Bringing a truly unique style to the scene is not an easy task, and it’s even more impressive if you can make it stick. Winston Yeh started Rough Crafts in Taiwan more than ten years ago, and every bike he builds is a fresh take on his signature style. With a list of regular collaborators assisting with fabrication, assembly and paint, Rough Crafts is a crowd sourcing of talent, so to speak—but Winston’s eye for design is apparent in every bike.
Blacked out paint schemes with a delightful application of carbon fiber are hallmarks of a Rough Crafts machine, in addition to trick suspension, devilish details and imaginative monikers. Winston’s style has been exercised on Ducatis, Yamahas and more, but there’s something special about a Rough Crafts Harley.
Asphalt Glider Rough Crafts’ ‘Stealth Bullet’ Sporty set the internet ablaze years back when it won its class at the AMD World Championship, so it comes as no surprise that one of Winston’s customers would request something similar. But for ‘Asphalt Glider,’ the customer wanted something more extreme, more exaggerated, and that’s exactly what they got.
To suit the build’s more extreme proportions, Winston started with a Softail Breakout model and dropped it on the ground with a rear air shock from Legend Suspension and a girder fork. The latter was built by Italian FG Racing, a company that specializes in performance girders, and the whole thing is made from billet aluminum.
If we had to use one word to describe the bikes that roll out of Holger Breuer’s workshop, it would be ‘crisp.’ Whether he’s building a bobber or a scrambler, the man behind HB-Custom has an eye for perfect proportions and liveries that pop. Even when he’s working with a tired old Suzuki dual-sport as a donor, Holger manages to make magic.
This 1994 Suzuki DR650 came to the HB-Custom workshop in Husum, Germany, all the way from Berlin. Holger’s client actually booked two bikes in at once; an old BMW boxer to turn into a bobber for solo rides, and the Suzuki, which was destined for around-town duties and the occasional two-up jaunt.
The bike arrived as a rolling chassis with a very loose brief, so Holger envisioned a svelte scrambler for whipping through Berlin’s city streets. He’s built a number of handsome custom Honda Dominators, and figured that he could apply the same formula to the Suzuki DR650. And he was right.
But first, the Suzuki’s well-worn motor needed attention. Holger tore it down and rebuilt it, complete with new seals and gaskets and a fresh coat of paint. This engine might be almost three decades old, but it’s clean enough to eat off of.
Lionel Duke builds a little bit of everything. His Nice, France-based custom shop, Duke Motorcycles, has transformed Honda Goldwings, Kawasaki ER6s, and Ducati Scramblers into unique one-off creations in recent years. But the most interesting thing to come from his garage actually isn’t a bike at all—it’s a box full of parts.
More specifically, a box full of parts to convert any stock BMW R NineT into a radical-looking plug-and-play custom streetfighter. It was this very kit that caught the eye of Duke’s latest client, who saw a picture of Lionel’s prototype build online and decided he wanted one for himself.
The client loved the original kit’s supercar-inspired design, but wanted a few unique touches of their own to truly make it theirs. And Lionel was more than happy to oblige.
“He had been asking around Parisian workshops that offered their own R nineT kits,” he says, “but none of them were willing to modify their standard parts to suit his tastes. I told him that it wasn’t a problem for me, as I actually prefer to do different things on each project.”
By: Kurt Spurlock Title: Custom à la carte: A BMW R nineT streetfighter from France Sourced From: www.bikeexif.com/bmw-r-ninet-streetfighter Published Date: Mon, 22 May 2023 17:01:16 +0000
We’re feeling both retro and futuristic this week, so we’ve rounded up bikes that cover the full spectrum. Leading the charge is Verge’s new Mika Häkkinen edition electric bike, followed by the new Fantic Caballero 700 scrambler. We then profile a Yamaha SR400 from Australia, before coming in to land with a fetching Triton from France.
Verge Mika Häkkinen Signature Edition With an impressive 51 Formula One podiums and two championships to his credit with Lotus and McLaren, the Flying Finn knows mechanical excellence. So when Mika Häkkinen partnered with electric superbike manufacturer Verge Motorcycles, you knew it was something worth paying attention to.
Häkkinen joined forces with Verge early in 2023, and instead of just a plain endorsement, Verge announced that Häkkinen is now part of the company’s advisory board and has personally designed his own limited-edition bike. Capped at 100 units, each Häkkinen Signature Edition Verge comes with a numbered plaque with Mika’s signature, unique cosmetics and will sell for around $87,000.
By: Alfonso Paca Title: Speed Read, May 21, 2023 Sourced From: www.bikeexif.com/motorcycle-news-may-21-2023 Published Date: Sun, 21 May 2023 16:34:50 +0000