Union Motorcycle Classics work out of a remodeled 100 year old dairy barn in Idaho which they describe as "no longer home to lowing bovines, we now attend to the gentle rumblings of a slightly more untamed beast". Formed by a group of guys who all had different skills but one passion... classic motorcycles. Luke is professionally trained motorcycle mechanic, Bret is the owner of Glass From The Past (GFTP) which manufacture killer looking cafe racer fairings, race seats, fenders and tanks. Mike, Jeff and Andy are all graphic designers who love nothing more than getting their hands greasy on a vintage classic.

The pictured Ducati 900ss is one of their proud creations and we will let them describe this Cinderella story: "Boy meets bike, Boy likes bike, Boy crashes bike. Keep reading. It gets better. From the ashes of its damaged frame, all parts were removed. A one of a kind fiberglass tail section was crafted to work with a sectioned stock frame that was rebuilt from the rear motor mounts back. The proportions of this bike puts one in mind of the Scuderia Spaggiari Ducati and Tony Rutter's TT2. Once again, a GFTP piece was created just for this rising phoenix from the ashes: a modified 900SS front fairing to accept the headlights and turn signals. The tank is a collaboration of a 900SS tank and a late 80's 750 Sport. Custom brackets and period race parts complete the package". In my humble opinion this bike has been transformed from a chunky and dated Italian sports bike into a stylish modern cafe racer. For more images of this bike and others, including a fine Yamaha RD60, visit the well designed Union website.

Discovered this beautiful CB550 on the frequently updated and entertaining Motorcycle Picture of the Day blog. Completely garage built by a guy called Eric, he goes into great detail about how he created this cafe racer. Eric says he "fitted a set of forks from a 2004 GSX-R 600, using a Harley narrow glide wheel which fit surprisingly well between the calipers; it was almost a plug-n-play operation. The rotors are 320mm units from a Hayabusa which required 10mm spacers underneath the calipers. The eBay front end also came complete with clipons & controls so I decided to go ahead and use them; the right control wouldn't fit with the bar-end mirror so I binned it in favor of a Motion Pro throttle assembly and start/kill switch from an R6. The rearsets are Tarozzi universals mounted to the passenger peg mounts. The rear wheel is a Harley 3.5x18 rim that I laced to the 550 hub with Buchanan stainless spokes. I popped the top end off the engine and freshened it up a bit with a set of 59mm pistons and camshaft from a SOHC CB650 for a little extra oomph". Eric has really stamped his individuality on this CB550, we particularly love those Norton commando peashooter exhausts which look like they produce a mighty bark. Check out more pics of this stunning bike and the full story on MPOTD.

It wasn't long ago we featured another Mr Martini custom, but this Triumph Thruxton 900 was burning a hole in our inbox. Sent to us by the talented Mr Martini himself, we couldn't wait to post it. Although it isn't his latest creation, it's still one of our favourites. To create this incredible Thruxton-based bike or “Classic Urban Racer” as it has been nicknamed, Mr Martini took a fresh out of the factory pre-series bike and completely modified it. He started by adding Wilbers suspensions, a bigger rear rim and classic Metzeler tires. The forks rigidity plate has been replaced because the cut fender has been placed below to draw it up to the tire. The rear fender has been cut and the rear light has been set inside the seat, and in true cafe racer style loads of unnecessary components, standard speedometer included, have been thrown away. The beautiful long manifolds and megaphone pipes have been custom made and painted to give the bike a striking look. From an aesthetic point of view, this built “Flash Back” Triumph is a well balanced mix of modern and classic styling. Check out his other bikes at the Italian based Mr Martini site, particularly the tasty Triumph Flashback Racer.

