2015 Ducati Scrambler

Looks awesome... and only 375 pounds. Check it out at Road & Track... they've got a series of posts about it.

Lucky Devil "Root Beer Float" Bobber

This root beer brown bobber was built by Kent Weeks of Lucky Devil Motor Works and presented at the the AMD Wold Championship bike build-off in Long Beach, CA in 2010. The Root Beer Float was built to order for Nyla Olsen of Bikernet. Bikernet has a multi-part series about the bike design and build. 

Colby Higgins Honda CX500 Cafe Build

CX500 Cafe Racer Build

Industrial designer Colby Higgins transformed a rather beatup Honda CX500 cruiser into this very clean and simple cafe racer. More pictures here at his Coroflot portfolio.

Vintage Voodoo Leaf-Spring Front End

Cool retro-vintage styled custom front end from Vintage Voodoo.

Musket V-Twin Royal Enfield, Check Out the Latest News

Musket V-Twin, Royal Enfield Based Special

See the latest news regarding the Musket V-Twin here. The ORDER page is up now!

The Musket is a Royal Enfield special created by industrial engineer Aniket Vardhan. He designed and made casting patterns for a custom bottom end that used two stock Royal Enfield top ends, either 350cc or 500cc, to make a V-twin engine. It's a beautiful piece of work and is meeting with success in the marketplace.

Beautiful Classic Ducati Cafe Racers

Ducati Cafe Racer at Inazuma Caferacer Blog

Absolutely beautiful Ducati cafe racers at one of our favorite motorcycle blogs, Inazuma Caferacer. 

Darizt Design Honda GL100 Boardtracker

Daritz Design GL100

Here's a very cool little Honda with boardtracker styling from Daritz Design of Indonesia, courtesy of Bike EXIF blog.

Awesome Earle Motors Ducati Monster Streettracker Available in Kit Form

Earle Motors Monster Streettracker

Alex Earle and his team at Earle Motors in Venice, CA designed and built this fantastic Ducati Monster-based streettracker. Earle announced last year that his company plans to offer the one-piece fiberglass body, fuel tank, wheels, and headlight assembly to builders in kit form.

We believe that it is available now. Interested riders are directed to contact them at inquiries@earlemotors.com.

Earle says that the bodywork and fuel tank can be easily adapted for Harley Sportsters and Triumphs. Anyone interested in one of those applications is also encouraged to email them for further information.

Classic Cafe Racers from Vicente Design at the Kneeslider Blog

Vicente Cafe Racer, photo credit Kneeslider Blog

The Kneedslider blog featured several of Vicente Design's classic cafe racers a while back. We are impressed with the caliber of his designs and his craftsmanship in execution.

We posted a link a week ago to the feature they did about their Triumph Hurricane tribute bike, along with some associated material, including a link to Hurricane designer Craig Vetter's website.

Deus Ex Machina Yamaha 400 Thumper Scrambler Kit

Deus Ex Machina Yamaha 400 Kit

The crew at Deus has put together a kit for customizing the Yamaha SR400. It's got that vintage XT500 scrambler vibe; think of it as kind of a tribute to that popular classic. They call it a "custom meant to be customized." Put your own spin on it, make it more streettracker than scrambler, for example.

More on the SR400 here.

Here's another builder's take on the XT500 at the Pipeburn blog, this one an actual customized version of the original, from Mark Apland of Thumper Stuff in Monroe, WA.

Steampunk Lamp

Steampunk Lamp seen on Pinterest

Saw this on Pinterest. Unfortunately the artisan who designed and built it was not identified there. Thought it was cool, and rated a post here from Steampunk aficionados.

1917 Harley-Davidson L17T Boardtracker for sale at Deus Ex Machina

For sale at Deus Ex Machina

The crew at Deus Ex Machina has a 1917 H-D boardtracker for sale. They say its in excellent condition and ready to race. Follow the link and you'll find the you'll find the contact info, phone and email.

Voodoo Vintage Custom Bike Frame Builders Kits for Boardtrackers

Voodoo Vintage Model 6 Frame

Voodoo Vintage offers frame kits for custom bikebuilders, including several models with a boardtracker theme. The Model 6 frame shown to here is said to be a known fit for Yamaha XS650, Honda CB350 and CB360, Suzuki LS650, and "many others."

Follow the link above and you will find a download button for detailed specs in Adobe pdf format for the six frames featured, including the Model 12 boardtracker for Sportster and Buell powerplants.

