ROARING FORTIES. Motorworld’s Mint 1928 BMW R47
Ever noticed how the impossible seems simple once you’ve already done it? BMW’s creation of their very first bike, the R32, seems like a ludicrous feat even 100 years later. Hell, they are still using the same basic layout today. But for designer Max Friz and the rest of the company’s engineers, that hard work had just started…
BUILDING MUSCLE. Cohn Racer’s Tough Harley XR1200X Scrambler
“When I make it big, I’m going to build the coolest custom bike.’ Don’t deny it; we’ve all thought about it. It’d be like rocking up to a top restaurant and ordering everything. And for Miami restauranter and businessman John Kunkel, that’s pretty much exactly what happened. Here’s his dream bike, the ‘Muscle R’ Harley XR1200X Scrambler…
UNIVERSAL APPEAL. OMT Garage’s ‘Stardust’ Yamaha XSR900 Scrambler
In many ways, Italy’s OMT Garage is the perfect nuclear racing family. Father Gaetano Troiano started the shop in 1978. Mother Silvana handles the media. And sons Marco and Mario are now pushing things into the 21st century and beyond with their love of racing and customisation. Take this blindingly good Yamaha XSR900 for instance…
RAD PLAID. A Very ‘70s BMW Scrambler by Hello Engine
You know life is going well when you wake up one morning, wander outside and there in your driveway is a brand new motorcycle. Things get a whole lot better when you didn’t a dollar and it comes direct from the manufacture with the simple instruction to get creative…
HIGH STAKES. Tattoo Custom’s ‘Vampire Slayer’ Suzuki GN400 Cafe Racer
North Carolina’s Tattoo Custom Motorcycles have many strings to their bow. Out the front of their shop they’re an advertising company, working with a wide range of clientele. But their fearless leader, Rudy Banny, also has a healthily unhealthy passion for motorcycles…
SLIM SHADY. Tamarit’s ‘Sombra’ Triumph Thruxton Racer
There’s a reason why Salvador Dali didn’t quit painting in this thirties to take up mime. Similarly, Jorge Lorenzo isn’t about to become a violinist and Hernando Cortez didn’t decide to throw it all in and make baskets a few days before he claimed the Americas. The moral of the story here is that doing anything great takes time…
MAJOR LASER. Wrench King’s ‘War Zone’ Yamaha XJ Apocalypse Scrambler
On Any Sunday, The Great Escape and The Wild One. These are the highbrow motorcycling movies that we all name-drop as being one of the reasons we got into motorcycling in the first place. But let’s face it, it wasn’t just them. There were plenty of more embarrassing shows that pushed our buttons, too…
KEEPING UP WITH THE ’SMITHS. Craig Rodsmith’s Turbo Moto Guzzi V9
We’ve always been of the opinion that if an Aussie puts their mind to something, one way or another it will happen. And Victorian boy Craig Rodsmith is living, breathing, punk rocking proof that this is true…
INTERNATIONAL RESCUE. A Cross-Border Kawasaki W650 Scrambler by Recast Moto
Most of you can jump onto Craigslist or eBay, rock up to a darkened car park, meet a stranger and take home a project bike of your choosing. It can be old, it can be Italian, it can be American, it can be British. Living in the West rocks. But we’re not all that lucky….
WHO’S YOUR DADDY? The Moto Adonis ‘Elegant Bastard’ Yamaha XV Cafe Tracker
When you’re a kid everything seems big, adults appear to be giants and a semi-trailer truck may as well be a Transformer. Even the childhood home feels like a castle until one day you return as an adult and realise it’s just a regular old three bedroom house. So too the bikes of our youth…
