Category - Brat

ON THE GAS. Tattoo Customs’ ‘Blue Velvet’ BMW R80RT Cafe Brat

Forget the disco-era 1970s or even the golden age of the Renaissance, turns out men have been wearing colourful velvet since 200 BC in China. Personally I've never got the trend; unless you're the legendary American pimp, Bishop Don 'Magic' Juan, then you're...

HERE COMES THE SUN. Mecano Motorshop’s ’83 Suzuki GS450T Brat Scrambler

I've got a theory that the Northern Hemisphere is sometimes better than the Southern for custom bikes due to the long, harsh winters. What to do when you're forced to hunker down for 4 months of winter? Why, you build customs and dream of what you'll be doing...

FOUND IN TRANSLATION. Ironwood Custom’s ‘The Interpreter’ BMW R100R Scrambler

When a client approached Ironwood Customs with very specific demands, the pressure was on Arjan van den Boom to deliver. But his ability to decipher someone else's desires are as refined as his bike building skills and he's turned a BMW R100R into this, a...

SHOULDERS OF GIANTS. Vagabund’s Next Level BMW R100R Roadster

Somehow in all the hype and limelight that surrounds custom bikes, the customer often gets lost. While more than a few bikes we feature on these pages are labors of love that are entirely funded, made and ridden by the builders themselves, a fair whack of...

RELATIONSHIP BUILDING. MB Cycles’ BMW Brat Racer

Think your relationship is pretty good? Chances are, you've got nothing on Heidelberg’s Martin and Melissa from MB Cycles. He builds rad bikes and she photographs them. He gives her a rad bike and she rides it. She likes it so much, she sends it to us to...

SAND UP & BE COUNTED. Kingston Custom’s BMW R80 Beach Racer

Custom bikes can be so fancy sometimes. Like a Mardi Gras in Rio, an interplanetary spaceship or Hunter S. Thompson's narcotics routine, they're silly big and super impressive but it's not something you'd want to deal with on a daily...

AUTEUR MOTO. FCR Original’s ‘Super 8’ Triumph T100 Roadster

FCR Original are a mainstay of the custom motorcycle scene. Hell, they’re probably the premiere builder in France. So it’s no surprise that when one half of Synapson, an electronic music group, was looking for a new ride he approached FCR. And what he got...

BITING THE DUST. T.Jasin Motorcycles’ ‘Barrel of Death’ Honda CB400 Tracker

‘Maximum retro’. That was Tomek's brief to himself. And as the one and only member of Warsaw's T.Jasin Motorcycles, he sure wasn't about to be overruled. Having skirted around the style for many of his recent builds, he clearly decided to go all in to see...

TALLADEGA KNIGHTS. Rogue Motorcycles’ NASCAR-Inspired Yamaha XV1100

When a loyal customer rolled up to Billy Kuyken’s workshop with a 1990s Yamaha XV1100 and a simple design brief, his imagination went into overdrive of how he could turn this once cruiser into a formidable street tracker. Here's the...

FORGET ABOUT IT. Greg Hageman’s ‘Fat Vinnie’ Yamaha Virago Bobber

Greg Hageman's beautiful ‘Vincentification’ of his famous Yamaha Viragos is well documented. Just how he manages to turn a Harley knock-off into something with such style is clearly moto black magic. But his latest Vincent Virago as a much more...