1965 BSA A65 - Chasing Lightning

Here at Chez Pipe de la Carbon we don't know much about art, but we know what we like. And we like this; it's the work of Antoine Stemerding who is an artist living in the south of the Netherlands. His day job involves building weird and wonderful sculptures, most of the time out of metal. So when he came across a 1965 BSA for sale he decided to turn it into a hardtail. "I fabricated the hard tail frame myself" Antoine says. "That wasn't a big issue, because I work a lot with metal when I make my art. There aren't alot of chopped BSA's in the Netherlands but now and then one pops up."

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1950 Nimbus Bobber

Kim Scholer's Nimbus Bobber is one striking bike. When he's not riding it around Japan, you can find him cruising the roads of Denmark. We asked him a few questions about this interesting build.

What kind of motorcycle is a Nimbus?

It's the only Danish bike produced in large numbers, and it was used for just about everything. 750 cc ohc straight four engine, 22 bhp, shaft drive, steel strip frame riveted together. They built 12,000 of them from 1934 through 1959, with only few changes. This is good for the spares situation, so an estimated 8,000 have survived. The papers for this one says 1950, but there are bits and pieces from many other years. 

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Bob Maddox Pulsejet Bobber

OK, this is getting a little silly. Bob Maddox, possible lunatic and the world's pre-eminent expert on pulsejets, has just finished his latest creation. Not content with his pulsejet boardtracker we featured previously on Pipeburn, he's gone and mounted a monster pulsejet with a split exhaust onto a bike he's calling the Harley Davidson Sportjet. Apart from a Harley-ish tank design I'm not quite sure what it has to do with Milwaukee, though it would seem about as safe as your average Harley and probably has the handling to match.

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1981 Yamaha XS650 Bobber

This is a story about a young man named Cassio Silva who fell in love with a bobber sitting outside a tattoo shop in Texas. "That same day I went home and spent hours researching how to build one for myself" recalls Cassio. You see, this 20 year old had never even ridden a motorcycle, let alone tried to build one. "I’ve been building and modifying cars for years and knew i had the skills to take on the project" he says. After finding a suitable XS650, Cassio took the bike home and within days it was cut in half in his garage.

The entire bike was built on a tight budget, not because Cassio wanted it to be cheap but to show that this can be done by anyone, with any budget, and almost any experience. The hardtail is a pre made unit made by TC Bros. "It stretched the bike 3 inches, making it very comfortable for my 6'3" body" he says. "The bike originally came with a 16in wheel that i swapped for a 18in from an older japanese bike. Wheels were wrapped in 450 rear and 400 front Firestone replicas. The velocity stacks were a NOS part off ebay and really one of my favorite things on the bike. The seat is a West Eagle and uncovered, keeping with the raw theme. The lights were ebay items that I then took apart for some paint. The rear fender is the stock front one that i cut up to save some coin. The entire bike was painted with rattle cans."

After working hard on the build for a month, the bike was almost ready to hit the road. There was one small problem though, Cassio didn't know how to ride it. So in the same week he finished the bike, he took a motorcycle class and got his license – talk about a 'crash course' in motorcycles.

[The beautiful photos were taken by a photographer named Banzai Steve. You can check out more of his work on his Flickr page and blog.]

Imaginary Garage - 2010 Kawasaki Z1000 Bobber (updated)

Updated on Wednesday, October 13, 2010 by Andrew

After the first Imaginary Garage got such a good response, I thought I'd give it another go. For the record, I really love doing this kind of photoshopping. It's like building your dream bike without getting your hands dirty, or spending any money. Perfect for a big girl's blouse like me, so expect lots more.

This time I've chosen a 2010 Kawasaki Z1000. Why, you ask? Well, firstly because I think they are a great bike and a real step in the right direction for the company after a few years of some not-so-great nakeds. Secondly, when I saw the official photos from Kawasaki showing the black version of the bike in skeleton mode I honestly thought "wow". It looked way cool. Afterwards I couldn't get that image out of my head. It reminded me of the Confederate Fighter - more like a bike designed by machines than humans.

Then the other day I looked up the image again and had the proverbial light-bulb-above-the-head moment. I realised it looked like a bobber. Bingo:

So what makes a bobber? By definition, it's a bike with "the rear fender ‘bobbed’ or made smaller and all superfluous items removed to make it lighter." Guess we've got the "superfluous items removed" part covered, so let's add a fender and a seat to start with. I thought about how the fender would look for quite a while, and tried the classic curved style. It didn't work, of course. The styles were too different. 60's hot rod just doesn't go that well with 21st century Japanese tech, at least not on this bike. It needed to be more like the original design.

