Desert Motorcycle Company's '81 Yamaha XS650 - “Golden Spike”

Yamaha's XS650. It seems like there's not a single style or genre that it can't morph itself into. Chopper, bobber, rat, brat, cafe, tracker - hell, I've even seen it do a decent board tracker. It's like some Japanese designers in the 1960s locked themselves in a room with a load of bad drugs, a Swiss Army Knife, a rubber mask from mission impossible, Optimus Prime, a doppelganger, the liquid metal robot from Terminator 2 and one of their mates who liked to wear his wife's underwear on the weekends and exploded out three weeks later with blueprints that would transform the way the world thought of Japanese bikes and the way we think about a custom bike platform. Of course, this one is no different. It's the retro brainchild of one Greg Hebard from Salt Lake City, Utah, and as you can see it looks about as close to the original bike as night looks like day.

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1982 Yamaha XS650 - Stout 33

Like most brothers, the Chappell Brothers have different tastes. Rob prefers to live in Ontario, Canada while Chris chooses to live in Los Angeles. Their taste in bikes is different as well. Rob’s style leans more towards racing and café racers while Chris loves bobbers and choppers. So when they decided to build their latest project they chose (after much debate) to build a bike in the middle – a board track influenced bike that would have a custom frame, traditional girder front end and tall skinny wheels. If time allowed they would also tackle their first custom gas tank! (which they did). They found the perfect donor bike in the form of a 1982 XS650 Heritage Special and got to work on this project that was really going to challenge these part time bike builders.

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'91 Yamaha XV 1100 - “No. 13”

Before we get too far into this post, and in the interests of openness and honesty, I feel it's best to be straight with you all. I have a Virago. No, I'm not too sure why either. Blame it on Doc Chops and the Classified Moto guys. Or blame it on one too many old bike searches on eBay. Whatever the case, I went on holidays at the end of last year and somehow or other I came back the proud and slightly confused owner of an '81 XV750. Now I know that some just don't get it, but for me the real appeal is the breath-taking transformation that these bikes can make with some seemingly simple mods. A few parts dropped here and a few minor mods there and suddenly you've gone from lardy Japanese Harley wanna-be to busting some pretty cool custom moves. And the Virago you see here, owned by one Ben Rowe, is definitely no exception. Those Transformers ain't got nothing on us guys.

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Yamaha SR400 - ‘Clock Work’ by Moto Rock

The Yamaha SR400 is still one of the most common bikes on the streets of Japan. It's as Japanese as Sushi, Karaoke and Girl Pantie Vending Machines. Yamaha has been building these indestructable little thumpers for mucho decades, hardly changing a thing - until recently when they introduced the fuel injected models. I have a huge soft spot for these single cylinder SR's, not just because I own one but because they can be easliy transformed into pretty much anything. We've seen most incarnations here at Pipeburn, mostly they're turned into cafe racers, trackers or less commonly even bobbers. But we don't usually see anything like this chrome creation built by Motor Rock. The guys from Nagoya have really taken this SR to the next level, building something truly unique. Sure, it has influences from Shinya, Zero and the samurai chopper, but Moto Rock have still managed to make it uniquely theirs. And we really love that.

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CRD's '95 Yamaha SR 250 - ‘Atomica’

As much as it pains us to say it, this post is the first bona fide post we've ever done on Pedro and the boys at Cafe Racer Dreams. By hook or by crook, we've never managed to get our hands on his sweet, sweet goodies while they were still box fresh. But never say never; please meet CRD's latest and greatest creation, "sweet #16" - better known as "Atomica".

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Maria Motorcycles '80 XS 650E - ‘Eva’

Anyone who's ever attempted a custom bike build will know just how much work a seemingly simple little "tidy-up" can amount to. Something that looks like it'll take two weeks tops ends up being an 18 month project with more dead ends, u-turns, and detours than a Sunday drive with Stevie Wonder. So imagine the work involved in starting a bike shop "a few months ago" and then going public with not one, not two, but three killer bikes. At very best that's a bike every three weeks. Now I can't speak for you guys, but if I had three weeks to build a bike the results would be humble at best. A few rattle cans, and angle grinder - hell, even a custom seat would take that long to throw together. But it seems as if the guys at Maria Motorcycles in Lisbon, Portugal have either worked their asses off these last few months or they've invented time travel and brought these bike back from the future. And the real icing on the cake? Both EXIF and little ol' us are doing features in the same week on their stuff. Take your stinky hats off and give a little nod to Luis Correis and his latest bending of space and time, the beautiful "Eva."

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'82 Yamaha Virago XV 920

I figure it's best, in the interests of being fair and open, that I disclose a shocking and personal fact. I own a Virago. Oh yes, very funny. Laugh it up, ladies. Say what you will, but you know what? I'm an XV owner and proud. Now mine's not an 920 jobbie like you see here - she's a MY 1980 XV 750. But let's not spilt hairs here, a Virago's a Virago. Every piss weak, Harley Davidson copyin' inch of them. So just how does such a seemingly lame-ass no-hoper bike suddenly become the darling of the custom scene? Through a series of sow's ears into silk purses by Classified Moto, Doc Chops and Zero Cafe Racer - do some Google image searching if you are drawing a blank. And it might well be time to add another name to that list. Meet the Virago that Shed-built, um, built.

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Yamaha XT 500 - "The Bastard"

Some bikes are served to us on a silver platter, replete with back story, specifications, build photos, screen shots from the eBay ad, the builder's mothers maiden name, when she lost her virginity and some original polaroids of the aforementioned event (with handwritten notes), and a professionally shot selection of photos with notes from the lensman himself noting time of day, ambient temperature, and how many beers he'd had with his delicious lunchtime meat pie. Then there's this bike. You want information? We have just about as little as we possibly could without having nothing but a gaping black hole where our email inbox used to be. The real crime here? It's that something so arse-smackingly cool can be so damn anonymous - like finding out that the hottie across the room at the party who took your breath away is actually suffering from amnesia.

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Yamaha RD250 Café Racer

There are so many things to love about the Irish. For starters they have one of the highest beer consumption rates in the world. And when I say beer, I don't mean some low carb, low fat, low calories, low taste beer. I'm talking about proper beers like Guinness. Secondly they love alcohol so much they even put it into coffee — combining two of my favourite things. Lastly, they are renowned for being lucky. They call it the 'luck of the Irish'. There's even an old myth in Ireland that if you catch a leprachaun then you will receive a massive pot of gold. Ian Harrington from Cork in Ireland might not have caught any leprechauns lately, but he has turned a pile of other peoples junk into a pot of gold — or a café racer to be exact. "I was offered an old Yamaha RD250 by a work colleague who was clearing out his garage" says Ian. Predictably, it turned out to be a piece of junk and needed a lot of work. "From the start it was never worth restoring as it was too far gone" he says. Luckily for this bike Ian had a soft spot for RD's and decided to take the project on. Unluckily for the local pub, Ian spent many late nights in his garage instead of knocking back pints.

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