The Borealis XL is a kit build kayak developed by Pygmy Boats, a company respected as a world-leader in the design of wooden kayaks, canoes and small boats specifically created to be easy to build at home by amateur boat builders. Each kit comes with everything you need to build your kayak or canoe, as…
The Stirling engine was originally invented by Scottish minster Robert Stirling in 1816, his invention rivalled the steam engine for a time and today it’s rapidly finding favour with modern inventors looking for ways of mechanising heat to create zero or low emissions engines. The working principle of the Stirling engine is simple but highly…
Vacuum tube based amplifiers have been making a significant comeback over the past 10 years or so, they were ubiquitous before the invention of the transistor – which due to its low cost and ease of manufacture quickly replaced tubes in almost all applications. The reason vacuum tubes have seen such a return to favour…
The Yamaha SR400 is one off the icons of the custom motorcycle scene, the single cylinder powered bike is remarkably simple to work on – in fact you’d be hard pressed to find a motorcycle that’s less complicated. The model started life as the SR500 all the way back in 1975, it was in production…
The canoe is a simple little boat design that’s been used by humans for all of recorded history and almost certainly for many thousands of years before that. Sadly many of us only ever paddle a canoe on a school camp or boy scout trip, this seems like a shame as it can actually be…
The Ryca CS-1 is a bolt-on cafe racer kit for the Suzuki Savage that’s been in steady production for just over 10 years, the bike has become something of a cult classic in the USA and Suzuki dealers are now getting onboard to produce them in-house, selling right off the showroom floor. The CS-1 project…
This is the Ducati Manx by Rad Ducati, it’s based on a 2007, 800cc Monster but as you can see, it’s been fairly heavily tweaked. The primary changes to the bike are the new fuel tank and seat, both available in kit form as either glass fibre (€600) or carbon fibre (€800), they’re designed to bolt onto standard Ducati Monster models including the 620, 695, 1000 Ie, S4, S2R 80 and S2R 1000.
The humble tool-roll, often used buy artisans and engineers in days gone by have been making a resurgence of late. They’ve been rediscovered by amateur mechanics and custom bike builders, as well as owners of the kind of vintage motorcycles that require wrenching every few hundred miles (usually by the side of the road, in the rain, at night).
This fantastic looking retro-racer is a Honda XL350 based Grass Tracker built by Phil Little Racing, the frame is an English-style tracker frame and was found hanging in the Minneapolis area shop of Merritt Cody, along with its matching fuel tank.
The Piranha Buggy is an offroad racing buggy built by Edge and designed to be built by regular people, in the garages. The buggy comes in the form of both kit and plans, with the plans option giving you the chance to buy separate pieces from the kit, that you don’t have the time to build yourself.
The Sportsman Flyer is a modern take on the classic boardtracker motorcycle genre, the Flyers are beautifully designed from front to back and powered by a hard working two-stroke engine.
The BMW 1200 GS is a venerable machine, they can go literally anywhere and I suspect that when they need a moon-buggy style vehicle for the first team on Mars, they’ll take a few of these.
