Ben Branch – Author Page
From left to right: Anthony Partridge of the Discovery Channel TV show Goblin Works Garage, Ben Branch the founder of Silodrome, Mark Hawwa the founder of The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride, and Scott Hopkin the founder of Pipeburn.
Ben Branch has been a professional writer for the better part of 20 years, starting out as a contributor and columnist for print publications like Time Out Magazine. As the digital era came of age and print publications (mostly) disappeared, Ben switched to writing for established online publications, then founded Silodrome in 2010.
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.
A number of television shows have reached out to Ben over the years when seeking information about rare vehicles, including Jay Leno’s Garage and American Pickers. Major national news organizations like the LA Times and Fox News have also been in touch seeking information on automotive topics, and he’s regularly contacted by publishers looking to verify facts or add context for upcoming automotive and motorcycle-related books.
Silodrome 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 across its various social media channels.
In early 2025 Ben bought a “Bullnose” 1986 Ford Bronco in Denver, Colorado and drove it cross country with a friend to Los Angeles by way of the Rocky Mountains, Moab, the Grand Canyon, and Las Vegas. The original plan had been to get to Phoenix, Arizona but the Bronco broke down outside of Palm Springs and is now stored in Joshua Tree until next time.
On a more personal note, Ben travels extensively for work (and for fun), often traveling to the United States where he keeps a vintage Ford Bronco that he uses for cross-country road trips (shown above). In Australia he has a V8-powered MGB Roadster and a vintage BMW R100 GS Paris Dakar adventure bike, the latter of which he rode across the country in 2024 just to see if he would make it.
He’s currently on the lookout for an interesting vintage vehicle in Europe as an excuse to spend more time on the Continent. He has his eye on a 1970s-era Volvo Laplander C202 4×4, which is essentially a steel brick on wheels, and he has increasingly serious plans to take it to the Nürburgring and try to set a lap record for the vehicle type.
If you would like to contact Ben regarding his work here or just touch base with him, you can reach out to the Silodrome team via our official Contact Us page here.
This is an official headshot from a series that were taken to promote the then-new series of Silodrome t-shirts. He doesn’t usually look that serious in real life.
This is Ben with his BMW R100GS Paris Dakar, shortly before he rode it from Sydney to Perth across Australia, a distance of almost 3,000 miles. Shockingly, the bike didn’t break down once.
This slightly blurry shot shows Ben on the BMW in Malaysia on an adventure that included a section allowing people to ride through a cave.
This shot was taken in the remote highlands of central Malaysia, a region with wild tigers and elephants. No animals were seen on this trip, but it was quite a job to dodge all the mounds of elephant dung on the trails.
This was Ben at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in 2023 wearing his finest Canadian tuxedo and standing next to the 1952 Manta Ray.
This selfie shows Ben on his ride across the Nullarbor Plain in Australia, in the background there you can see the R100GS.
I don’t have approval to post this, but this is Ben in 2023 when he grew a moustache to see if he could pull off the Nick Offerman look. (He couldn’t).
This is Ben in the 1980s on his first motorcycle. He now refuses to admit he ever wore those sandals.
All images copyright – 2025© Ben Branch + Silodrome