The Yamaha XS650 is a bike that gets a lot of love on the custom motorcycle scene, the parallel twin is renowned for reliability and a solid power to weight ratio and so it seems a little strange that most of the customs based on the model have been hardtail chopper/bobbers rather than café racers or flat trackers.
Raen is a smaller company, focussing on handmade sunglasses for the American market. Their Lenox sunglasses are all made by hand one at a time from 100% Pulp Acetate and have polarised lenses, just the thing for summer.
This is the greatest picture of Earhart I’ve ever seen, it’s a snapshot of what was and what almost came to pass.
The team at Karnage Kustoms pulled the XS500 to pieces and went over each element, reducing weight and tossing unnecessary elements, the bike is fitted with R-1 rear sets, a stack of cafe racer equipment from Dime City Cycles, the carburettors have been rebuilt and the engine has been thoroughly sorted.
It seems a shame that this clip is only 0:48 seconds long, seeing people skiing down a mountain being pulled by a Porsche 550 Spyder, Porsche 356, assorted Triumphs and other motorcycles is genuinely incredible.
This fantastic retro documentary about motorcycle racing is presented by “Fast” Freddie Spencer, it was filmed and released in 1985 so the era of 500cc 2-stoke super bikes was in full swing.
The Jaguar XK120 was a revelation when it was first shown in 1948, the “120” in the name refers to it’s top speed of 120 mph which was the fastest top speed of any production car in the world at the time.
This modified 1950 Nimbus Bobber is the brainchild of Kim Scholer, a Danish man who says he chose the 22hp inline 4 due to the fact that it isn’t fast enough to get him into trouble. It’s hard to place the Nimbus into any particular category…
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.
It amazes me that some people are this cool without even trying. After spending some time looking over the photograph above I’ve hypothesised that that’s a 1940’s or 1950’s JAP based flat tracker, I’ve also decided that I want one.
So an old friend of mine had a Mrs who treated him like her personal mechanic, this was more work than you might expect as she was the kind of lady who only changed up a gear when the engine was revving so high it was on the verge of creating a tear in space/time, she also liked to smush the brake pedal at the last possible moment, often creating so many forward-Gs that items in the back seat would end up embedded in the glove compartment.
Billykirk creates some of the finest handmade leather gear you’ll find anywhere, this is their No. 109 belt and it features a nickel-silver buckle with hand-oiled and edged 3/4.” leather. All Billykirk products are handmade in the USA and are famous for looking better as they get older, if only that were true for all of us.
