riding range of 112 miles per charge. Though it may look like a high-tech concept vehicle or design exercise, it is in fact in production now. The electrical and mechanical features are described here.

3D Printing Inspires a New Wave of Entrepreneurship in Japan

Financial Review has a new article up about a wave of 3D printing ventures that is building in Japan, especially attracting young Japanese entrepreneurs. Here at Cool Stuff We Like blog, we wish them the best.

Behance Design Website Showcases the Work of Designers Around the World

If you're interested in design --- print, illustration, fashion, architecture, web design, etc. --- be sure to see the Behance website. If you are a designer, you can create an account there and post your portfolio up for the world to see. Also, you can find design jobs posted there. Check it out.

Exesor Motorcycles Honda Cafe Racer

Exesore Honda CB Cafe Racer

We just saw this very cool little Honda cafe racer at BIKEEXIF blog this morning. Christian Schwarzenlander of Exesore in Germany began this build with a 1976 CB250 basket case purchased on eBay for $340. He replaced the CB250 motor with a CB360 motor punched-out to 390cc, and equipped with a hot cam and custom intake manifolds. Check out the BIKEXIF blog post for further details of the many mechanical modifications Christian made.

Regarding the bike's aesthetics, Christian adopted one rule: No chrome. All the metal parts are either nickel-plated, black chrome galvanized, or bare stainless steel.

You can follow Christian's work at the Exesor blog.

3D-Printed Formula Race Car from Materialise

Areion in Track Tests at Hockenheim 

The Areion Formula Student racecar was built almost entirely with 3D-printed parts. It was designed by sixteen student engineers at Group T University in Belgium. The printed parts were made at Materialise, the Belgian 3D printing firm, using their "massive stereolithography" process, which has a work volume of 2100mm x 680mm x 800mm.

The Areion was tested at the Hockenheim Formula 1 race circuit in the summer of 2012. You can follow the further adventures of the Formula Group T racing team here.

Crowdfunding the Local Motors "Cruiser" Bicycle

Local Motors Cruiser Bicycle, Gas and Electric Models

Local Motors has kicked-off a crowdfunding effort for their Cruiser bicycle, which will be available in gas (pictured on the left) and electric models (pictured on the right). The project funding goal is $50,000, and has about a month left to go at this writing.

The Cruiser is a product of the Local Motors "Cruiser Design Challenge." The winning design was created by Ianis Vasilatos, a member of the Local Motors design community. Ianis's day job is production manager at the Queen Mary Theater in Oradea, Romania. Outside the theater, he is an aspiring vehicle designer. You can see his Coroflot portfolio here.

Note the V-shaped configuration of the battery packs in the electric model, which gives the bicycle the look of an early 20th Century Harley or Indian boardtracker.

While you're at it, check out the other projects, cars and motorcycles, at the Local Motors website.

The RQ-180, Wicked Cool Looking New Stealth Drone in Testing at Area 51?

RQ-180 Concept at Aviation Week

Wired's Danger Room reports that aerospace experts believe a new stealthy drone from Northrup Grumman is in testing at Area 51. The crew at Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine have developed the conceptual rendering you see at the left from what they've heard from sources in the aerospace industry. It's the cover story for the Dec. 9 issue. Looks pretty wicked.

BIKEEXIF 2014 Custom Motorcycle Calendar

Apolo XT600 Honda Cafe Racer

Here at Cool Stuff We Like we are big fans of the BIKEEXIF custom motorcycle blog. Chris Hunter and the crew there have just published their 2014 custom bike calendar. It features high-quality customs from around the world, like the Honda XT600-based cafe racer from Spain's Cafe Racer Dreams pictured here.

This calendar would make a great Christmas gift for the motorcycle enthusiast in your family. You can order a copy  by clicking through on the Amazon link below.

(Note: Cool Stuff We Like blog is an Amazon affiliate.)

The Leonhardt Gunbus 410, World's Largest Streetable Motorcycle

Out of Germany comes the Leonhardt Manufacturing Gunbus 410, powered by 410 cubic inches of brutal 45degree V-twin power. Total length 3.47meters, which is 11ft. 5ins. Yes, they are for sale, contact Leonhardt Manufacturing here to inquire.