Portland, Oregon has become a hotspot for the vintage racer scene, especially old Honda's like the CB160. We have previously mentioned Vicious Cycles but we recently stumbled across another shop called Poor Bastard Cycle Works. They are a small repair, service and fabrication shop in Portland that specialize in creating custom exhaust pipes to get the most out of vintage Japanese and European motorcycles. We particularly like their "Y" pipe which are fabricated by owner Will Jones and not only give the bikes greater performance, they are also very pleasing to the eye. Just by the name alone you can tell the guys at Poor Bastard Cycles have a great sense of humor, but you can also see they are seriously good at what they do. Check the Poor Bastards blog to see more from Will and his team.

John Mossey Restorations used to be one of the leading classic motorcycle restoration companies in the UK. They are not any more. Unfortunately they stopped trading under that name, but there's a new mob in town that have taken over where they left off. They are called JMC Classics and still have the talented John Mossey as the head engineer and designer. It looks like JMC are pretty much the same classy outfit, specializing in restorations of classics and unparalleled new builds of Egli-Vincents and Norvins, just under a slightly different name. The new JMC Egli-Vincent which was originally released as a 1000cc is now available as a ballsy 1200cc version, which will definitely get a lot of people excited. We asked Mr Mossey the price of the new Egli-Vincent 1200cc but he would prefer to answer the question to serious buyers (he obviously saw right through our cheap leathers). If you are interested in buying one of these stunning bikes, or just want some info, visit the JMC site. To check out more mouth-watering restorations visit their impressive gallery.

Many years ago Paul Zuniga from Born Again Bikes had a dream. The dream was to own one of the stunning new Norton monoshock bikes Kenny Dreer was planning to build. Unfortunately Kenny and his partners came up about $10 million short to actually produce the bikes but that didn't stop Paul from making his dream happen. Paul had been working on British bikes for decades so he decided to build his own monoshock Norton 880 Cafe Racer. He got a lot of parts from Kenny, bought some others on ebay and haggled for the rest. He did come across some modern front forks from a Ninja 636 which he couldn't resist and decided to merge them with the Norton chassis. Paul also eventually talked Kenny into selling the swingarm, seat, tank, side covers and tuck-in headers from the original prototype bike. The bike looks amazing and we are glad Paul realized his dream of owning a custom Norton Mono. To read the full story about the project and lots more pics visit Born Again Bikes. [Spotted on Kneeslider]

This legendary cafe racer built by Steve 'Carpy' Carpenter of Ton-Up fame is for sale on ebay at the moment. This iconic CB750 is being sold as "the worlds most famous cafe racer", having been featured in over 16 motorcycle magazines and countless websites around the world. Just some of the features listed include "fiberglass tailpiece, borrani style H rim front wheel, race gas tank, individual air filters, 4 into 1 exhaust, chrome swingarm, remote resevoir shocks, lucas style tail light, clubman handlebars, drilled brakes for weight reduction and rearsets for better ground clearance". We will be watching the auction closely to see how much this rockabilly cafe racer goes for. The bike is being sold on behalf of OldBikeBarn and has a "buy it now" price of $26k. That figure might be a little ambitious, but you never know when Billy Joel or Jay Leno are looking for another motorcycle for their collection.

The Italians have made many masterpieces over the years and this Triumph Sprint 900 is another one. Named the Matty You-Stone, it was built by Nicola Martini who was the first Triumph dealer in the North East of Italy. Mr Martini tells us that this "project was developed around a hinge point: to show the wonderful 3-cylinders Triumph carburetors of the 90’s". To acheive this, the bike was completely stripped down, including the fuel tank and replaced with a much smaller one (4.5 litres) coming from a Peugeot Scooter and placed under the tail. The chassis has been shortened in the rear and the bobber wheels and fat boy light are the only components that have been purchased. The rest of the components come directly from Nicola’s well-stocked warehouse of old spare parts - from the smallest radiator connector coming from a Speed Triple to the tail of a trophy Thruxton. This standout bike has earned Mr Martini the first prize of the 2009 Verona Fair Contest amongst many other contests around the world. The bike is called “Matty You-Stone” where Matty is the name of Nicola’s first son, Matteo, who designed the graffiti writing on the tail of this special bike. To see more of Mr Martini's other bikes check out his inspiring collection.