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 -
Yamaha R1 Flat Tracker by Gregg’s Customs
This bike started life as a 2009 factory spec Yamaha R1 before being picked up by the team at Gregg’s Customs and pulled to bits. The rear subframe was tossed as were all the plastic fairings and the original swingarm.
Icon1000 Elsinore Boot
The Elsinore Boot series feature an internal steel shank, a thick leather upper, a rubber sole, a zipper originally designed for paratrooper boots and a series of 5 alloy buckles down the outside to make sure they stay on no matter what the hell happens.
Marrs Electric Cruiser
The Marrs Electric Cycle Company was founded by Kacy Marrs after he was injured in a motorcycle accident and found himself unable to ride. He wanted to bring sourthern California style to the electric bicycle arena…
Brixton Hats Brood Newsboy Cap
There’s something reassuring about the classic British flap cap, it has a little more gravitas than a baseball hat and a little less Castro than a Patrol Cap.
Bond’s Esprit
I still remember seeing the Lotus Esprit in The Spy Who Loved Me when I was a child, the car looked unlike anything I’d ever seen and I swore to myself then and there that I’d get one when I grew up.
Hawker Hurricane IIA Fighter Plane
The Hawker Hurricane never quite achieved the notoriety of the Spitfire, this may be a bit of an historical oversight though when you look back at the actual statistics of the Second World War.
San Francisco Women’s Motorcycle Unit – 1940
This photo from 1940 shows the San Francisco Women’s Motorcycle Unit, sometimes referred to as the Servi-Girls.
1937 Rolls-Royce Phantom III Aero Coupe
This Rolls-Royce Phantom III Aero Coupe is a bespoke, one off design inspired by a 1935 art-deco illustration by J. Jortovic and published in Road & Track Magazine.
Hudson 4-Grain Bourbon by Tuthilltown Spirits
Hudson 4-Grain Bourbon by Tuthilltown Spirits is a return to the roots of classic distilling, it’s made with equal parts of of corn, rye, wheat and malted barley and then aged in small oak barrels.
Ayrton Senna – The Right To Win
“Ayrton Senna – The Right To Win” is a documentary that came out in 2004, a few years before the recent and brilliantly made “Senna”.
Rossmeyer Flyer by Jesse Rooke
The Rossmeyer Flyer was built by Jesse Rooke for Bruce Rossmeyer, a very well-known Harley-Davidson dealership owner, the bike itself is a classic Rooke design with elements of board-tracker, chopper and cruiser all integrated without any one element overpowering the design.
Mechanical Playing Cards
So long as there are men there’ll be cards, whiskey and cigars. Up until fairly recently there wasn’t a whole lot of variety available in the playing card space and so in order to rectify this, the designers at Theory11 designed this beautiful pack of steam punk playing cards.