Gunbus 410 & Harley Big Twin

To give you some further idea of the sheer massiveness of this beast, we've included this shot of a Gunbus 410 with an H-D Big Twin. This is not a trick photo, the photographer has not played any games with the perspective to make the Gunbus look bigger than it is.

A sidecar is currently in development at Leonhardt Manufacturing.

The Wazuma V8F

Wow. Here's what you get when you mate a Ferrari 3.0L engine to a BMW M3 gearbox, a hybrid of motorcycle and open-wheel performance car: the Wazuma V8F. I believe they are going in to production... but can we buy here in the States? I don't know.

(Note that the website is in French. I used Google Chrome's translation feature to read in English.)

Roc City Cafe Racers Article

CB350 Cafe Racer w. Roc City Alloy Tank & Seat

Last year we posted about the beautifully crafted alloy tanks and seat assemblies made by owner/fabricator Sean Pelletier at his shop, Roc City Cafe Racers in Rochester, NY. The styling and crafting recalls the work of British bike builders of the Fifties. Sean just contacted us by email with a link to a recent article about his passion, his shop, and his work in a 585mag.com. Check it out here.

Chappell Customs Yamaha Star Bolt Bobber

Chappell Customs Bolt Bobber

We've been posting here about Yamaha's rollout strategy for the new Bolt V-twin: They gave ten prominent custom bike shops a Bolt to see what the builders would make of it. This is the second in a series of posts about each bike that began with the Roland Sands Design street tracker. Today's post is about the Chappell Customs bike.

The Chappell Customs Star Bolt build, a bobber, is complete now. The monoshock rear end they've designed will be available as a kit. It will require some frame cuts, but is a bolt-on affair, so no welding is required. The shock was specifically designed for the Chappell Bolt by renowned SoCal motorcycle aftermarket suspension shop, Works Performance. The kit will also include the custom seat and subframe you see here. The chin spoiler will also be for sale soon.

Custom Monoshock Rear End

Check out the Chappell Customs blog for a series of posts about the build, including some videos of the shop action.

H/T to BikeEXIF blog.

Ten Bolt Customs at Star Motorcycles Facebook Page

Bolt Custom by Jesse Rooke of Rooke Customs

In an earlier post about the Roland Sands Bolt street tracker, we noted that as part of its rollout strategy for the new Star Bolt V-twin, Yamaha shipped new Bolts to a number of prominent custom bike shops to see what the builders would do with it. It was a total of ten shops, in fact. As part of our followup on that subject, here's a link where you can see all ten of the Bolt customs at Star's Facebook page.

Portland 2013 Mini Maker Faire Sept. 14-15

The Portland, OR Mini Maker Faire returns Sept. 14-15. It will be held in the North parking lot of the Oregon Museum of Science & Industry (OMSI) again this year, you can find a map and directions here.

One-day and two-day tickets are available for purchase online now, or at the gate. Admission prices are:

One-day: Adults $12, Youth (3-17) $8, Seniors (65+) $8.
Two-day: Adults $20, Youth $14, Seniors $14

OMSI members receive $3 off.

There will be ten food carts onsite this year. There will also be a beer and wine bar.

We attended last year. There was a good crowd of all ages and a lot of booths, and plenty of hands-on activities for people of all ages. There should be a great turnout again this year.

Retro Moto Blog

Bultaco 250 TSS Vintage Roadracer 

We like the Retro Moto Blog for its excellent photos of vintage and classic motorcycles: Roadracers (like the Bultaco 250 TSS here), street bikes, dirt bikes, motorcrossers, and more. You'll also find coverage of vintage motorcycle shows and racing events. Check it out.

Photo credit: Retro Moto Blog, Bultaco 250 TSS 

BIKEEXIF Custom Motorcycle Blog

If you love custom bikes of any kind --- cafe racers, bobbers, bratstyle, street trackers, choppers, classic, vintage --- or all of the above, you'll want to visit BikeEXIF.com on a regular basis. You'll find quality pictures and editorial content.

