Tag: motorcycle

Motorcycle

Precious gem: A shimmering Triumph Bonneville by Tamarit

H312ud1
The value of a precious stone is rarely negotiable. Diamonds, rubies, and sapphires are priced based on cut, clarity, color, and carat weight. But this Triumph, dubbed ‘Emerald,’ is something different altogether, with a value waiting to be defined at the Bonhams auction house in Paris. Tamarit Motorcycles is a custom-bike-making powerhouse in Alacante, Spain, focusing exclusively on Triumph’s air- and oil-cooled Bonneville platform. Emerald is the 129th build to roll out of the shop since it was founded in 2019, and the 13th to bless the pages of Bike EXIF. Many of Tamarit’s builds are approachable bikes—comparatively affordable machines...
Motorcycle

2023 KTM 1290 Super Adventure S | First Look Review

H312ud1
In addition to the recent announcement of the 2023 KTM 1290 Super Adventure R, KTM has released details on the 2023 KTM 1290 Super Adventure S, which will be available this month at authorized KTM dealers.  Related: 2023 KTM 1290 Super Adventure R | First Look Review  For 2023, KTM has taken the base of the KTM 1290 Super Adventure S, which the company says is “engineered to conquer mile after mile on all types of terrain,” and added a fresh sheen as well as several refinements for the benefit of practical adventuring.  Advertisement The KTM 1290 Super Adventure S...
Motorcycle

Cool as ice: A GSX-R750 Slingshot from the Netherlands

H312ud1
A boxed aluminum frame, round headlights, three-spoke wheels and and bold graphics; nothing epitomizes the dawn of the 90s like the 1990 Suzuki GSX-R750. The 115 hp Slingshot was the first GSX-R with upside down forks, and the last one to put its twin lights on full display. It demands attention, even today—so if you’re going to customize one, you’d better make it unmissable. That’s Michel Szozda’s theory, at least. He customizes motorcycles as Cool Kid Customs, working out of a space that he shares with other creative friends in Haarlem, near Amsterdam. His style is anything but conventional, and...
Motorcycle

Oriental Uppercut: A gnarly Honda CB1100 by Rough Crafts

H312ud1
Remember the Honda CB1100 TR Concept? Revealed in 2016 at EICMA, it was conceived by Honda Europe designer, Valerio Aiello, as an aggressive, flat track-inspired take on the Honda CB1100 modern classic. Not only did it never make it into production, but Honda eventually stopped producing the CB1100 altogether, just last year. The spirit of the TR Concept lives on in this gnarly Honda CB1100 RS custom from Rough Crafts in Taiwan. When Rough Crafts’ Winston Yeh was commissioned to customize the CB, his thoughts immediately turned to Valerio Aiello’s design. “If you ask me which is my favorite custom...
Motorcycle

Chemical Reactions: Wannabe’s custom electric chopper

H312ud1
We tend to be afraid of what we don’t understand, shying away from things that are ‘different’ or ‘foreign.’ Even something as lovely as this all-aluminum motorcycle from Enrico de Haas of Germany’s Wannabe-Choppers is hated by some—simply because it has an electric powertrain. “Sometimes I’m even happy about the bullshit,” says a smiling Ricky, who founded Wannabe-Choppers at 15 with the aim of one day creating a completely scratch-built motorcycle. (Seriously: His shop recently started making grips in order to learn more about rubber manufacturing and use that knowledge to produce tires.) Ricky and his team built this rigid...
Motorcycle

Editor’s Choice: An alternative top 10 for 2022

H312ud1
You know the drill. Once we’ve processed the data and published our ranked list of the year’s best custom motorcycles, I throw it out the window and pick my personal favorites. And it’s never easy. 2022 has been a good year for the custom scene. My short list started with 42 motorcycles, all of them winners in their own right. In the interest of fairness, I then eliminated any bikes that already made our ranked list, and whittled the selection down. The result is an eclectic list of customs that all stand out for their creativity, ingenuity and overall radness....
Motorcycle

Meet Beijing’s young Zero Engineering motorcycle riders

H312ud1
Miki is 26 years old, compact in size, but rides with a confident, easy strength. Her crew blasts around Beijing on near identical Zero Engineering Type 6 motorcycles; 92.63 cubic-inch S&S Shovelheads with Baker six-speeds. The geometry of the Type 6 works for smaller riders like Miki. A rigid Gooseneck frame with a 33.2-degree rake drops the frame four inches from the street, and a mere 26 inches from seat to street. The classic Zero design Springer front end and larger 5.00-16 tires harken to a nostalgic past, while the bike’s modernized, long wheelbase and narrow width works wonders for...
Motorcycle

Full out: the 2022 Chirihama Sandflats vintage beach race

H312ud1
Of the 800,000 miles of thoroughfare winding across the islands of Japan, there’s only one five mile stretch where you can drive a vehicle on a public beach (legally, at any rate). It’s called the Chirihama Nagisa Driveway, and for 363 days of the year, it’s a serene little strip of coastline and a popular destination for tourists and beach goers. For two very special days of the year, however, that serenity is replaced by the sweet music of straight-piped race bikes, while this smooth patch of sand is converted into a drag strip like no other. We’re talking about...
Motorcycle

Country Cub: A DIY Honda CT125 kit from K-Speed

H312ud1
It’s just a couple of days to Christmas—and if you still don’t know what to get yourself, maybe a kit to transform your Honda CT125 is the answer. After all, it’s been a long 365 days, and to be honest, you deserve it. The Honda CT125 Hunter Cub is cute AF out the box, but if anyone knows how to mod the absolute daylights out of it, it’s K-Speed. This time around, they’ve used the CT125 as a test bed to develop a set of bolt-on parts, so that you can do it yourself. The only thing K-Speed doesn’t supply,...
Motorcycle

SuperScram: Crooked’s Royal Enfield Scram supermoto

H312ud1
While many motorcycle brands are still struggling to meet manufacturing demands, Royal Enfield is flourishing. Not only have they been consistently releasing new models, but they’ve been commissioning some amazing custom builds as well. The latest is brought to us by Crooked Motorcycles in Germany; a Royal Enfield Scram 411 turned supermoto, with some impressive details. Since the build was commissioned by Royal Enfield, the the project essentially had two goals. It had to express the creative drive of the builders behind Crooked, and it had to highlight the Scram 411 as a platform. This meant getting the most visual...