Yamaha XS650 - Holiday Customs

One of the most common donor bikes these days is the very versatile Yamaha XS650. In the right hands it can be turned into a number of genres. One of the most common forms that grace these pages is the bobber. So when we received these photos from Jared at Holiday Customs of his latest creation we were genuinely excited about his interpretation of the XS bobber. Sure, it's not too far away from his last bobber which he liked so much he couldn't part with it. "I always end up building bikes I want to keep" says Jared. "I wanted to make another schwinn inspired motorcycle after getting a nice response from the original XS from a year ago." he says. Like a lot personal projects by builders they often start off strong but then customers paying jobs take precidence and they sometimes take a lot longer to finish than originally planned. "I think it worked out well because it gave me more creative time instead of rushing the build" he says.  

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1976 Yamaha XS360 - Bombshell Customs

We love boredom. Boredom can drive a person to do some crazy things. Sometimes boredom can get you into trouble. Other times boredom can motivate you to create something unique, something out of the norm. That's exactly what happened to Mike Busch, a 26 year old Hot Rod builder from Pennsylvania. His original passion is building Hot Rods, which he's done for years, but he recently decided to do try his skills at building a bike. "I literally got bored one day" says Mike. "I searched Craigs List for cheap bikes with potential and came across this XS". Mike is one of those guys who has always tinkered with things, even working at a motorcycle shop where he learnt a lot of the skills he used to build this bike. This is Mikes first custom build under his new shop called Bombshell Customs Cycles which is already gaining attention from around the world. 

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Yamaha XJR 1200 - "Mastino"

This beautiful creation was built by an Italian shop based in Rome called Emporio Elaborazioni (EE). It was started by a graphic designer, a mechanic and a silversmith who all shared a love of custom motorcycles. This brutal bike is nicknamed the 'Mastino' or Mastiff after the breed of large, powerful and rather stocky pedigree dogs. When you look at the stance of this short, mean and muscular café racer you realise the name couldn't be more fitting if it tried. We always thought the powerful and naked XJR 1200 would be a great contender for a modern café racer, but we had no idea it could look this good - trust the Italians to teach us a lesson in style. Here's how Andrea from EE describes their project:

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Vicious Cycles '94 Yamaha ‘FTW200’

If you could pick any city on earth to settle down and customise bikes in, we think it's a safe bet that Singapore wouldn't be at the top of many lists. In a similar fashion to Hong Kong, Singapore has very little tolerance for vehicular modifications and a few of our Pipemates who live over there have told us that you can be defected for something as minor as having non-standard rubber on your rims. And heaven help you if you were to do something crazy like add a new exhaust or tank - that'd result in your bike being impounded. So as you are gazing over the sweet, sweet lines of this little Yammie TW keep in mind that it's creators, Matt and Merv from Vicious Cycles Singapore, risk severe punishment if they were ever caught riding it in public. Apparently, the last biker who dared do this was forced to watch the movies Wild Hogs and Torque on an endless loop for an entire month while he was simultaneously made to delete all his browser's cool bike bookmarks one by one. And that's not all. Afterward, when he still wouldn't swear against his beloved custom bikes they forced him to stay in a remote house at the end of a very long, windy road. They then gave him a Wrenchmonkee's original with all the bells and whistles and covered every inch of the road with lard as they waved goodbye. Bastards.

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Destino Custom Garage - ‘Samurai’

Last week at the Sydney Motorcycle Show this stunning Samurai caused quite a commotion when it was unveiled to the public. At first glance you might think it's been built by Zero Engineering; the creators of this Samurai style bobber, but when you take a closer look you'll see there's one obvious difference - we'll get to that in a moment. The bike was built by Destino Custom Garage who are a Sydney shop that specialise in custom builds on metric cruisers. Their goal was not to replicate the Zero style Samurai, but to build their own on a completely different platform. The Zero Engineering bikes have always been focused on American engines due to Shinya's love of the American culture and all things old. "Because we specialise in Japanese motorcycles, we thought that it is only fitting that our Samurai is powered by a Japanese engine" said Jimmi from Destino.

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1976 Yamaha RD400 - Kickstart Garage

What is it about small bikes? Most bikers will get the bug sooner or later. But just think about it for a moment. In no other area of transportation do you see this phenomena. Cars? With the notable exception of the Mini, you don't see your average boy racer pining over something with less cylinders and a fraction of the go of their current buzz boxes. And how often do you think your average fighter pilot lays awake at night thinking about that bitchin' ultra-light he wants to trade down to? Not to blummin' likely. But things seem a little different with bikes. There's an undeniable "thing" with the more delicate members of the species. They are small, light, chuckable and they let us feel a little like our favourite racing heroes with levels of horsepower that won't punish those of us with more enthusiastic right hands. No need to tell this to Craig Marleau from Millville, California. He's already there, and to prove it he's banged out this stonking little two-stroke Yamaha to prove a point. Um, Craig? Point taken, my man. Point taken.

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Matt Machine's 1978 XS650 Street Tracker

Ever caught one of those documentaries on TV where some unsuspecting Joe Average pays $1.95 for an "old painting" at a junk sale and ends up being told by some expert or another that he is the proud new owner of a multi-million-dollar Van Gogh? Or the spotty kid who gets given a dusty old guitar and amp from an dead relative and later realises he has one hundred large in mint 1952 1954 Fender Strat and Tweed Deluxe clutched in his sweaty little fingers. Never happen to us, right? Well looky over here and please do meet one very lucky Sydney-sider who goes by the name of Rob. Now when the rest of us combine beer, eBay and a "little bid to start things off", we usually end up with something that looks a little like this. But not Rob. See, he had a tipsy mash of the "bid now" button and ended up buying a bike from Australia's king of customs, Matt Machine. Pipers, say a big hello to Mr Ayres and the newest member of his personal rolling stock; the Matt Machine 1975 XS650 Street Tracker.

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Garage Project's Yamaha SR250 - "Lunacy"

Of all the wonderful things that the internet has given us, you'd be hard-pressed not to admit that anonymous user comments are right at the bottom of the heap. It magically seems to be able to bring out the worst in us and will often turn a calm, rational, intelligent adult into a name-calling, boasting, irrational, long-winded idiot. Of course, the fact that you can do it with almost total anonymity is the main cause of all the trouble - it's like the 80s equivalent of a prank phone call where you get time to rehearse your lines. In the midst of all this dissing and lowest-common-denomenatorism, it takes a brave soul to stand up and be counted. Our hats are off to anyone who puts their bike where their (keyboard) fingers are. And that's just what our next builder has done. And do you want to know the real icing on the cake? He's done it twice in one week. Assembled Pipeburn bitchers and moaners, behold a man who talks the talk and walks the walk. Meet frequent commenter Rex Havoc and his lunatic Yamaha SR 250.

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Video: Lossa Engineering SR500 'Solus'

Excuse our giddy schoolboy enthusiam, but this is probably one the finest examples of an SR we've laid eyes on. Jay Lossa from Lossa Engineering has spent hundreds of hours of machine work and hand fabricating this stunning Yamaha SR500 Cafe Racer. Ricki Bedenbaugh recently shot this short film for Lossa showcasing the distinctive two sides of the bike. First, it's classic drop dead cafe racer looks and secondly it's a big bore high performance beast that'll rip your toupée off and throw it down the road quicker than look at you. You might remember the bike from Cafe Racer TV season 1, where the Bostrom brothers couldn't wipe the smile off their face after pushing it to the limits through the Malibu Canyons. You can check out part of the episode here.