Lotus C-01 Hyperbike, Limited Edition

The Lotus C-01 200hp futuristic superbike was designed by Daniel Simon, the designer of the Light Cycle in the Tron reboot. Only 100 will be built. The pricetag? $137K.

The C-01 is in fact created by two German motorsports firms, the Kodewa autoracing team and the Holzer Group. They licensed the Lotus name and logo for this special project.

Check out also the C-10 article at Wired.

Indian Scout Cafe Racer from Analog Motorcycles

We've been really impressed with the work of designer/builder Tony Prust, proprietor of Analog Motorcycles, as he's developed the last couple of years or so that we've been aware of him and Analog. Now we've just seen this classic, elegant Indian Scout cafe racer at the Bike EXIF blog (one of our all-time favorite motorcycle blogs, by the way). Impressive. Check it out.

Bike EXIF has featured a number of other Tony Prust bikes in the past. I liked this 1971 Triumph 250 based scrambler, it's especially nostalgic for me because my first bike was a 1971 250 in the street model configuration.

How to Build a Cafe Racer

Honda CX500 Cafe Racer

Charles Tregolan is a professional car designer by trade. In his spare time he designs and builds his own bikes. He's written a set of guidelines for cafe racer builders at the Bike EXEF blog.

The guidelines tell the builder how to scale and set the parameters of a cafe racer to give it a professional look; how to size and place the tank relative to the engine and crankcase, how to set the fork distance, where to set the limits of the seat length relative to the rear axle, and so on.

He uses the Honda CX500 cafe racer you see here as a real-world, guiding example. If you have an interest in building, or plan to build a cafe racer, check out his article.


  

High-Tech, Lightweight Brake Rotors for Harley-Davidsons

Matrix Brakes Disc on H-D

I stumbled across this company, Matrix Brakes, while doing a bit of research on an advanced materials type metal-matrix composites (MMC). They make brake rotors and brake pads for Harleys from an MMC material that is a mixture of aluminum and a ceramic, Silicon Carbide (SiC). The claimed advantages are much lighter weight than stock (1.9lbs vs. 4.9lbs) and greater stopping power. The lighter weight of the rotor is a reduction in unsprung weight, so that would improve the ride and handling of the bike.

They also make carbon-kevlar brake pads.

You can read more about their technology in a slide presentation here. They are also looking for qualfied dealers, you can apply here.

Triumph Flat Track Blog

70's Triumph Flattrack Bike

I just found this blog dedicated to Triumph flattrack racing. A lot of cool pics, but hate to report that the most recent posts are from 2010. Nonetheless, if you are a Triumph fan, check it out for a lot of pics of vintage and modern Triumph flatttrack racers and racing photos.

Triumph Hurricane Tribute for the New Millennium from Vicente Design

Vicente Triumph Millennium 900 Hurricane Tribute

Designer Jean Francois Vicente created this beautiful tribute to the Craig Vetter designed Triumph Hurricane X75. He started with a Triumph 900 Adventurer. The composite body work and triple pipes are of his own design. I think it captures the look and spirit well in modern technology. You can read more about it at the Kneeslider blog.

You can read more about Craig Vetter and the Triumph Hurricane at his Craig Vetter Hurricane pages. You will also find links there to a gallery of Hurricane pictures and a listing of Hurricane articles.

1973 Triumph Hurricane X75

Flying Merkel Tribute Build, Part 2

Reproduction of  Historic1913 Flying Merkel

Terry, the builder of this tribute to the legendary Flying Merkel boardtrackers, has sent me a link to his very extensive gallery of pics he took of the build-in-progress, step-by-step. If you want to build a bike of your own, there's a lot you can learn by studying these.

The Flying Merkel pictured to the left is a replica built by builder Chris Cutler. Tip of the hat to The Vintagent blog for this one.

Aether Motoped Survival Bike, Complete with Crossbow

Black Ops Edition

Never thought I'd want a moped, but I could be persuaded about this one: The Motoped Survival Bike from Aether, the riders apparel company.

Flying Merkel Tribute Build

Flying Merkel Boardtracker

This guy at BTRbuilder.com started a Flying Merkel tribute build in 2010. He started a thread that logs his design and build efforts here at ADVrider.com forums. That link is to the first entry in the thread. He's posted a lot of pictures at in each entry, documented the project in very good detail. If you're interested in doing any kind of custom bike build yourself, you will find this educational.

There is only a landing page at BTRbuilder.com, but he does have an email address, and says he has boardtracker parts and plans available. The Facebook page, BTRbuilder, is apparently gone... I can't get to it.