BikeEXIF is the creation of Chris Hunter of New Zealand. Chris was formerly the creative director for an advertising agency, so he knows how to design a quality website. In the video embedded below he discusses his vision for the site. Below that we have a link to his new book at Amazon, The Ride: New Custom Motorcycles and their Builders, which was published just this past week.

Seaweed & Gravel Blog and Vintage Bikes

1972 HD Sprint for Sale at Seaweed & Gravel

Seaweed & Gravel is a SoCal based company with an eclectic line of interesting products: vintage and custom bikes, vintage apparel and jewelry, surfboards, boots, bonsai trees, and other things. Check out their cool blog and current and past inventory of vintage and custom bikes.

Silodrome Gasoline Culture, a Cool Motorsports Blog

Check out Silodrome.com for all sorts of motorsports goodness.... motorcycles, cars, boats, art, clothing, films, gear... there's a special category for cafe racers, too.

The Bolt: A Sportster Killer from Yamaha?

Yamaha Star Bolt

Earlier today we did a post about the Roland Sands street tracker based on the new Yamaha Bolt. The 58ci  air-cooled V-twin is targeted right at the Harley-Davidson Sportster. So, we thought we'd followup here with a link to Cycle World magazine's Bolt vs. Sportster comparison test, which was published online just yesterday.

Back in March Cycle World published a "first look" at the Bolt and the Bolt R-Spec models here.

Roland Sands Yamaha Bolt Street Tracker

RSD Yamaha Bolt Street Tracker

The new Yamaha Bolt is a 58ci aircooled V-twin with bobber styling aimed right at the Harley-Davidson Sportster (see this recent Cycle World comparison test). As part of its rollout strategy, Yamaha shipped Bolts to a number of America's top custom bike shops to see what builders would do with it.

Among those prominent builders is pro roadracer turned custom bike designer and builder Roland Sands of Roland Sands Design (RSD) in Southern California. The street tracker you see here is his answer to Yamaha. Sands saw the Bolt as an natural conversion to the street tracker he'd been wanting to build for a while. He says that off the showroom floor the Bolt is lighter and better-handling than the Sportster.

Sands made surprisingly few changes from stock. There are the 19" Sun gold-anodized Sun wheels laced-up by Buchanan's Spoke & Rims of Azusa, CA and shod with Dunlop flattrack tires. A fiberglass seat assembly was designed and fabricated at RSD, as was a custom stainless steel exhaust system with carbon fiber tip. The stock handlebars and risers were replaced with RSD Step Moto bars and Nostalgia risers, finished in what RSD calls its "Black Ops" finish. The stock headlight was replaced with a Piaa projector-style headlight mounted on the left side of the engine.

This radical transformation of the Bolt's looks was accomplished with no welding or cutting. The only metal that was touched was some minor cleanup of the tank seams before painting.

Check out a couple of our previous posts featuring RSD, this one about the RSD Technics Sportster and this one about the RSD YouTube channel.

H/T to BikeEXIF, jump over and see their post about the RSD Bolt.

Analog Motorcycles CB550 with Sidecar, the "Family Truckster"

The "Family Truckster" is a very stylish 1978 Honda CB550 with sidecar rig from Analog Motorcycles. It belongs to Tony Prust, owner and founder of Analog. He calls it the Family Truckster because he's racked up a lot of road miles on it hauling his wife and daughter around... wife on the back, daughter in the sidecar.

Last year we featured another bike built by Prust, a well-executed 1978 Honda CB750 cafe racer called the Analog 01.

Ryca Motors Sporster Cafe Racer Kit

Ryca Motors Sportster Cafe Racer Conversion

As we noted in an earlier post today, Ryca Motors has now expanded beyond the Suzuki S40/Savage cafe racer, street tracker, and bobber conversion kits to embrace the Harley Sportster with a Sportster cafe racer conversion kit for 1991 to 2003 models. No welding is required, the conversion can be made with standard hand tools.

