Written by Martin Hodgson

Wherever in the world you go, it’s not long before you find a kindred spirit who shares a love for motorcycles; it’s a truly universal language. But while that passion burns deep across the globe, nowhere is it so heavily ingrained in the national psyche than in the home of road racing, Northern Ireland. So it should come as no surprise that Chris Martin of Belfast got his first bike from his Granny when he was just a wee boy, went to the races with his Dad and now has turned his attention to hand shaping metal and building custom creations. His latest, a Yamaha XT550 will hoon up any hill, haul along on any highway and looks mega doing it.

Written by Martin Hodgson

Written by Martin Hodgson

On the salesroom floor of a motorcycle dealership, no sector of the market sees technology evolve as quickly as in the Sportsbike sector. The constant need of race teams for homologated bikes to have the latest and greatest sees an update almost every year. This, in turn, leads to serious depreciation in the class and before you know it, even modern Ducati’s make financial sense for a makeover. But Austria’s NCT Motorcycles has done more than just that, putting their full custom stamp on a Ducati 848 Evo to really ramp up the racer element in this cafe machine.

Words by Tim Huber.

First patented in 1952, Norton’s featherbed chassis was originally developed for TT competition and upon its release (and for roughly the next two decades) was objectively the best-handling motorcycle frame in existence — at least until Norton one-upped itself in ’67 with its Isolastic frame. However, while Norton’s vertical twin engines of the same era were far from lackluster, they vibrated markedly more than the mills from fellow British marque, Triumph — not to mention the Meriden firm’s 650 and 750cc Bonneville twins were considerably easier to tune for more power.

Thought we’d start the year with something a little different. Our friend and motorcycle photographer Errol Colandro wrote a raw and honest story that we think all riders could relate to.

Words and photography by Errol Colandro.

Riding down this beautiful stretch of road. Miles and miles of pure desert landscape. All I’m hearing is the wind, the engine, that beautiful Harley exhaust note.

Where the hell am I even going? As we all know, getting on these two wheels is our therapy, our escape, our healing. Healing…. the healing of what? I look back a few weeks at what made this “healing” ride happen.

Waking up, not knowing the surroundings, the walls are that typical Las Vegas hotel room, and I am covered in what seems to be vomit and I am alone.

Written by Martin Hodgson

While Santa packed up his sleigh and headed off to fill his stomach with Cookies, Rum and Hay, for Rudolph and the lads, back here at Pipeburn HQ we were locked in a small room trying to pick the best bikes of 2019. It’s no easy task, but thanks to the custom builders right around the world who continue to amaze and our dear readers comments, likes and shares; we managed to narrow down the field. Plenty of worthy contenders just missed out, we created two new categories to help capture the years best, but in the end there can only be one winner and to top the pack it had to be seriously special, Ladies and Gentleman, you’re Pipeburn Bike of the Year…

Written by Martin Hodgson

2019 has been a tough year for those facing wildfires, from Europe to Australia’s East Coast, California to the vast Amazon jungle, the devastation has been immense. But while many of us live in harms way, when it’s time to flee there is another group heading towards the flames. The brave men and women of the world’s fire fighting community are truly owed a debt of gratitude. But what do they do to wind down when it’s all over? For Germany’s Chris Scholtka his life long passion for bikes provides the escape and from his Motocrew workshop in his spare time he’s turn out this ‘Black Villain’ beast from the bones of a 2015 Ducati Scrambler.

The resurgence of flat track racing around the world is no surprise; it’s fast, dangerous, fun and great for spectators to watch. Christine Gabler and Marc Holstein have been over in Japan for the Yokohama Hot Rod Custom Show but also travelled out to watch the ‘Have Fun Flat Track’ event – which as the name suggests, is a bunch of riders who just want to have fun and go left on inappropriate bikes. We thought we’d let Marc and Christine take us through the event. The wonderful photos and words are theirs:

Waking up super early to catch train all the way out to Kawagoe proved to be quite a challenge in the busy city of Tokyo. We were on our way to the ‘Have Fun Flat Track’ party event which was being held a day after the Yokohama Hot Rod Custom Show. The practice was to be held on Monday but it rained heavily all day. Tuesday looked amazing so me made our way out to the track, riding one and a half hours through Tokyo and another 30 minutes by taxi. We arrived on site at around noon which seemed like a perfect time as the track has just dried off.

Written by Tim Huber.

Existing today primarily as a novelty genre of sorts, sidecars are without a doubt one of, if not the most seldom-seen style of customs. Plenty of well seasoned shops have never ventured into the three-wheeled territory, and it’s not too hard to see why. The shift from a single-track vehicle to a machine of the three-wheeled variety fundamentally alters the performance and riding characteristics, plus the prospect of adding an extra third’s worth of work onto what would otherwise be a completed build is understandably less-than-inviting to a lot of builders.