Completed Merkel Tribute Bike from BTRbuilder

I have sent a note to the email address given there, info@btrbuilder.com, asking if he still has parts and plans available. I will update here if I get a response, whether or not it's positive or negative. Stay tuned.

Update 8/25: I got a reply from Terry, the designer and builder at BTRbuilder. Here it is:

I do have parts and full scale printed templates of the Merkel I built but I haven't decided if I'm going to put together a full set of plans yet. I'm still trying to see where the interest is and for the most part it seems that people want help on building there own idea of a boardtracker and don't necessarily want to build the same bike I did. I'm currently building a complete bike for a guy that saw the Merkel but wanted something different.  My main goal right now is just putting myself out there to help people with whatever they want to build.  Sometimes it's me building something for them and sometimes it's just me giving advice to help them do it themselves.

You can contact him at the email address given above, info@btrbuilder.com. He has also sent me links to pics of two other projects, and I will upload a couple of pics of them in separate posts.

The 2013 One Motorcycle Show Roundup at The Selvedge Yard Blog

1970 Triumph TT100C, "Lemon Drop"

Just found this nice gallery of pics from The One Motorcycle Show of 2013 at The Selvedge Yard blog.

Video from the 5th Annual The One Motorcycle Show in Portland

The Juliet Zulu creative agency documented the See See Motor Coffee sponsored The One Motorcycle Show in Portland last month. Videos and still shots are now up at their site.

Hot Rod Jen Pinstriping Gallery at Pinhead Lounge

Hot Rod Jen Panel Art

Last year we put up a post about ace pinstriper Jennifer "Hot Rod Jen" Skidmore of New Jersey, with a link to her SmugMug galleries. Just love her work. Now we just found that she's got a huge gallery of work up at the popular pinstriping site, Pinhead Lounge. The girl is not only talented, she's really prolific. If you love pinstriping and Kustom Kulture, check out her Pinhead Lounge gallery.

McQueen Inspired Triumph Motorcycle Design Concepts by Designcube

Designcube "Great Escape" Triumph Concept Bike

The design team at Designcube, a Barcelona-based industrial design house, has shared renderings of two Triumph concept bikes inspired by classic Steve McQueen films, the "The Great Escape" and  "The Getaway". Both are based on the 885cc Triumph Speed Triple.

Will either one or both ever be brought to market, whether as a conversion kit or custom bike? They aren't saying. These may well remain just design exercises, though it would be very cool to see at least the Great Escape scrambler pictured here come to life as either a custom or a conversion kit.

You can see more Designcube motorcycle and automotive concepts and projects at their online Coroflot portfolio.

P.S. The stunt riding in "The Great Escape" was performed by the late, legendary SoCal motorcycle racer, Bud Ekins, who was a friend of McQueen's. Ekins also stood-in for McQueen as the stunt driver of the Ford Mustang in the awesome chase scene in "Bullit." Here's the 1966 Triumph desert sled that Ekins built for McQueen.

The Return of the Yamaha SR400

2015 Yamaha SR400 

This just knocks me out... Yamaha is bringing the venerable SR400 thumper back to the US market after 20 years of absence. Bikes will be in US dealerships in May as an early 2015 model. The list price is said to be $5,990.

As you can see in the photo here, this bike has truly retro late-Seventies styling. The original SR400 was first introduced in 1978. You can go to Yamaha's SR400 history page and see how closely the 2015 model resembles the 1978 original.

The 399cc aircooled engine is mated to a five-speed transmission, and has a chain drive. Surprisingly, it is kickstart only, no electric starter. Now that is retro.

It's apparent that Yamaha is responding to the success that custom builders like Deus Ex Machina, Classified Moto, and Spirit of the Seventies are having, and the buzz they are generating, with simple, low-cost, retro bikes that appeal to both the new generation of riders (Millennials) and Baby Boomers nostalgic for the bikes of their youth. There also seems to be more than ever a thirst for bikes that, unlike the typical crotch rocket, are easy to customize... Go to Yamaha's SR400 webpage and note the tagline there: "Retro Cool. Built to Customize." I am also sure the success of the 500cc Royal Enfield Bullet thumpers has come to their notice, too.

It's wonderful to see this clean and elegant lightweight bike come back to market. The AutoEvolution.com website has a gallery of eight pics of the bike here.

Photo credit: Autoevolution.com 

Steampunk Tendencies

Nutcracker Rat Bikes at Steampunk Tendencies

A lot of awesome steampunk craft work, art, vehicles, and costumes for your weekend viewing pleasure at Steampunk Tendencies blog.

