The R131 Fighter by Confederate Motorcycles is a bike I’ve been wanting to feature here on Silodrome for quite some time, in some respects it’s the epitome of an engineering first approach to motorcycle design, and that’s resulted in a bike that’s beautiful purely because form follows function.
The Indian 101 Scout was produced between 1928 and 1931, it was the successor to the previous Scout model that began production in 1920 but the 101 had been fully reworked from the ground up by Charles Franklin, the senior Indian engineer and former motorcycle racer responsible for the original Scout.
This bike was nicknamed “The American” by its creator, Michael Woolaway (aka Woolie), the head motorcycle man at Deus Ex Machina in California. The fundamental ethos behind The American was that is should be as American as possible with as few internationally sourced parts as could be managed.
The Honda CB750 has probably been featured on Silodrome more than any other single motorcycle model for the very simple reason that there are just so many people out there producing stunning customs using it as a base platform.
This bike, a custom KTM Superduke 990, is the personal daily rider of Tony Prust – the founder of Analog Motorcycles.
When I first stumbled across this Suzuki GT750 it took me a second to figure out what it was, then when it occurred to me that I was looking at a 750cc, water-cooled, 2-stroke with modern suspension and brakes, I nearly had a cardiac event.
This 1971 Triumph Trail Blazer looks to me to be just about the perfect weekend warrior, the single cylinder 250 never really caught on when it was released in 1971 and so now they’re quite rare and tend to be viewed as collectibles.
The Honda GB250 is a motorcycle that lives very close to my heart, I have one that I use almost daily and despite the fact that I initially bought it to spend “6 months or so” learning how to ride in Hong Kong (it’s a big change from England and Australia) I still own it and love it almost 4 years later.
This is the Streetmaster by Champions Moto, it’s a flat-tracker-extraordinaire and I’m yet to show it to anyone without having them instantly ask me what it is and how they can either buy it or build one just like it.
Brough Superior is still considered by many to be the grandest motorcycle marque of all time, during their years of production their motorcycles sold for prices on par with the average house’s value (£130 to £180).
This bike, the BOTT XR1, is a great example of what could have been achieved had Harley-Davidson not axed its Buell division back in 2009.
When I saw this remarkable WWI era photograph showing a chap from the 39th Tomsk Infantry Regiment with his motorcycle-mounted machine gun I immediately decided that I wanted one. Preferably without the million or so angry Germans on the other end of it.