The base kit includes:

Fiberglass cafe racer seat
Custom Bassani exhaust
Rearsets
Burly Brand "Stilleto" shocks
Choice of clip-ons or clubman bars
Custom taillight with bracket
Choice of bikini fairing or headlight & gauges lowering kit

An upgraded version of the rearsets is also available.

This is a cool expansion of the Ryca Motors product line, and perhaps next we'll see a Sportster street tracker conversion kit from them.

Ryca Motors Suzuki S40/Savage Bobber Kit On the Market Now

Ryca Motors RR-1 Hardtail Bobber

Ryca Motors of Whittier, CA was started a few years ago by Casey Stevenson, a NASA engineer who left the agency to pursue a passion for building cafe racers based upon the Suzuki S40/Savage 650cc thumpers. We featured Ryca's low-cost cafe racer kits in a post here last year. Now we've just seen this cool hardtail bobber kit for the Suzuki, the Ryca RR-1.

Stevenson points out that the S40/Savage has been available from Suzuki for over twenty years, and there are a lot of good, clean, low-mileage S40's available in the used-bike market.

The kit is very complete, with hardtail assembly, peanut tank, a solo saddle, steel rear fender, taillight assembly, reverse cone muffler, and more. There is a raft of optional Ryca parts available, too, such as a front fender and sidemount taillight/license plate holder.

Note that the hardtail assembly bolts on to the Suzuki's frame; no welding required.

Check out the extensive customer bikes gallery at Ryca to get an idea of the cool builds riders are making with Ryca kits. Also note that Ryca has now branched out into Sportsters with a cafe racer kit for 1991 to 2003 Harley Sportsters. (That will be the subject of a later post, I think.)

Carducci Dual-Sport Sportster Conversion Kit

Carducci Dual-Sport Sportster Conversion

The Carducci Dual Sport Adventure SC3 conversion kit transforms a 1993-2003 883 or 1200 Sportster into a dual-purpose "adventure bike" with both on-road and offroad capabilities. This brings to market a Harley-Davidson based alternative to the KTM, Ducati, and Japanese dual-sport adventure bikes that have been tremendously popular in the last decade or so.

Jim Carducci and his wife are the engineering minds and company founders behind Carducci Dual Sport, LLC, which is located in Sunnyvale, CA, the heart of Silicon Valley. Jim is a mechanical engineer with three decades of design experience, and his wife is an electronics engineer with years of experience in electronics control systems and software design.

Carducci Dual Sport will do complete conversion builds for customers onsite in their shop, or sell complete kits with build instructions for the do-it-yourselfer. All component parts are designed in a CAD system and tested for strength with Finite Element Analysis (FEA) modeling and simulation.

The Adventure SC3 was on display at the 4th Annual Corbin Rider Appreciation Day bike show in Hollister, CA this past July 4th weekend, where is won the IronWorks magazine "Editor's Choice Award." The bike was immediately rolled into the Corbin studio for a photoshoot for publication in an upcoming issue of IronWorks magazine.

Check out the Adventure SC3 if you are looking for a unique alternative to the mainstream adventure bikes from Ducati, Kawasaki, KTM, etc. There are plenty of good used 1993 to 2003 Sportsters on the market at anytime, it seems, and at low prices.

The Bullitt Cafe Racer Blog

Down & Out Customs Norton Manx Sportster 

Let us bring to your attention the Bullitt Cafe Racer blog. Lots of great posts with pics of cool bikes, custom bike events, supermotard and bike-build videos. Also, the owner is charting the progress of three cafe racer builds he is doing: a contemporary Triumph, a vintage Honda CB, and a classic Yamaha XS.

The Sportster-engined cafe racer pictured here is a recent feature from the Bullitt Blog. Check it out.

Classified Moto CB400

Here again you see a plain-jane bike, a 1980 Honda CB400 Hawk, transformed into a ballsy custom by John Ryland of Classified Moto. This is one of a pair of 1980 Hawks made for one of Ryland's clients.

See more pics and details at the BikeEXIF blog.