Ace Cafe 75th Anniversary Magazine for Cafe Racer Buffs

Ace Cafe Collector's Mag

 Classic Bike Guide magazine has published an Ace Cafe 75th Anniversary "bookazine," a 132-page collection of articles and loads of pics celebrating the legendary hangout of the ton-up boys and rockers. You can preview it and buy a copy at Biker's Paradise. Or you can click on our Amazon affiliate link below to get a copy.

The Norcroft Royal Enfield V-Twin

Norcroft 1000cc Royal Enfield V-Twin

The Kneeslider blog has reported that the Norcroft Royal Enfield V-Twin project begun by Bill Hurr and Richard Hurst in the UK back in 2004 has come back to life.  Two German enthusiasts tracked Bill Hurr down and persuaded him to join them in reviving the project, to bring it all the way to market this time around. Another enthusiast from India has also joined the team. The works are now in Germany.

The Norcroft website is here. Their Facebook page is here.

The Norcroft engine has a displaement of 1000cc: a custom bottom end accepts two 500cc Royal Enfield top ends.

We have previously posted about another Royal Enfield based V-Twin, Aniket Vardhan's Musket. Aniket's engine is a 59degree configuration available in both 700cc (using 350cc top ends) and 1000cc (using the 500cc cylinders). The Norcroft engine appears to be something more like 45degrees... in these close-up engine pics it looks a lot like a Vincent, I think.

The One Motorcycle Show & Bad Weather

We were really looking forward to attending the 5th annual The One Motorcycle Show in Portland this year. Had hoped to take a memory-card full of pics to share with you here, but are really disappointed to report that due to the biggest storm we've seen in 25 years here we just could not make it. So, we console ourselves with the video from the event.

We will report more news from the show as the See See Motor Coffee crew releases pics and video.

Roc City Cafe Racers CB750

Roc City CB750 Cafe Racer

Roc City Cafe Racers owner, Sean Pelletier recently built a CB750 cafe racer for himself. Just saw his post and pics at his Roc City shop blog.

If you're in the market for awesome alloy tanks and seats for a cafe racer build, be sure to take a lot at Roc City's handcrafted offerings at their online store.

Update: A hearty welcome to all readers coming here through WeLoveCafeRacers.com. If you go to our search box to the right below and search for "cafe racer" you will find a lot more posts featuring some very cool bikes and their builders.

"The Kronies," Hilarious Satire of Our Culture of Crony Capitalism

"The Kronies" action figures from the crew at Emergent Order are a very funny satire on crony capitalism.

Tina Stull, Fast Woman

 Tina Stull, drag racer... says she was 34 years old when she first sat in a dragster. She definitely was a fast learner.

Ice Racing the New H-D Street 750

Tip of the Hat to The Shanna Daily for this!

Custom Concepts for the Street 750 & 500 from Harley's Design Team

Harley Street Custom Bobber

The design of the new entry-level H-D Street 500/750 models is very minimalist. It's a bike that just screams out for modification. Well, it was deliberately designed to be so. So H-D management asked members of their design team to explore the that potential by doing "sky's the limit" concept bikes. Some of the results are documented in the H-D video we've embedded here.

"The Street" 500cc & 750cc All-New Entry Level Bike from H-D

The Street 750 from Harley-Davidson

In a quest for a new generation of younger buyers in both the United States and the emerging markets of India and China, Harley is introducing a new entry-level street bike, the "Street", their first entirely new model in years. The Street is designed to be a city bike, with suspension, engine response, and clearance optimized for urban settings, especially the rougher streets of Indian and Chinese cities.

The Street's "Revolution X" engine is a water-cooled 60-degree V-twin in both 500cc and 750cc displacements. The 60-degree layout allows a lower tank and seat height even with a greater road clearance than that of Harley's traditional 45-degree plan.

Bikes will be manufactured in both the US (Kansas City) and India. American made bikes will ship to the US, Canada, and Mexico; the Indian made machines will ship to the rest of the world. The 750 model has been made available first in India, where it went on sale last month. The 500cc and 750cc models will both be available when it goes to market in the US this spring.

In the US the 500 model will be priced at $6700 and the 750 at $7500. Read more about the Street at H-D's website here.

Gorgeous Ron Wood Rotax Flattracker

Ron Wood 600cc Rotax Flattracker

What a gorgeous bike... clean, simple lines and bright red paint. Here's a Kneeslider blog post about it from way back in 2006. Still beautiful eight years later.

