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 -
eBay Find: 1968 BSA Shooting Star
The 1968 BSA Shooting Star is widely considered to be one of the best bikes the small British company ever produced, the 441cc single cylinder was capable of a spirited 95mph, with 30hp on tap and a weight of 320lbs.
First Look: The Black Falcon
Falcon Motorcycles have released the first glimpse of their new creation, the Black Falcon. Based on a Vincent Black Shadow salt-lake racer V-Twin from 1952, the meticulously hand-crafted motorcycle is debuting at the Quail Motorcycle Gathering today (Saturday) so expect the motorcycle blogosphere to light up like a Christmas Tree decorated with yellow cake uranium and fusing hydrogen.
Porsche Le Mans Poster Circa 1970
The Porsche 914/6 GT was produced between 1970 and 1972, 3360 were made in total and all used the 2.0 litre flat-six Porsche engine….
The Ford XC Cobra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmVnzageLMo You may be looking at the below picture of this blue and white car and wondering how you never came across this particular…
Snell vs DOT vs ECE R22-05 – Helmet Standards Comparison – Updated For 2019
As an avid motorcyclist I have always been reassured if slightly baffled by helmet standards, if seems odd that there is more than one standard and as you dig deeper you learn that different standards have vastly different requirements and not surprisingly, there is serious controversy about what’s best.
Hawker Private Jet
$595,000 USD will buy you a modest suburban house in most parts of America. Well, it could buy you a modest suburban house. Or it could buy you your own private freaking jet. I don’t think it’s a particularly difficult choice, I mean the plane has seats that fold into beds and a kitchenette but the modest suburban house can’t fly. 1-0 to the private jet.
Yamaha XS650 Flat Tracker
1973. It was the year of Elvis’ famous live concert in Hawaii, Nixon was inaugurated for his second term, George Foreman beat Joe Frazier to become the world heavy weight boxing champion, Skylab was launched, The DEA was founded and a young Kenny Roberts won the A.M.A. Grand National Championship aboard a ’73 XS650 Yamaha Tracker.
The Death and Life Of Vincent Motorcycles
Vincent is one of the most highly respected names in the world of motorcycling, Hunter S. Thompson was a big fan, the most famous motorcycling photograph ever, Rollie Free at Bonneville in his swimming trunks, featured a Vincent Black Lightning and between 1948-1955 Vincent produced the fastest production motorcycle in the world, the Black Shadow.
Zero Type 5 by Zero Engineering
This particular Zero is currently for sale, it features the 96” S&S V-Series Evo Engine, and original Harley-Davidson 5 Speed Transmission, a beautiful Zero Original 2 into 1 Exhaust with Ceramic Coating Finish and 52 miles of road-testing on the odometer.
Aviator Goggles by Jeantet
In 1880 Eugene Jeantet founded the Jeantet company, ten miles west of Lake Geneva in the quaint French town of Morez. The Jeantet company created and sold mostly the pince-nez style of spectacle for motorists and cyclists until 1929 when Eugene’s son, Léon, invented the aviator goggle.
1977 Yamaha XS650 Flat Tracker
Flat Trackers are great looking, purpose built mud-sliders that ooze retro, rural American charm. I love them. This 1977 Yamaha XS650 is a tidy looking example, it was raced…
The Forgotten 1962 Ford Mustang
If the Ford Mustang I Prototype had seen the green light for production things would have turned out very differently. In October ’62, when the first Mustang I debuted at the United States Grand Prix in Watkins Glen, New York, the Formula One driver Dan Gurney lapped the circuit using the prototype. His lap times were only slightly off the pace of the Formula 1 race cars.