Iron & Air Magazine, Print & Digital Mag for Lovers of Vintage & Custom Bikes

W650 Home-Built Cafe Featured in Iron & Air

Iron & Air magazine is for lovers of custom bikes with vintage styling. It is available in both print and digital (downloadable) versions, published bimonthly. For a print subscription, you can signup here, or go here for the digital editions. A list of retail sellers who stock the print edition can be seen here.

The Kawasaki W650-based cafe racer we picture how is an example of the kind of bikes featured at Iron & Air. This one was garage-built by a father and his son.

SoCal Motorcycle Startup AVA Velocity Works Brings Sixties GP-Styled Cafe Racer to Market

Designer Adrian Van Anz & the Swift 250

Wunderkind designer Adrian Van Anz is the design talent behind AVA Velocity Works, a Los Angeles-based motorcycle startup that is bringing a 250cc cafe racer to market. Van Anz styled the Swift 250, AVA Velocity's first model, to be reminiscent of the Grand Prix roadracers of the Sixties, such as the classic Bultaco 250 TSS.

The Swift 250 is powered by a single-cylinder OHC engine sourced from a Chinese manufacturer. The bikes will be assembled overseas. No word yet on will they will be available for purchase, but if you are interested you can inquire here at the AVA Velocity Works website.

Cycle World magazine had a first-look review back in May, after the Swift 250 was rolled-out for its first public viewing at the Quail Motorcycle Gathering last April.

This is Adrian Van Anz's first foray into motorcycle design, but not his first design effort to be informed by motorcycling's yesteryears; check out his Derringer Cycles gas-engine powered bicycles with styling inspired by early-Twentieth Century boardtrackers.

Most Dangerous Ways to Open a Bottle of Wine

And now, for something completely absurd...

Odd Bike Website: Rare, Odd, Exotic & Weird Motorcycles

Hesketh V1000

Found an interesting motorcycle website today, Odd-Bike.com, through a post at Pipeburn. Check it out.

See See Motorcycles of Portland, Oregon

See See Smoking Seagull 1

The crew at See See Motor Coffee Company in Portland, Oregon built this brutally elegant, Yamaha-based cafe racer, the Smoking Seagull 1. We previously featured a See See Motor build, a Honda CR-250-based cafe racer.

The See See Motor Coffee Company is both a custom bike shop and a coffee shop, located at 1642 NE Sandy Blvd. in Portland. Thor Drake of See See is the creator and organizer of The One Motorcycle Show, an annual event that has become a resounding success, pulling attendees and exhibitors from all over the country and beyond.

See See Motor Coffee Company

Check out the gallery of See See bikes here. Check out their Tumbler blog while you're at it.

Saker S-1: Private Jet Targets Mach 0.99

Saker S-1 Concept Art

Saker Aircraft is pitching this fighter-inspired personal jet that is designed to just kiss the speed of sound with a top speed of Mach 0.99. It's a tandem two-seater. The value proposition is the time saved getting from point A to point B, though I think the Top Gun looks, the fighter jet sex appeal is the real attraction.

Tip of the hat to Gizmag, which is where I found the Saker. They have a gallery of Saker pics up.

Flying Magazine online has a post up about the Saker. According to writer Stephen Pope, Saker is already taking pre-orders for the S-1 for delivery in 2019. The price tag ranges from $5M to $7M, depending on features.... which includes an option for ejection seats.

Sportster Cafe Racer in Norton Featherbed Frame

The Sporton Cafe Racer

BIKEEXIF has a new post up about a very well-crafted Sportster cafe racer from Kaula Lampur. It's a 1969 ironhead motor in a Norton Featherbed Wideline frame. Check it out. (Photo Credit: BIKEEXIF)

KTM X-Bow to Get New Five-Cylinder Engine

KTM X-Bow

The X-Bow is a cool track car from Austrian motorcycle manufacturer, KTM. They've announced that in a few years it will be equipped with the five-cylinder 2.5l engine from the Audi TT-RS.

Hat tip to the TopSpeed blog, see their story here.