Kawasaki Z750B by Street Tuff Customs

Written by Ian Lee.

Isn’t it great when ideas just work together? Concepts that aren’t easily conceived, but when enacted turn out awesome? Like using a Mini SU carb on a Kawasaki engine, or using stainless dairy pipe for an exhaust system. Graham Braid of Street Tuff Customs is one man who likes using different ideas that work together, and the latest example of this is this tough looking Kawasaki Z750B street tracker. With three years of work, and a little help from some friends, Street Tuff Customs has produced one mean machine with customisation up the ying yang.

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Addiction Custom's ‘86 SR400 - “The Addict”

Being in a kind of retro mood, I just dug deep into the dusty recesses of my browser's bookmarks folder. The one I was interested in tonight was the collection marked ‘motorbikes.’ See, contained in this folder are all the bookmarks I have kept from the very earliest days of my addiction, and looking back into it is akin to opening a time capsule that I buried some time in 2005. So what do you suppose the links there lead to? I'll tell you; Yamaha SRs, and lots of them. And that's because it's the SR that we all must thank as the vehicle that reinvented what it meant to say the words ‘custom motorbike’ and ‘café racer,’ in the same way Nirvana reinvented ‘rock’ and Ansel Adams reinvented ‘photography.’ And what better way to illustrate my point than an SR that encapsulates everything that's right about today's custom bikes. Please welcome Mr Nick Blaxell and his wonderful Yamaha, ‘The Addict.’

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Retro Moto's ‘81 Honda CM400

When you get down to brass tacks, being a bike customiser really is all about the metal. Whether you're welding it, grinding it, or shaving it off on a lathe, it's the way you use it that makes or breaks a great design. Some like it seamlessly smooth and reflective like a B-29 bomber. Some like it matt black like a charcoal cat hunting in the night, and some prefer it rough and corroded so it looks like it's 1000 years old. But which ever way you cut it, the more you love it and understand it, the better your handwork is going to look. Retro Moto's Junior Burrell is a guy that clearly loves the stuff, which was immediately obvious when we first saw this, his latest build. The wealth of intricate details, handmade parts, and array of different patinas says it in spades. If you love metal, we're guessing you'll love this bike.

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Yamaha XS650 – Holiday Customs

Jared Johnson from Holiday Customs has certainly got his own distinctive look going on. This is the third generation of his curved Schwinn inspired XS650. The first one he kept for himself, the second one was sold to Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys, and the third, which we are featuring today was recently built for The One Motorcycle Show. The first one took around three months to build, the second took two months and the third he was able to complete in one month, due to the pressure of finishing it in time for The One Motorcycle Show. Jared picked up the donor XS650 in his home town of Portland. “It wasn't much” he says. “Just an engine and frame, but I had everything else around the shop.” So with only a month to have it finished, he got wrenching.

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1980 BMW R80 - Tarmac Custom Motorcycles

I’m sure many of us know the situation. A complete bike in pieces, a vision of the end product in our head, and trying to work out how wrong you will be about the budget required for the build. Tarmac Custom Motorcycles encountered the first two of these ideas, and the latter ended up being no issue, as whatever they spent on it was worth it. Javi Pacheco and Jano Valiente, a classic bike enthusiast  and a seasoned mechanic respectively, joined forces in late 2011. Since then they have completed 12 bikes, with a handful more to finish. Their latest offering comes in the form of a 1980 BMW R80 flat tracker, which showcases the Tarmac workshop’s talents beautifully. 

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1984 Yamaha SR400 - Zoku Motorcycles

By guest writer Ian Lee.

Here at Pipeburn we have a soft spot for thumpers. The thud-thud-thud of a single cylinder is music to the ears… and when wrapped in a custom motorcycle, it is even better. Based in Sydney, Australia, Zoku Motorcycles are also fond of single cylinder power – especially in the form of the legendary Yamaha SR. These bikes make for an easy starting point for custom builds, easy for any novice to try it, as the boys from Zoku found out when commencing the build. But it was worth it in the end, as they have produced a great build, with that thumping sound to boot. 

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Bandit9's '88 Honda Bros 400 - “Hephaestus”

Now it's time for a bit of education. Fear not, we won't be attempting any calculus and the chances of us testing you are slim at best. See, in order to fully appreciate the bike you see before you, we'll have to indulge in a little ancient Greek mythology as this bike has been inspired by a Hellenic demigod by the name of Hephaestus. If you were a metal worker, craftsman, blacksmith or sculptor in ancient times, chances are you would have been spilling a red wine libation to him on a regular basis. And as his symbols were a hammer and an anvil, it makes you wonder if more of us modern types shouldn't be reconsidering our choice of big man in the sky. And as a matter of fact, there is at least one modern guy who's done just that. His name is Daryl, and he's the man who built the coolest Honda Bros this world, or any other, has ever seen.

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La Corona's '81 BMW R100RS - “004”

La Corona Motorcycles is one of the latest shops in Europe to be producing this stripped back street tracker look. Based in Barcelona, this is their fourth build by the four passionate Spanish builders. Each of their builds has used a different donor bike, but they all have the 'less is more' La Corona aesthetic to them. This time they decided to use a 1981 BMW R100RS. It's the second incarnation of this beemer, originally being built red with black detailing. The stock bike had a sizeable complete fairing, which was the first thing to go. Their goal, like most of their builds was to build something simple and "naked" – we think they acheived this with flying colors.

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Steel Bent Custom's '81 Honda CB750 -“Janica”

Every now and then on Pipeburn we'll get a certain kind of bike. One that's just, well, just right. Not too flashy yet not too vanilla. Not too cool yet not too square. Not too stock yet not too personalised. They are slippery little suckers that kind of defy description yet somehow speaks volumes about the state of play. Bikes that you innately feel will be the ones we'll all look back in twenty year's time and say, ‘now that is what the custom bike scene in the early part of the 21st century was all about. This is the latest bike from Steel Bent Customs. This is one hell of a CB750. This is that bike.

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