The Harley-Davidson JDH Twin-Cam The Harley-Davidson JDH Twin-Cam is one of the most celebrated motorcycles ever built by the Milwaukee-based manufacturer. The 74 cubic inch V-twin featured twin cams with two lobes on each, rather than the older set-up that used a single cam with 4 lobes. This reduced the reciprocating weight and reduced the length of…
Cytech Motorcycles have been organizing African motorcycle expeditions since the mid-1970s, they’ve only ever used BMWs because of their legendary toughness and reliability, and over the decades they became one of the largest BMW dealerships in Southern Africa. The company is largely a family affair, Donovan does much of the hands on work with his…
When you see the Watkins M001 for the first time you spend a good 5 minutes staring, trying to wrap your mind around it. It’s equal parts complex, unusual, and unfamiliar, almost as if a motorcycle from the Blade Runner universe was modified in the Marvel universe, before somehow exiting a wormhole and landing on…
The Moto Rocker was designed to be the first “motorcycle” for aspiring riders between the ages of 1.5 and 4 years. The Moto Rocker has a model engine mounted amidships that resembles a 125cc two-stroke unit, with a carburetor, exhaust, and even a unit transmission. Three major versions are offered, a Cafe Racer, Brat Racer,…
The story of Elspeth Beard is legendary within the motorcycle community, in 1982 aged just 23 she set off on a round the world adventure with nothing more than a tent, some meagre savings from her job in a bar, and her trusty 1974 BMW R60/6. This was many years before GPS, email, cell phones,…
The idea of developing a home-built kit to convert the KTM 990 Adventure into a two-wheel drive motorcycle with hub-centre steering sounds difficult enough – but somehow also managing to reduce the weight by 40 kilograms compared to the stock bike sounds borderline impossible. Despite the litany of difficulties associated with the concept, mechanical engineer…
The Triumph Scrambler was first released in 2006, it was based on the already popular Triumph Bonneville, but it added a series of modifications to give it some off-road ability. Not off-road ability on the level of an enduro or motocross racer of course, but enough dirt road capability to have adventures down fire roads and up the occasional forest trail.
The Coventry-Eagle Flying-8 was a high-performance motorcycle designed to compete directly with the offerings from Brough-Superior – a company that was building the fastest and most expensive production motorcycles in the world at the time. The similarity in looks between the Coventry-Eagle Flying-8 and the Brough-Superior SS80 and SS100 was no mistake, George Brough and…
James Parker and RADD Inc. Suspension The Yamaha GTS 1000 was released in 1993 with unusual forkless front suspension designed by James Parker, a Stanford University trained Industrial Designer with an innate engineering ability – which he used to develop oftentimes unusual motorcycles. In 1971 when he ran a Hodaka dealership Parker created a 120…
Editor’s Note: This article was written by Davey Whitcraft of Whitcraft Services. When possible we like to give custom builders the chance to tell the story of their work in their own words – cutting out the middle man and offering a unique insight into their thought process and methodology. Whitcraft Services 001 The modern…
The Janus Full Body Kit is designed to bolt directly to either the Yamaha MT-25 or Yamaha MT-03 with no welding, gluing, or hammering – you’ll just need an Allen key and a socket wrench. Body kits for cars are commonplace, but the concept is more rare with motorcycles which seems strange given that the…
The Indian Four is considered by many to be one of the most handsome American motorcycles of the 20th century, if not all time. Its sweeping fenders, glistening chrome, longitudinally-mounted 4-cylinder engine, and tan leather saddle helped to define the ideal American motorcycle for decades – and the modern Indian Chief shares more than a passing…
