Category: Motorcycle

The numbers have been crunched, and the results are in. And as usual, our annual roundup of the most popular custom bikes on Bike EXIF is both enlightening and eclectic.

The ten machines listed here are those that made our servers work the hardest in 2022. This ranked selection is purely data-based. We take our website stats and look at social media engagement, add everything up and voila!

By its very nature, our top 10 also acts as a litmus test of sorts for the custom scene. It tells us that the café racer trend is still alive and well, and that over-the-top customs have a place too, if they’re executed well. (Curiously, this year’s list is also devoid of any electric customs.)

Scroll through our selection below, let us know how it makes you feel, and happy holidays.

10. Renard Motorcycles BMW R100 The fact that this list kicks

Kids are impressionable, especially when motorcycles are involved. That magical combination of sound, smell and danger has a way of imprinting itself on young minds. But Kyle Harvey didn’t just dream of bikes as a child—he practically grew up with them.

Kyle’s trade is tool and die making, but his passion is building bikes. His father, Garth Harvey, got Kyle and his brother into bikes at a young age; as soon as they could start their old man’s vintage motorcycles, they were riding them. Living in Edenvale in South Africa’s Gauteng province, the boys also had direct access to the local Classic Motorcycle Club.

The folks at the CMC made quite an impression on young Kyle—and taught him everything he knows about vintage bikes. After helping numerous friends work on their bikes, he went on to open his own shop, named simply ‘The Workshop.’ Kyle has been building and restoring

Gracing the cover of Rider’s October 2022 issue was the Yamaha MT-10, a thrilling naked sportbike based on the YZF-R1. I had the privilege of riding the MT-10 at the press launch in North Carolina, and afterward, Yamaha loaned us an accessorized version for further testing (we’ll have a report in a future issue).

Related: 2022 Yamaha MT-10 | Video Review

Yamaha also offers an up-spec version called the MT-10 SP. Priced at $17,199 – a $3,000 premium over the standard model – the SP features Öhlins semi-active suspension, steel-braided front brake lines, a polished aluminum swingarm, a YZF-R1M-inspired Liquid Metal/Raven colorway with blue wheels, and a color-matched lower fairing.

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The Yamaha MT-10 SP Goes for the Gold

Our guest on Episode 51 of the Rider Magazine Insider Podcast is Forrest Hobbs, who took a “purist” approach to completing the TransAmerica Trail. Hobbs lives in Denver, Colorado, and he bought a 1,200cc Yamaha Super Ténéré adventure bike, rode it 2,000 miles to Nags Head, North Carolina, rode the entire 6,200 miles of Sam Correro’s TransAmerica Trail, added a couple thousand miles along the way to visit friends and family, and then rode from Port Ord, Oregon, back home. Over 73 days, he logged over 12,000 miles. Hobbs used only roll charts for navigation and didn’t even have a GPS as a backup, and he camped on the trail nearly every night. Hobbs is a passionate off-road rider. He didn’t start riding motorcycles until he was 30, and he has competed in the Baja 1000, the Red Bull Romaniacs hard enduro, and the Idaho City 100 ISDE qualifier –

The online classifieds of the world are littered with basket cases that may or may not make good donors for custom motorcycle projects. But how often do you stumble upon a rolling chassis sporting a bespoke titanium frame, a Ducati 1000 DS motor and a smattering of track-spec goodies? And how often is it a bike that was previously featured on Bike EXIF?

The first time we laid eyes on this Ducati, Icon Motosports had turned it into a wild track beater for their design director, Kurt Walters. Now, over a decade since its first rebuild, Tony Prust at Analog Motorcycles has given it a second lease on life.

Rumor has it that the bike spent time on the track, before eventually going under the knife again. That project was abandoned, the bones of it were put on Craigslist, and long time Analog customer, Del Thomas, snapped it up.

“He

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.