2011 Ton-Up Boys Rockers Ride - Sydney

Some things just don't go together. Like politics and honesty. Aluminum foil and microwaves. And another one I learnt today - lycra and leather. You see, today in sunny Sydney it was one of the bigger motorcycle rides of the year organised on the same day as one of the biggest cycling events of the year. Both groups travelling the same roads. You can see where this is going, right? Unfortunately the organisers didn't. Luckily the very eclectic mix of bikers were a patient bunch and no cyclist got hurt - except a couple of plump people pulling hamstrings. So as per usual we encountered a few problems shooting 'complete' bikes. Loads of people plus loads of bikes in a small area isn't the best equation. So before you ask to see more of the actual bikes (not just the art house tank shots) be assured we have a few features coming up of these bikes and more. So for now, enjoy these tasty entrees...

Click to read more ...

1974 Peugeot 50 TSA

How do you start a story about a simple but elegant Peugeot Moped cafe racer? Do you compare it to a slender French super model? No, too shallow. Do you open by telling the amazing history of Peugeot and how they've been building motorcycles since before your great grand daddy was popping wheelies on his penny-farthing? Nah, that could seem like a history lesson. Or do you just show the beautiful photographs sent to us by the builders of this French moped and let them tell their story? Probably best. Well, this little 1974 50cc moped was built by Thomas Patouillard Demoriane, who is part of a Parisian moped gang that go by the name of 'The Children of Decadence'. Here's how Thomas describes the project:

Click to read more ...

Honda CL360

Living in Australia we sometimes forget how cold it can get in other parts of the world. On the recent Pipeburn ride I heard many grown men whining about how cold the early morning was in Sydney and it was only 16˙C (60˙ fahrenheit). So I take my mohair beanie off to guys like Aaron Ruse from Illinois who has spent the last American winter building a bike in freezing temperatures in his unheated concrete garage. Aaron is a young guy who recently decided it was time to learn some wrenching skills and build his first bike. "I got interested in motorcycles last summer as a way to learn about basic mechanics," says Aaron. This interest quickly grew into a love for classic motorcycles. He was inspired by his uncle R.J. Ruse and his buddies who restore classic bikes, along with a new friendship with Team Hansan Racing's Terry Naughtin, and set out to build a cafe racer last winter. "I found a beat up '75 CL360 and a badly dented and rusted CB350f tank in a back junk yard of a local motorcycle shop and set to work".

Click to read more ...

Interview: Gregory Thüne - Industrial Designer

We have all seen amazing concept bikes created by Industrial Designers that never see the light of day. They are created on the computer and spend the rest of their days in the pixel world. Well, this Fiv0 concept was designed by Gregory Thüne who is trying to take it into the next stage — production. We asked Greg a couple of questions about this stunning bike and we cross our fingers and hope it does manage to do a "reverse Tron" and make the jump from pixels to the real world.

Can you tell us a little about yourself and your background? 

I'm a professional Industrial Designer (Canadian by birth) working with Astro Studios in San Francisco — I studied ID in the 90s with the thought of designing my own motorcycle, then really dove into researching the "hows" and "whys" behind designing a functional bike from the ground up in the early 2000s while designing toys, consumer products, electronics and the like, cause you know... a man has got to eat.

Click to read more ...

Video: Cafe Cowboy

My long-suffering wife (who I love VERY VERY much - in case she happens to read this) will always quiz me on the odd occasion I take her out to an expensive restaurant or surprise her with flowers and chocolates with a question along the line of "why can't you do this more often?" My response is as predictable as it is invariable; I always tell her "hey, if we ate lobster every night it wouldn't be a luxury anymore would it?"

Well, keeping that thought in mind, I'd like to invite you to watch yet another killer short film on the art of making custom motorbicycles. In this vid, we get a sneak peak into the world of Dustin Kott from Kott Motorcycles. This little masterpiece was shot by a photographer and illustrator who goes by the very noble name of Benedict Campbell. He's been shooting photos for the Ad Industry for over 20 years and if his stills are anything like his motion work, i'll be hiring him to shoot my next wedding after my current wife divorces me for using the deeply personal moments in our relationship as fodder for writing Pipeburn articles. Ahem.