Deus Ex Machina "Boundless Enthusiasm Bike Build-Off"

2010 First Place Winner "Much Much Go" Honda CB250 Custom

We just learned of the Deus Ex Machina custom bike build shop's Boundless Enthusiasm Bike Build-Off. The latest was held this past October, and the team at Deus says it's now officially an annual event that they'll be hosting. The build-off was a distributed, global event held at Deus's shops in four nations: Sydney, Bali, Venice, CA and Milan, Italy. Over 200 bikes were entered.

The first and foremost guiding rule for entrants is, "Create the most with the least." The second and third rules say, respectively, that all entries must run and stop under their own power... "these are motorcycles, not art installations" as the Deus team puts it. The fourth and fifth --- final --- rules are about ingenuity, originality, and creativity in conception and execution, such as use of repurposed parts, handcrafted parts, and so on... it's not about picking items from catalogs. This is the bike build-off for the rest of us, the little guys and gals.

2013 5th Place Finisher, Backyard Customs Honda

The cool Honda CB250 that we alluded to in our previous post, the Much Much Go by Australian industrial designer Nick Eterovic, is pictured above. It took First Place in 2010's build-off. You can see the October build-off's top twenty bikes here. Our favorite is this little Honda cafe racer from Indonesia's Backyard Customs pictured to the left here.

We are very happy to hear that starting with October 2013 build-off Deus is committed to making this an annual event.

Old Empire Motorcycles Honda CB250 Brat Bike, "Vulcan"

OEM Vulcan

The design-and-build crew at Old Empire Motorcycles took a Seventies-era ugly duckling Honda CB250, transformed it into a badass brat-style mashup of bobber and cafe racer and called it "Vulcan."

If you'd asked me back in the Seventies if I ever thought a Honda CB250 could be cool, I would've wondered what planet you were from. Well, after looking at this one I can only say that attitude was just due to my own failure of imagination... this little bike is way cool. And come to think of it, a certain member of my family has a Nighthawk 250, just a later model of the old CB250..... hmmmmm, I see some possibilities...

See more pics of Vulcan at The Bike Shed and at OEM's Vulcan page.

Tip of the Hat to BIKEEXIF blog, where we found this baby.

UPDATE: Just saw this awesome CB250 custom at Silodrome.... the "Much Much Go." Wow. Will post more about it later.

Triumph Thruxton "Steampunk Racer" from Benjie's Cafe Racers

BCR Steampunk Racer Triumph

We found this new steampunk-styled cafe racer by builder Benjie Flibbrboi of Benjie's Cafe Racers (BCR) at Pipeburn blog. The base model is a 2008 Triumph Thruxton.

Pipeburn has a load of pics at the link above. The bike was also just featured at another favorite blog, Return of the Cafe Racers.

We've previously posted about BCR and Benjie here at Cool Stuff. It's great to see that BCR is still going strong, and very cool to see Benjie's work back in the news again. You can follow BCR news and activities here at their blog.

BCR Seat, Tank & Fairing Combo Set

And if you are in the market for beautiful, high quality cafe racer parts and accessories, check out the BCR online parts store. A beautiful example is the steampunk-styled body set pictured to the left here. 

Fifth Annual "The One Motorcycle Show" Portland, OR Feb. 7 - 9

Put it on your calendar: The One Motorcycle Show, 5th annual edition, is just a month away in Portland, OR. No admission charged... The show is FREE, both to attend and to exhibit!

Check out the show's Instagram page for more information and tons of great pics. Also on Facebook.

The One Motorcycle Show is organized by Drake McElroy and his team at See See Motor Coffee in Portland, OR.

 

Steampunk Corsets & Accessories from Corset Story

Isabella Steampunk Corset

Corset Story has quite a lineup of steampunk apparel and accessories. The corset pictured here is the "Isabella" steel-boned, white-striped steampunk corset. It comes with a detachable jacket and belt.

Corset Story apparel is available online at their Amazon store.

TriFlyer Vintage Triumph Boardtracker-Styled Custom from TT Cycles

TT Cycles TriFlyer Vintage Triumph Custom

Dennis Harrold of TT Cycles exhibited this boardtracker-themed Triumph custom at the Steve McQueen Bonneville tribute at Progressive's IMS motorcycle show in New York last year. The engine is a 1970 Bonneville mill.

TT Cycles was founded in 1998 to "meet the growing demand for quality work on vintage Triumph motorcycles." A picture gallery featuring the TriFlyer is here.