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Mooneyes Swap Meet

These stunning photographs were recently captured at the 2010 Mooneyes motorcycle swap meet in Odaiba,Tokyo. Taken by the 'Shimoyama Brothers' from Japan who have an amazing collection of photos on their Flickr page. I particularly love the Ducati shot with that beautiful fairing – would be keen to see more pictures of this exquisite café racer.

1971 Honda CB450 Bobber

There will be many die-hard Honda enthusiasts who might think taking a mint condition 1971 CB450 and turning it into a Gravel Crew inspired bobber is sacrilegious. I for one, am not one of those people. 
After riding for 10 years, Scott Halbleib came across a group of vintage riders who were members of Louisville Vintage Motorworks. After falling in love with their retro bikes he decided to search for a vintage ride of his own. "I also started searching the internet to get ideas of what i wanted to do to it. Gravel Crew WAS the inspiration. After looking through their bikes I settled on a Honda 500 they had done" Scott says. "I located a CB450 in mint condition 4 hours away, and off I went. Brought it back, put a couple hundred miles on it, and then one night after a few High Life's decided to start tearing it down. It wasn't an easy decision but the process had begun. The first and largest task was going to be the tank. I had seen Benjie's (BCR) work and decided to see if he'd be willing to help. He agreed to the job! I sent photos of what I wanted with little modifications here and there. Benjie created the tank and exhaust plus I used one of his headlight bucket mounts. Next were the wheels/tires. It took a while but I finally sourced the tires, and a friend recommended I contact Woody's Wheel Works to build the wheels. I supplied the tire info and sent the stock hubs, and they powdercoated, laced and mounted the finish product - twice - turns out I could no longer use a disc up front, so off to Ebay for a drum that would work, and, repeat process. I grinded the passenger peg mounts off the frame, chopped the rear fender, fabbed some straight bars, a license plate bracket and old Ford tailight. Then I took everything I had to Kwik Blast for final fab, paint and assembly. 8 months later, she returned, almost done and 3 days before 2 bike shows. A friend from the club who was luckily unemployed spent 10-12 hours a day all 3 days reworking fuel lines, reworking the electrical and tweaking the carbs." The bike was finished on a Friday at 10pm and at its first show the following day it won best rocker and best in show at Mods vs. Rockers. It also went on to win best Japanese bike at the Beatersville Show. Scott would like to thank all the people involved in helping him build his masterpiece. You can check out more pics of this stunning bobber on Scott's microsite. [Thanks Benjie]

1978 Suzuki Rat Bobber

This Suzuki Rat Bobber was built by Seattle based Greg Simanson who has a love of all custom motorcycles. When Greg decided to build a bike he wanted to create something a little different. "I turned the 1978 Suzuki GS750 into a hardtail" said Greg. "Shortened the front end, added new handlebars, controls, headlight, new exhaust and powder coated the wheels black". If you are wondering what the Japanese writing on the side of the tank means, it's actually an old Japanese license plate that Greg modified and added for decoration. You can view more shots of this rough and ready rat bobber on Gregs blog Shadowlight Customs.

Indian Bobber

This old school Indian Bobber was built by Shane Cooper from Speed Demon Cycles who are based in Queensland, Australia. Shane started customizing his own motorcycles in 1976 and hasn't stopped since. Over the years he has owned nearly 30 motorcycles, and every one of them has been customized in some way. "You're looking at the culmination of about 10 months work" explains Shane. "The plan was to build a modern hot rod Bobber. I chose a Harley Softail style frame and springer forks for their timeless looks and ride ability. Not because they suited any type of Indian heritage, purely because I like the look." The bike was built mostly from parts Shane bought on ebay. The frame is a V-Twin Reproduction FXST, rigid rear fender from the infamous jessy James, 1970's shovel superglide gas tank, a 1991 refurbished HD springer and 2008 dyna superglide wheels 17" rear & 19" front. He added 6 degrees to the frame neck and hand made that mean looking hot dog 2-1 exhaust. Lastly, the horsepower is produced by a 2003 PP100 Indian engine purchased from Blackhawk Motor Works in Florida. If you want to see more photos of this formidable beast, check out Shane's Indian Bobber Blog.