Written by Martin Hodgson | Photography by Kenny Smith

All that glitters is certainly not gold; what was supposed to be a quality custom café racer built by a hot shot from California arrived in Australia a disappointing mess. Some carefully taken photos and a host of hidden problems meant this wasn’t discovered until the CB550 had crossed the Pacific. But Justin Holmes of Australia’s PopBang Classics came to the rescue and every time the owner asked him to up the ante, he delivered. The finished product is a supercharged 1975 Honda Hot Rod that finally has the Hollywood happy ending.

Written by Martin Hodgson

If you’re old enough to remember, then it’s impossible to forget the 1980s GP bikes ridden by the likes of Wayne Gardner and Fast Freddie Spencer. But building one today is nearly impossible, try finding a 500cc two-stroke for a decent price and you’ll be left scratching your head. But Australia’s James Campbell has come up with the next best thing. Utilising all the performance of a modern SuperSport machine, a 2006 Honda CBR600RR, and transforming the look to give it that proper nostalgia feel.

Written by Martin Hodgson

Long before YouTube there was Claude Lelouch’s epic 8 minute masterpiece, C’était un rendez-vous, showing the French are as mad as the rest of us! Fellow Parisian Isidore Delgrosso shares that need for speed but prefers to get his kicks on two wheels. From his workshop MécaServices92 near the heart of the city, he utilises his engineering talent to produce some of the countries finest customs. Now he’s back with a ’90s Honda NX650 Dominator café racer that’s been touched in all the right places.

Written by Martin Hodgson | Photos by Nic Walker

Over the years we’ve noticed a common trend here at Pipeburn; some of the best workshops around the globe, large and small, have their origins in friendships formed over a love of motorcycles. Australia’s Sabotage Motorcycles is one such story, it began in the car park of a hardware store when two men met on their ’70s Honda’s and have gone on to produce some show stopping custom rides. Now they’re back with a truly unique creation, artistically formed by the pairs talented hands and lucid imaginations. It’s a 1926 Douglas EW with power from a little engine by the big H, to deliver one beautiful board tracker.

Written by Ian Lee.

The big single. The thumper. No matter how you refer to it, the large displacement single cylinder motor has been putting smiles on motorcyclists’ faces since the dawn of motorcycledom. The simplicity of the mechanics, the ease of working with one and (of course) the noise they make all add to the benefits of using a thumper bike in a custom build. Toma Customs, based in Brussels, has shown the quality of build that is possible when the right workshop has the right cycle on the bench. Utilising the Honda FMX650, Thomas Jeukens and the Toma’s crew have taken the plastic-wrapped Super Motard and released the urban tracker hidden inside.

This is a story older than time. A common predicament many of us have been in. You buy a donor bike with all the right intentions to build one of the coolest motorcycles the world has ever seen. But the days pass by and then the months pass by until reality hits and you know you aren’t ever going to finish this build. Whether it’s a lack of time or a lack of ability, the bike sits in the garage waiting for some love and attention. This is exactly what happened when a customer approached French garage Forge to build them a Dominator. The 1989 NX650 had been sitting in pieces for a year and the owner knew he wasn’t going to get it done, so he called Forge.

Gustavo from Pasquale and his dad are fucking legends.” That’s how our man Marlon described the family powerhouse that is Colombia’s Pasquale Motors, and he’s harder to impress than Vladimir Putin. We don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the whole custom scene in Colombia looks to them…

In just about every ancient culture that spans the globe exists a mythology around the crow, and it almost always leads to death. So imagine yourself sitting alone in the middle of the night, stopped at a red light in the bad part of town, when as if from nowhere this blacked out harbinger of death rolls up beside you…

When you’re as good as suffolk’s Old Empire Motorcycles you don’t need to go hunting for work. Hell, their incredible history of customising classic motorcycles has customers practically begging them to create a bike. And that’s what’s happened with their latest creation, a 1976 Honda CB360…

Blame Akira. Blame Blade Runner. Blame Daft Punk. We have a rather unhealthy obsession with the limitless future of motorcycle design. Bring on the electric engines and the artificial intelligence. Swiss supergroup Gannet Design and Fuhrer Moto have teamed up to kick off the Honda CB1000R custom scene…