Via HFL

Honda CB350 Café Racer

Michael LaFountain from Raccia Motorcycles has been obsessed with motorcycles ever since he built his first bike when he was 17 years old. Little did he know that building that motorcycle would shape the course of his life for the next 16 years. "I’ve been buying and recreating bikes ever since" says Michael. "I’ve built British and Italian motorbikes in the past but I have found the Japanese bikes to be more of a challenge due to the fact that the a large majority of the British and Italian bikes were beautiful to begin with, unlike a lot of Japanese bikes."

After spending a few years in Europe and spending way too much time plastering his apartment walls with sketches of new ideas, Michael knew that when he returned home he had to take this bike building thing more seriously. "I formed Raccia Motorcycles in 2006 with the main objective to create vintage Japanese race-inspired motorcycles using primarily Japanese parts along with some hand built parts" he says. The main shop is in Southern California but 4 months ago Michael opened another satellite shop in the Bay Area of northern California.

Click to read more ...

Honda CB750 Café Racer

I stumbled upon this thing of beauty on a blog called Anatomy of a Cafe Racer. The bike was built by a talented young guy from Kansas called Pete (AKA Pistol Pete). After building it over a two year period, he finally finished it last week. I wanted to find out more about this classy CB café racer, so I got in contact with Pete and asked him a couple of questions:

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

My name is Pete Moyer, I'm 28 and live in Kansas. I work in healthcare and I am married, but have no children. Ever since I can remember I have been practically obsessed with anything on wheels. I slept with hotwheels instead of teddy bears. Growing up I lived on a farm, so I had the opportunity to ride lots of dirtbikes and fourwheelers. In highschool I got more into hotrods and fast cars. I would fix up a car and sell it for in order to acquire a faster one. I frequently could be found at the local dragstrip racing my cars. I then went off to college and had only time to study. I did tinker around on a CB500 during my summer breaks, but it was a real hack job (and probably not very safe!). After graduation I moved into a house with a tiny garage. My only choice was to work on bikes, often doing so on my back porch. I built several and went a little overboard on the last one (or so my wife says). 

Click to read more ...

Café Racer Concept

When it comes to countries I don't know a lot about, Estonia is probably near the top of the list. The one thing I do know, is that one of the more interesting motorcycle designs from last year came out of Estonia – the love it or hate it Renard Grand Tourer. So why all the interest in Estonia? Well, last week we received an email from an artist named Kait who lives in Estonia. Kait specializes in post-apocalyptic sci-fi drawings but told us that he recently "spent an entire day looking at all the pages on Pipeburn and decided to build a bike". The problem was, Kait doesn't know anything about bikes. "Because I dont know how to build one, in fact, I dont know anything about motorbikes, I cheated and used a 3D application instead" he says. "There are many logical and technological errors, and probably not very comfortable to ride". The wooden tank might not be to everyones taste, and it may be carrying a bit too much weight for a café racer, but we think Kait deserves his 'café racer concept' to be shown to a wider community — so power down your ion phasers, depressurise your extra-vehicular spacesuits, and park that lunar module in a geo-stationary orbit while you take a few minutes to check out this beautiful concept bike.

Click to read more ...

Norton Featherbed Commando

After a chance encounter with a Featherbed framed Commando powered café racer, Canadian Jean Des Rosiers blood started pumping again and he quickly realized he wanted to build something similar. Luckily, Jean had a few parts in storage "I had a featherbed frame, a complete front wheel including a Suzuki front drum brake, a transmission, the front forks, the rear shocks, a bit of money and lots of time" he says. Jean sent us a six page document telling us about his motorcycle history and some details about this Norton project. This is the edited version:

I had a Featherbed frame (the one from the '68 Atlas) stashed deep in my brother’s basement in which I had plans to install an Ariel 500cc single, that project was put away when I raised my family.  Even though it was almost complete, the thought of building a nice Atlas and better still an Atlas café racer was in my mind from that day on.

Click to read more ...