Wandering between a sea of custom motorcycles at the Handbuilt Show in Austin, Texas last month, our Stateside team had the arduous task of picking the best bikes in three categories. When it was time to dish out the award for the best paint job, this psychedelic BMW R80 was an easy choice. The story only got better when we discovered that the guy who built it, Eli Carver, is color-blind.
Based in Wimberley, Texas—a village about an hour south-east of Austin—Eli got into wrenching on BMW boxers after building his first, and only, custom Honda CB550. “I’ve built a few custom airheads over the years,” he tells us, “and had the honor of having three of them featured in the Handbuilt Show. I’ve bought, refurbished, and sold a few airheads as well, and have really enjoyed learning how they are put together.”
Eli bought the donor bike for this particular project, a 1987 BMW R80RT, for a whopping $50. It had been neglected for years, but he managed to get it back on the road with only a handful of new parts. Then he fabricated some brackets to fit a Dnepr sidecar, and road it like that for about a year, before stumbling upon a 1977 Ural sidecar rig with a blown motor.
“I sold the original sidecar, and used the R80RT engine to get the Ural back on the road,” he says. “I then found myself going through a divorce, and really wanted a project to get my head away from the family issues.”
By: Wesley Reyneke Title: Dreamy: The BMW R80 that won ‘Best Paint’ at the Handbuilt Show Sourced From: www.bikeexif.com/bmw-r80-handbuilt-winner Published Date: Tue, 09 May 2023 18:00:30 +0000
With a name like Colt Wrangler, it’s safe to assume that the man is from Texas and probably a bit of a cowboy. Hot dang if you aren’t right on both counts—Colt has been riding broncos and bulls competitively since he was a kid. But what you’re less likely to guess, is that this young cowpoke is also one of the most impressive motorcycle builders to emerge from the US custom scene in recent years.
Since Colt Wrangler Motorcycles was founded in 2015, Colt has established a distinct design language of his own. Recognizable by their high-level sheet-metal work, his builds exist in perfect proportion and hold high-performance details for those that know what they’re looking at—or even better, for those lucky enough to ride them.
We have featured Cole’s bikes before. But with more time to work on his latest project—a 1999 Harley-Davidson Sportster—he’s taken his personal style to new heights.
Colt had just started the Harley Sportster project, working in collaboration with local Texas truck builders Vintage Vendetta Garage, when Roland Sands Design announced the Dream Build-Off. This was a competition for local shops and backyard builders, with new motorcycles from BMW, Indian, and Royal Enfield as prizes. The Sportster was originally supposed to be a street-ready scrambler, but with this added motivation, Colt went
Given the rise in popularity of modern classic motorcycles in recent years, it’s only natural that motorcycle gear and apparel would follow suit. Just like most major OEMs have at least a couple of retro-styled bikes in their catalogs, most major gear and helmet companies have at least a couple of retro-styled items to match those bikes. But the Italian company DMD does it differently.
DMD doesn’t just dabble in café racer gear… they live and breathe it. Case in point: the DMD Rivale retro full-face helmet.
Based in Bergamo, an impossibly picturesque city in Italy’s alpine Lombardy region, DMD specializes in helmets and apparel. Specifically, helmets and apparel that combine modern materials and manufacturing processes, with all the style and panache of yesteryear.
This family-owned enterprise traces its roots back to 1975 California. While traveling to the US, the patriarch of the family, Amilcare, decided to start a motorcycle gear import and distribution company.
By: Wesley Reyneke Title: Look the part: The DMD Rivale retro full face helmet Sourced From: www.bikeexif.com/dmd-rivale-retro-helmet Published Date: Sat, 27 May 2023 17:01:29 +0000
Most conversations about electric motorcycles revolve around how they stack up against their petrol-powered counterparts. But there’s really no need to pick sides. Electric and ICE bikes are going to coexist for quite some time before one takes over from the other, so we might as well enjoy them both.
“These two worlds can harmonize very well,” asserts Dominikus Braun, co-founder of Germany’s Crooked Motorcycles. Among the shop’s offerings is a made-to-order custom based on the Yamaha XS400; a minimalist scrambler with compact proportions. Now they’ve copied and pasted that design onto an electric bike, to prove that it can look just as good.
It’s an idea that Crooked’s been milling over for a while, but finding the right donor bike was key to nailing the brief. They eventually connected with the Swedish brand RGNT, whose flagship product, the ‘No.1,’ is a stylish and compact electric retro. Its 21 kW hub motor is good for 21 kW of peak power, with a top speed of 120 km/h [75 mph] and a range of 148 km [92 miles].
“We immediately got into the same vibe, and had the same views when it came to design language,” says Dominikus. “The reduced classic style of both companies was a great thing to have in common.”
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By: Wesley Reyneke Title: E-Type: A minimalist electric scrambler from Crooked Sourced From: www.bikeexif.com/electric-scrambler-crooked-motorcycles Published Date: Thu, 18 May 2023 17:43:10 +0000