Written by Tim Huber.

For most people, vehicles are little more than a means of transportation. For others, they’re a hobby, but for a small few that eat, sleep, and breathe cars and bikes, it’s a way of life, akin to a religion. Spain’s Iñaki Bellver is one such individual. The 27-year-old spends his days serving as a product engineer for the Ford Motor Company, though his nights and weekends are often spent in his shop, wrenching on and customizing motorcycles under the banner of Ønix Design.

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

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.

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

The one thing you know about receiving an email from Titan Motorcycle Co. is you have no idea just what kind of custom bike you’ll find inside. The awarding-winning team headed up by Michael Siebenhofer and Thanh Ho Ngo relish in their role of turning up to a show and delivering a bike that nobody was expecting. From their new workshop in Graz, Austria, they now have the space and technology to turn bikes out at an incredible pace, while still maintaining their exacting standards. Their latest email was opened to reveal Titan No. 2 affectionally known as ‘The Shark’, a BMW R that’s ready to take a large chunk out of the competition.

Written by Tim Huber.

MV Agusta has a rich and lengthy race history as one of the winningest motorcycle marques of all time with the Varese firm having nabbed more than 75 world titles between ’52 and ’74. The company’s also had the honor of seeing a slew of motorcycling legends pass through its ranks and pilot its bikes with racers like Phil Read and Giacomo Agostini famously at the helm. So, it’s frankly unsurprising that when looking to build an MV Agusta-based cafe racer, that Switzerland’s Tricana Motorcycle’s would draw inspiration from the Italian brand’s illustrious race machines from around half-a-century-ago. 

Written by Martin Hodgson

They say the devil is in the detail, and it is this aspect that separates the best from the rest amongst the thousands of custom bikes built every year. The ability to incorporate form and function into every aspect of a bike and yet still stay true to a cohesive design is rare. It’s here that Tom Gilroy shines and combined with his customer friendly approach has lifted him to the upper echelons of Australian bike building. Now the Purpose Built Moto head honcho is leaving 2019 the way he started, with a flurry of exceptional builds rolling out of his workshop, and his latest is this stunning Yamaha XV750.

Written by Martin Hodgson