Month: December 2022

What’s the hardest part of converting a classic motorcycle to electric? You might think it’s sourcing an appropriate drivetrain, or wedging it into a chassis designed for an internal combustion engine. Sure, those are all notable challenges—but the real trick, is pulling it off without ruining the bike’s vintage aesthetic.

Amateur bike builder Danny Mantyla has it all figured it out. He’s just treated this 1967 Honda CA160 Dream to an electric motor swap. And he’s done it so well, that it arguably looks even cooler than it used to.

“One night I was showing my wife a picture of a Yamaha XS650 and a red Honda CA160,” Danny tells us, “and I asked her which one she liked best. She said the Honda, but only if it was black. That night I woke up in my sleep and started looking at Craigslist for no particular reason.”

“And then I

If you live outside of Taiwan, you’re probably not familiar with the Yamaha SR150. It was exclusively made and sold locally, and eventually discontinued. But the flourishing Taiwanese custom scene has given it a second lease on life—and thrust it into the international spotlight.

This is the third custom Yamaha SR150 we’ve featured recently, and each has come from a different workshop. This one’s the work of Huang Wen Chi of Hide Work Custom, based in Taoyuan City.

He goes by ‘Achi,’ and he’s been obsessed with motorcycles since childhood. He apprenticed as a lathe and mill operator after he graduated high school, then turned it into a 15-year career. Then, six years ago, he gave it all up to focus on building custom bikes.

Achi works mostly alone, only outsourcing specialist jobs like paint and upholstery. He also takes on an apprentice from time to time, or has friends

Two thumpers lead the charge this week; a KTM 640 Duke from Spain and a Suzuki DR650 from Australia. We also take a look at the limited edition MV Agusta Tamburini Corse F43, and Heiwa MC’s latest Triumph.

KTM 640 Duke by Ønix Design In the KTM family, the 640 Duke is a bit of an ugly duckling. The dirt bike styling cues, road-friendly 17” wheels and awkward front-end design just don’t mesh. We’re sure it’s a hoot to ride—but the styling department was asleep on the day they designed the KTM 640 Duke.

Luckily Iñaki Bellver, a 30-year-old engineer from Valencia, Spain, could see the beauty that lay beneath.

For most, making the 640 look good would be a tall order, but not for Iñaki. In his spare time, he runs his own custom garage; Ønix Design. On the lookout for a bike to build a street tracker with,

It’s not uncommon for a custom build to have a few stories behind it. Sometimes a donor bike has a unique history, or maybe its parts are pulled from an unlikely source. But it’s not every day we find a builder who fabricates both the machine and the story behind it.

Meet Thorsten Schlesinger, the builder of the British hodgepodge you see here. Nicknamed ‘Ms Rosi Nante,’ it’s a stunning example of a classic TriBSA—a Triumph engine in a BSA frame.

Thorsten got the idea for Ms Rosi when he happened upon the remains of a 1949 BSA A7. He had the frame media blasted, then finished in olive green like the WWII bikes of the era. Looking at the military-inspired frame got Thorsten’s creative juices flowing, and before long he had created an entire universe for his build-to-be.

Think of this TriBSA as WWII fan fiction meets two-wheeled cosplay.

It’s barely been a month since Harley-Davidson announced they were ending the Evolution-powered Sportster line, but great custom examples continue to roll out of workshops. It’s easy to see why—the versatile Evo Sportster is one of the cheapest bikes in the Harley lineup, and lends itself well to customization. Plus Sporty owners are constantly drowning in the millions of aftermarket parts available to them.

One man who knows both Sportsters and aftermarket parts well is 23-year-old Huang Jiahuan, from Kunming in China’s Yunnan Province. It’s not often we see custom bikes from China, let alone from someone as young as Jiahuan. So it’s great to see the scene alive and well.

Working out of his workshop, Sowing Garage, Jiahuan spends most of his time manufacturing parts, rather than building full-on custom bikes. But the stars aligned recently, and Jiahuan was asked by a customer in Beijing to do a full

Despite its initial lukewarm reception, the BMW R18 has become a regular fixture on the custom scene. Numerous workshops have customized the bulked-up Bavarian boxer in myriad ways—but there’s one style we haven’t seen yet. Until now, no one’s tried to turn it into a chopper.

Enter Nick Acosta and his Toronto, Canada-based shop, Augment Motorworks. When tasked with customizing a BMW R18 by BMW Motorrad Canada, Nick drew inspiration from the classic choppers of the 60s and 70s. BMW do call the R18 a ‘cruiser,’ after all.

Augment started by stripping the R18 down to the bare essentials, so that they could figure out what to keep and what to bin. In the end, the OEM fuel tank was the only piece of the bodywork left intact.

A quick visual hit came in the form of a pair of polished alloy wheels from BMW’s own aftermarket catalog. Measuring 21”

It’s all about café racers this week, with a Harley Sportster from Thailand, a Triumph Thruxton from Hong Kong and a BMW boxer from the UK. Plus, a stock standard Ducati MH900E with one mile on the clock is up for sale.

Harley-Davidson Sportster Forty-Eight by FatBoy Design and Slayer House Last week, we reported that The Motor Co. had built their last Evo Sporty. This week, two Thai design studios are reminding us that it’ll remain popular for years to come, with one of the most radical custom Sportsters we’ve seen.

The project was conceived by Chakkaphan ‘Mark’ Rungsukcharoen at FatBoy Design, who wanted a bike to display at the 2022 Bangkok Hot Rod Custom Show. Taking heavy inspiration from the Lamborghini Murcielago SV owned by his father, Mark wanted to partner with a workshop that specialized in carbon fiber. So he roped in Nattapat Janyapanich at Slayer House.

Few shops know Italian classics quite as well as Brooklyn’s Moto Borgotaro. Owner Peter Boggia has been wrenching on Italian machinery for over two decades, having cut his teeth at the Moto Guzzi Chuck House in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Peter’s custom Guzzis have graced our pages before, but Moto Borgotaro builds much more than just traverse-twin beauties. The 1979 Ducati 900 GTS café racer you see here is a prime example. It perfectly showcases Peter’s love for all things design—and his exceptionally good taste.

Two iconic designers in particular inspired Peter’s approach to this build. The first was industrial designer Dieter Rams, the godfather of the ‘good design’ principles that went on to inspire everything from the iPod to Ikea furniture. The second was American artist Donald Judd, one of the most influential minimalists to ever live.

“I decided to go with a minimalist approach,” he explains. “Thinking less about