The Norton Commando is easily one of the most famous motorcycles ever made, even people who know nothing about bikes will know the name and will probably mention the words “British”, “Café Racer”, “Vintage” and “Fast” in conjunction with the marque.
Sounding for all the world like something the 3 hosts of Top Gear might dream up for an episode in Lapland this photograph from 1908 shows an iceboat racing a motorcycle across a frozen lake in Canada.
I’ll be sending pictures of this brilliant, minimalist Yamaha XS 650 Street Tracker over to Rex at Garage Project Motorcycles, he’s been advising me…
The Wunderlich S1000 RR “MadMax” is a totally reworked and apocalypse-ified BMW S1000 RR designed by Nicholas Petit and built by world renowned BMW experts, Wunderlich. The build was commissioned by tire manufacturer Continental to show off their new meaty off road tire, the Continental TKC 80.
Dime City Cycles is a fantastic one stop shop for everything a custom motorcycle builder needs to turn a stock bike into the café racer, bobber or flat-tracker of their dreams. I’ve ordered from Dime City Cycles more than once for different projects and chatted with some of the guys who work there so it’s great to be able to feature one of their own motorcycle builds here on Silodrome.
This is the G. Air-Frame Jacket by Dainese. It’s a modern motorcycle jacket with full front and rear tight knit mesh venting, a removable zip-in liner for cooler weather, CE Level 2 body armour in the elbows, forearms, shoulders and back, it also has stud-tabs along the arms and around the waist to allows you to tighten the jacket and ensure a snug fit.
Motor Rock is a fantastic, boutique custom motorcycle garage based in Japan, they opened their doors in 2004 and have produced a series of…
This 1964 DKW Hummel is a masterclass in ’60s era, futuristic design. It’s powered by a 50cc 2-stroke engine, has drum brakes front and rear, an integrated fuel tank/head light, a very interesting front fork assembly and more style than Cary Grant holding a martini, standing on top of a moving train.
On close inspection, it looks as though it’s raining in the picture above, making the airborne nature of the bike all the more impressive.
The Sidney Diesel Norton is one of those rare engineering experiments from the middle of the last century for which very little information still exists. We know that the engine was built hand built by Alfred Smith and Arthur Sidney, then fitted to a stock Norton motorcycle, the engine has a large, external flywheel (visible in the above photograph) and a single cylinder, diesel fuelled motor.
The Ducati MHe 900e is a modern classic, originally released as a concept bike back in 2000 the design won so much public adoration that Ducati decided to do a limited number production run on the model.
This bike, named “Egg Salad” for reasons that escape me, is powered by a 500cc Rotax engine, it has a Knight Flat Track Frame, it doesn’t have a kick or centre stand in order to keep weight down and it doesn’t have an electric or kick starter for the same reason.
