2010 Triumph Scrambler

If there was ever a remake of 'The Great Escape' (God forbid), I think we've found the perfect bike for that famous fence jump. Built by a brand spanking new motorcycle shop in Costa Mesa California called RTL Moto. They specialize in vintage European bikes and describe their work as "Mad Max-style customisation", which sounds pretty damn good to us. This is their inaugural project and we are honored they sent Pipeburn the very first shots. The Triumph belongs to a customer named Jeremy and his brief was pretty straight forward. "He plans on doing a lot of travel next year and he asked us to build him a vintage-looking bike that he could ride off-road" says Chris Lisk from RTL Moto.

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Interview: Photographer Todd McLellan

We recently spotted Todd's photographs on the always pleasing Motart blog. Tod has just shot a 'Classic Motorcycle' series that features some of the sweetest bikes money can buy. We loved his subject matter and photos so much that we wanted to find out a little more about Todd McLellan. 

Could you introduce yourself to our readers? Who are you? What do you do? Where do you live?

My name is Todd McLellan, I was born in the western Canadian province of Saskatchewan. I now live in Toronto where I am a full time Photographer. I photograph a lot in the advertising field and have concentrated on transportation the first part of my career. I am very much into the design of the objects I shoot and I think that what gets me going when photographing something. When the light hits the object it can do wonderful things.

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Interview: Matt Machine

At the recent Deus V-Twin Festival I had the pleasure of chewing the fat with renowned Australian bike builder Matt Machine. Not only is he a friggin talented bike builder who has built some of the most outstanding bikes in the Southern Hemisphere, but he is also an established architect. Is there anything he can't build? I wanted to find out more about this humble recluse and luckily he was up for answering a couple of questions:

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

I'm an architect that has always wanted to be a carpenter, or a builder, or a boiler maker, or something else other than that so I could use my hands and make things. I live in the bush in south New South Wales with my wife and our dog and our cows and our landscape and our weather.

Does living on a farm help your creative process?

It almost is my creative process...you cant help but be inspired by the need to be real with whatever you do, to be direct with your decisions, and committed...thats living in the bush.

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1969 Triumph Bobber

Kevin was a sure bet at his company's "bring your bobber to work" day

Me, I'm a fussy bastard. Can't do anything without mapping it out to the nth degree with contingency plans and failsafes and such nonsense. Which is great if you have an issue that you saw coming, but of course the real issues are always the ones you DON'T see coming; the ones you can't possibly plan for. These kinds curveballs really do my head in. Not so for one Mister Kevin White from Washington state in America's Pacific North West Spencer, Iowa. Nuh-uh. See, he's the kind of guy that seems to be able to roll with the punches and push on through to the other side where he'll pull up on a killer custom with a smile from ear-to-ear even though his build jumped from one track to another like a electrocuted DJ at a Drum 'n' Bass festival. Meanwhile I would have been kicking back in a nice padded workshop with some of those special overalls that let the nice doctors tie your hands behind your back so you can't reach your Snap-Ons.

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Triumph Racer - 'Stiffy'

There's nothing more intriguing in a bike build story than a mystery, and this here little Triumph has it in spades. See, no one knows exactly what this bike was in a previous life but the smart money is on a rigid dirt tracker. The motor and frame were acquired with a large stockpile of old British dirt trackers and parts that Big D Cycles bought last year; "this bike came out of Les Edwards stash" says Jerrett Martin from Big D. "Les was a famous tuner and builder of dirt track bikes out of California. He owned the Triumph/Suzuki Shop Cycle Imports. A lot of famous riders got their start riding Edwards' bikes; Gene Romero, Mark Brelsford, Dave Hansen and many others. Dave Hansen rode an Edwards' bike to Triumph's last TT race victory at the Houston Astrodome in 1974 (pictured below). In that race, Hansen beat king Kenny Roberts, who was on a Yamaha." When Les retired he moved his large collection of motorcycle goodies to south Texas. When he passed away, Big D Cycles bought all the race bikes, motors, frames, and spares that were in an old metal barn on his property.

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Hyde Harrier

We've got a lot of cool things hanging around here at the Chateau D'Fumé D'Flambé. Beautiful women of many flavours, piles of cash, and heaps of bikes. Hundreds and hundreds of beautiful motorbikes. Rare Ducatis, V4 Hondas, Antique BSAs... and Triumphs. Lots and lots and lots of good old Rule Britannia Triumphs. God, they are everywhere. I even found on the roof the other day. Oh the hilarity!

You'll be glad to know then, that there's now a kit that'll let you turn your bog standard spare Bonnies into balls-out retro seventies road racers. Genius, yeah? Also, you'll now have a valid excuse next time someone laughs and points at your gold medallions and thick, luscious chest hair.

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Triumph T100 Scrambler Video

This classic styled Triumph T100 Scrambler, commonly known as Jack Pine is no newcomer to the limelight. It was numero uno in BikeEXIF's Greatest Hits of 2010 — a combination of most hits and most comments. Now Hammarhead Industries have released this short video of their scrambler in action. So if you thought this Triumph was all show and no go, then you don't know Jack.

[Found on Return of the Cafe Racers]

Triumph 'Accessories' Project

A set of kitchen scales made out of a Bonneville instrument panel by John Doherty

Triumph has teamed up with students from Birmingham City University’s Institute of Art & Design on a project called ‘Accessories’. Eighteen MA Product Design students were asked to design and create alternative lifestyle products based on components from a Triumph Bonneville T100.

Nick Orme was announced the winner, for his design of a corkscrew (below) using parts of the Bonneville’s handlebar mechanism. Genius. Second place went to Wa Ya-Lin for her fruit bowls made from the T100 wheels, and third place went to Elena Matyas for her jacket and helmet stand made from mirrors.

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Imaginary Garage - 2010 Triumph "Bonnehille"

"No.69 - who knows when she'll flip over?" Readers, meet Miss BonnehilleI've been sitting here for about 15 minutes try to come up with something to say about this bike. Unfortunately I just keep on coming back to the same thought. Wow. What more can I say? I can't stop looking at it. This is a bike that could easily take the top spot at a major bike show and it's been brought to life by two guys who live on different continents and have never even met each other. All praise to the interwebs!

Shout-outs: massive thanks to Max for the genius original idea and Charles for the beautiful finishing touches; and thanks again for putting up with me. Please enjoy the tees. Also, thanks to all the readers who took the time to make a submission - there were some amazing ideas in there and I'm genuinely sorry we couldn't try out some more.

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