The team at Blitz Motorcycles have a refreshingly heretical approach to custom motorcycle design, they forgo the usual spit and polish, instead focussing on truly rideable cafe racers, scramblers and urban trackers.
First created in 1929 by Gaspard Cognet the Douk-Douk knife is still made by M.C. Cognet in France using the same, time tested methods. Each blade is handmade from high-carbon steel and both handle and blade features a beautiful series of engravings that are a story unto themselves.
Marcel Renault was the co-founder of the automaker that bears his name to this day, he used to build and race his own cars before a tragic accident in the 1903 Paris-Madrid Race.
They say good things come in threes, so with that in mind, here’s our third BMW motorcycle this week. Dubbed the ‘Lucky 13’ this BMW R100/7 is the latest build out of the garages of Blitz Motorcycles, a France based custom motorcycle garage with a penchant for cafe racers, scramblers and very unusual paint jobs.
It isn’t often that you can accuse the French of out-Americaning the Americans. I think this is perhaps one such rare occasion. Meet the Wakan Motorcycle.
Françoise Hardy was an iconic figure during the ’60s and ’70s, her music influenced millions including the likes of Bob Dylan and her effortless style heavily affected the fashion industry of the era. In some respects she was France’s answer to Audrey Hepburn, although arguably Hardy’s influence stretched further.
Though not inline with our usual features we talked about this film a great deal and decided that anyone who appreciates the intricate engineering and sense of history that goes into vintage motorcycles and automobiles will be touched by this wonderful short film by Tom Wrigglesworth and Mathieu Cuvelier.
Board Track Tricycle Racing is something we were unaware of until very recently, it appears to be a French photograph and the background doesn’t give a whole lot away. If you know more about this than we do, which isn’t hard at this point…
Englishman Raymond Mays was an avid racer and through a deal with a Bugatti importer he managed to finagle himself a Type 13 to go racing in….
Edwin is a clothing label favoured by many motorcycle aficionados, especially those in the custom-but-not-a-chopper scene. This film was produced in conjunction with Blitz Motorcycles out of France and features some of Blitz’s bikes…
This music video by Hysteric Studios and the bike builders at Blitz Motorcycles is one of those things that makes you sit down and question the intelligence behind working in an office, especially when you learn that the average cubicle is half the size of the average prison cell.
Terrot was a French motorcycle manufacturer based in Dijon, they started building motorcycles in 1902. By 1932 they had won the triple-championship in France having taken victories in the 250cc, 350cc and 500cc motorcycle racing classes. A few years later during the second world war, Terrot supplied thousands of sidecar motorcycles to the French army.
