Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more. Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
Ben Branch -
Honda CB750 Scrambler by LHC
This bike started life as a 1982 Honda CB750 before Richard and Lex at Left Hand Cycles got their hands on it and set about creating the rather unique bike you see above and below. Left Hand Cycles is based in the Netherlands and tends to focus on motorbikes from the ’60s and ’70s, their previous work has included a Yamaha XS650 and a beautiful old air-cooled Moto Guzzi.
Sledge Tee by Hammarhead Industries
Hammarhead Industries is a unique little company owned by a man by the name of James Loughead, he’s a PhD and is the Assistant Professor of Neuropsychology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Last Great Race On Earth – The 1979 Iditarod
The Iditarod is one of the most difficult races ever devised by the mind of man, it’s a brutal winter race that takes place in Alaska between Anchorage and Nome. The fastest recorded time is 8 days, 19 hours, 46 minutes, and 39 seconds and that includes very little sleep.
Wood Watch by Slim Timber
The Wood Watch by Slim Timber is an achievement tried by others in the past, but never to quite this degree of success. Each of the wooden creations is made from stabilised seven-ply maple skateboard wood, the stabilisation is achieved by placing the wood in a partial vacuum which sucks the air out of it, this air is then replaced by resin – making the wood water-resistant and very hard wearing.
Ferrari 250 GT Lusso Berlinetta
This is a 1964 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso Berlinetta and it’s a very, very beautiful thing. Sadly they were only produced in very limited numbers (350 total) between 1963 and 1964 meaning they’re not the sort of thing you’re likely to see parked outside the local Hyatt.
Graham Hill Cufflinks by One Bond St.
These sterling silver cufflinks by One Bond St. are a fitting tribute to Hill, they bear the colour scheme of his famous BRM P261 Formula 1 car as well as his racing number. You can pick up a pair for £90 and add a little bit of subtle 1960s motor racing flair to your wardrobe.
2013 Brammo Empulse RR ‘Sauvetage’
I love electric motorcycles, they don’t make the same thundering roar as more traditional gasoline powered bikes but they do offer extraordinary torque, low maintenance and an interesting engine noise not entirely unlike Luke Skywalkers Land Speeder.
Ducati Garage Rock Sunglasses by Oakley
These are the Ducati Garage Rock Sunglasses by Oakley, they’re designed to be worn under helmets by motorcyclists and feature about as much technology as you’d expect from a collaboration from brands with pedigrees like these two.
Retrobuilt 1969 Mustang Fastback
The Retrobuilt 1969 Mustang Fastback is a wolf in a slightly older wolf’s clothing. The car pictured here started life as a stock 2013 Ford Mustang GT, it was acquired by the team at Retrobuilt and they then set about building one of their hugely popular, classic-looking but modern under-the-skin creations.
1938 Indian Chief
The 1938 Indian Chief incorporated a number of improvements over the 1937 model, the engineers at Indian worked on refining each model year as best they could and so the 1938 Chief had dozens of these small improvements.
The Man Card
The Man Card is a credit card sized steel plate designed to slide into your wallet and provide it with some much needed rigidity, this helps offset the problem of having bent, creased or otherwise damaged bank cards, drivers licenses and credit cards.
Project Update: The Bugatti 100P
In 1938 Ettore Bugatti started work on an aircraft designed to win the illustrious Deutsch de la Meurthe Cup Race and to test performance technologies with a view to using them on French fighter planes. Before the incredible plane had a chance to fly, the Nazis invaded France and left Ettore and his chief engineer Louis de Monge with no choice but to smuggle the partially completed aircraft out under the cover of darkness to Bugatti’s estate outside Paris.