The Throttleroll 2013 Custom Motorcycle Show

In the U.S. they have the 1 Moto show. France has its Wheels and Waves. And now we are very proud to introduce Sydney's own world-class custom, classic, and café racer biker show - the inaugural Throttle Roll. It's the brain child of our very own Mark Hawwa and Jordan Kightly. The same guys who brought us the Australian Café Racers and the now famous Distinguished Gentleman's Ride. With a pedigree like that, we're guessing it's going to be a doosey. That's why we put our name on it.

If you're in Sydney next Saturday the 11th of May, you can drop by the The Vic in Enmore from 12pm onwards. There'll be more than 40 custom bikes, live bands, a few cleansing ales and a whole bunch of guys and girls who like custom bikes... just like you. And if you're the type who finds that too much fun is barely enough, then you can also join the Sydney Café Racers on a morning ride through the Royal National Park. Interested? Then check out more on the website and Facebook pages for the event. Scott and I will be there with bells on - and Pipeburn t-shirts as well. Feel free to come up and say hello.

Yamaha SR250 - First Notion

If you have ever tried to cut your own hair then you know how things can get out of control pretty quickly. I’ve tried it and it usually only goes one way. You just want to trim a bit off the sides and clean up the back, next thing you know you have totally butchered your locks and there’s no other option than to shave your head. That’s kind of what happened with this SR250 build. These part time builders from the newly formed First Notion in Belgium decided to “do a few things” to their trusty commuter bike. The next thing they knew they had stripped the bike down and were using carbon fibre, Italian leather and other fancy pants materials. The final result is this super slim SR250 with the best crew cut we have seen.

Click to read more ...

1982 Kawasaki Z1100ST 'Big Z' by Maccomotors

Written by Ian Lee.

Some families are close. Sometimes family gets together to start a business, or to work on motorbikes, or to just hang out. Today’s feature bike is a product of all three of these, and as the first build, this custom workshop is off to a great start. Maccomotors is a family based operation, with two brothers working out of a shed in Chiclana De Frontera, Cadiz at the base of Spain. This is their first build, the ‘Big Z’, a customised 1982 Kawasaki Z1100ST, built in a small workshop, by two brothers armed with big passions and great ideas.

Click to read more ...

Yamaha XS650 - 'YABSA'

Written by Ian Lee.

Some bike builders are like magicians. They take particular props, put them together and ‘hey presto’, produce something you didn’t think was possible. A mixture of new and old componentry on a bike build is an example of this. If you lean too far one way, or the other, you can ruin the concept of a build. Or at the very least, while trying to put a new image on an bygone concept, you have the motorcycle equivalent of David Hasselhoff. Roberto Totti and the team at Hook Motors have what it takes to mix new with old, and with over thirty years of experience in Robert alone, you can see the professionalism put into their builds. The Yabsa is one such bike, with a few different motorcycles, from a few different eras donating componentry, and the end result is magic. 

Click to read more ...

1988 Suzuki S40 Boulevard - Studio Motor

It's amazing what you can do with limited resources and a whole bunch of commitment; that's got to be the mantra of Studio Motor's Donny Ariyanto. He's a builder that's based in South Jakarta, and if there's anyone in the world that will be able to make a mountain out of any anonymous, out-of-favour, ill-advised motorcycling mole hill, it's this man. In the past he's worked miracles on Yamaha Scorpios and Suzuki Thunders, but we're thinking that he's really outdone himself this time. Feast your eyes on Studio Motor's latest single cylinder miracle, the “Naughty Red.”

Click to read more ...

1979 Suzuki GS750 - Tin Shack Restorations

It probably won't surprise you to learn that many custom bike builders and shops sometimes also dabble with custom cars. Less café, more drive-in diner you might say. If you ever follow the links to the builders websites in the stories we post you'll undoubtedly see the odd hot rod, classic Porsche, or muscle car lurking around in the background. But what did take us by surprise was the way Colby Morris of Tin Shack Restorations gets his four-wheeled kicks; he has a burning desire to bring old Land Rovers back from the dead. And if this is the kind of bike that gets made when these rubber boot and pheasant hunting types aren't, er, pheasanting then it's fine by us. Presenting ‘a series Land Rover and motorcycle hobby run amok,’ here's a '79 Suzuki GS750 they call the ‘Tin Shack Special.’

Click to read more ...

1980 Harley XLS “MX” - Lucid Customs

In life, you'll see plenty of things that seem pretty good from a distance but just don't stand up to scrutiny once you have a closer look. Take, for instance, cheap tools. Or your local politician. Or just about any film James Cameron has made. Similarly, custom bikes can sometimes look great at first glance, but upon closer inspection they just don't impress. Well, here's a bike that kind of reverses the equation. Now, that's not to say that it's crap from a distance. Hell no. See, what the latest build from Kevin Clarkson and the Boys at Lucid Customs in Calgary, Canada manages to do is to fool you into thinking it's a rough-and-ready parts bin special. But get up close and, well, just take a look for yourself.

Click to read more ...

1976 Honda CB750 Supersport - Ruby Red

Written by Ian Lee.

“We all know the thrill of the hunt, scouring around for neglected machines in backyards and toolsheds. Peeking under windswept tarps, and the skip of a heartbeat when you see the outline of the infamous CB750 Supersport fuel tank in some dimly lit shed”. Dustin Kott describes it in such illuminated terms, and he should know because he has done it. Many of us have stolen glances into an open shed/garage door, hoping to find some forgotten beauty, but it’s only a lucky few who actually stumble across anything of note. Dustin Kott is one of the few, and this is his latest build: the 76 Ruby Red Supersport. 

Click to read more ...

1982 Honda CB750 - Left Hand Cycles

The smell of the campfire. The feel of sleeping rough. The taste of freshly caught trout. And the silence... the pure, natural silence. Sound good? Yes? Too bad you'll never hear it, because on a bike like this all you'd know would be the echoing tear of the unmuffled 4-into-1, the smell of wet leaves on exhaust, and the taste of flies in your teeth. Who wants to commune with Mother Nature when you could tear her a new one on Left Hand Cycle's latest creation, the LHC#2?

Click to read more ...