"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.