Esoteric arguments about a custom bike’s relative merits are all good and well, but as we all know it always comes down to the same old fact that there’s no accounting for taste. I like red. You like blue. The rest is mere conjecture. But all bets are off when you own a bike signed by Jorge Lorenzo…

There is something about the bond between childhood best friends that is impossible to break and for many, they’re the greatest years of life. You don’t need much, just the free days of the holidays, that one best friend and the smallest things will entertain you…

Plying your trade in a workshop that is literally a stones throw from the centre of Rome means any artist is surrounded by thousands of years of inspiration. A handy boost for those building custom bikes where the stimulus to creativity goes far beyond the mere mechanical…

The retro revival is still in full swing with motorcycle trade shows overflowing with homages to bikes from days gone by. But never before has a chip off the old block ever been so accurately described as major manufacturer and master build up team up for the best of XS…

I’ll say it again. Moto Guzzis are like heroin. You don’t dabble in it, you don’t do a bit on the side. If you’re into Guzzis you live and breathe for them. And it turns out this addiction cripples shops as well as owners, as shown by Italy’s Officine Rossopuro…

Americans don’t know how lucky they are. It seems to us outsiders that you could weld a set of wheels to an Exocet missile and it would still be considered a roadworthy bike in all 50 states. But for the rest of us – especially those in the EU – there’s an army of engineering bureaucrats…

MotoRelic is a little shop run out of Hamilton, Virginia by the very talented Sean Skinner. And despite having over 20 years of experience as a mechanic under his belt he was nearly beaten by this – a cursed 1965 Ducati 250 Scrambler that he dubbed the ‘Dastardly Ducati’…

Yesterday we had an 80s endurance cafe racer and today it’s rally cars that are setting the scene. But not just any rally car; it’s arguably the rally car. The Lancia Stratos HF with its Ferrari V6. Argentina’s Vida Bandida are, like many of their country folk, huge rally fans. And to pay tribute to the Lancia and rally’s Group B golden age of the 70s and 80s, they’ve built an perfectly Italian tribute in the form of this dirt-eating Ducati Monster.

It’s been a big week for Kawasaki retro remake fans with the release of the Z900rs in Tokyo to pay homage to the legendary Z1 of the ‘70s. But it seems that what one hand giveth the other taketh away, as Team Green hammered home the final nail in the W series retro rides coffin. One of the first modern bikes to be built with a classic look, the twenty-year production run is finally over. But so long as useable items can be found in salvageable condition, then Germany’s Schlachtwerk proprietor Tommy Thöring will make customs of them all. His latest is a 2012 W800 Special Edition that’s blacker than the ace of spades for an owner who is just as lucky.

Your average motorcycle is made up of around 2000 individual parts. And any customiser worth their salt will have to consider each and every one of those before they get to a finished custom bike. Some will gloss over these details, but we think it’s fair to say that Austria’s David Widmann and his NCT Motorcycles is not one of those builders. And with the release of this Moto Guzzi T5, his latest build, he’s proven it. Like a bit of attention to detail in your customs? You’ve got it.