An Indian Scout from Austria, a Super Cub from Italy, a production electric bike from Australia, and a BMW from Texas—with a 1,500 cc VW engine. We’ve been collecting the air miles this week.
Fonzarelli NKD A company with the best name in motorcycling has just produced the first Australian-made production electric motorcycle. It’s called the NKD, it’s tiny and it looks like bags of fun.
Fonzarelli already has three electric scooters in its catalog, but this is the first ‘motorcycle’ from the Adelaide-based outfit—albeit a mini-bike. The brushless motor kicks out 9.6 kW and 56 Nm of torque, with a 3.5 kWh battery that’ll take about five hours to charge. Range and top speed are listed as 60 km and 80 km/h for the regular model, and 120 km and 100 km/h for the Special Edition. (The base model is expected to retail for just AU$9,990 when it hits dealers later this year.)
The company has some interesting plans on how to roll out more accessible charging options, but right now we’re hung up on how cool this thing looks. It doesn’t come as a shock though—Fonzarelli’s design director is Bike EXIF alumni Wenley Andrews.
The look of the NKD invokes everything from the Honda Grom to the hooligan spirit of pit bikes. The one pictured here is kitted with some optional extras, like an Alcantara seat, twin LED headlights and Pirelli dual-sport rubber. All it needs now is a skateboard rack, and we’re sold. [More]
Indian Scout by Titan Motorcycles Headed up by Michael Siebenhofer and Thanh Ho Ngo, Austria-based Titan Motorcycles have some impressive builds under their belt. But when they were handed a brand new Indian Scout and a three-week deadline, they had their work cut out for them.
With no time to go deep, they turned the Scout into a low and lean dirt tracker with a handful of clever mods. They roped in metal shaper Bernhard Naumann (A.K.A. Blechmann), who whipped up a new headlight shroud and tail section. Then they installed flat track bars from Fehling, with Biltwell Inc. grips and Rizoma turn signals.
The exhaust headers are custom, and terminate in an Akrapovič can (see top image). There’s a custom rear shock, a new footpeg set up, and a custom saddle. The wheels are wrapped in 16” Pirelli MT60 tires (Titan wanted to change the wheels to a 19F/18R setup, but the new wheels wouldn’t have arrived in time.)
The rear end’s finished off with an integrated tail light, and a custom license plate holder, kitted with a pair of Motogadget blinkers.
Everything’s wrapped in a slick blue paint job, with some faux rust thrown in for good measure, and ‘100’ graphics to mark the Scout’s one-hundredth birthday. A three-week timeframe is usually a recipe for cheap and nasty, but we dig how this Scout’s turned out—and we’d love to see it ridden in anger. [More]
Moto Guzzi T3 by Officine Rossopuro Filippo Barbacane has the golden touch when it comes to classic Moto Guzzis. Which is not surprising: he’s been working on them for a quarter century. He’s built some pretty out-there stuff too—but this build errs on the side of restraint, and is all the better for it.
It’s a 1979 Moto Guzzi T3 850, built for a Guzzista that wanted something classic and usable. Beyond those criteria, Filippo was free to do whatever he wanted. So he gave the donor’s engine, gearbox and frame a deep once-over, then ditched the shoddy bodywork in the trash and got cracking.
Filippo started with a new fuel tank—hand-shaped from sheet metal with classic lines and enough capacity for longer rides. Next, he hand-rolled a pair of aluminum fenders and fabricated neat triangular side covers. Capping the bodywork off is a well-padded diamond stitched saddle.
The Guzzi also wears new, shouldered Borrani rims, Bitubo rear shocks and custom-made mufflers from Mass Moto. Filippo overhauls the electrical systems and brakes on all his bikes, and here he also fitted his own adjustable rearsets, engine guard plates and brake mounts. The end result: a perfectly proportioned cafe racer that’s also a stellar daily runner. [More]
The BMW Volkswagen Fikobike Since motorcycles existed, riders have been trying to find ways to make them go faster. Some people are happy with a light carb tune and a new exhaust, but others go totally overboard. Back in 1967, Lee Fikes decided that the best way to squeeze more power out of his BMW R60 was to stick a VW motor in it.
Fikes had bought it to ride Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on his honeymoon. But then he decided that the 600 cc boxer motor would be too weak to cope with a long distance, two-up trip with luggage. So he stuck a 1,500 cc Volkswagen flat-4 in there instead. Then he upgraded it further, with a bunch of performance parts that also included a set of rare Thomas Tomahawk finned valve covers.
Other mods included a custom headlight housing with twin lights, and a custom dash up top. It houses a speedo, tacho, ammeter, and oil pressure temperature gauges, and there’s a cylinder head temperature gauge (from a Harley) mounted on the bars. But despite the extra power, this BMW still rolls on 1960s suspension and brakes.
Fikes eventually sold the Fikobike, and it’s still running and in an overall excellent condition today. Come late September, it’ll be going up on RM Sotheby’s auction block—so have your pocketbook ready. [More]
Honda Super Cub by Greaser Garage The Honda Super Cub may be small in size, but it’s massive in stature. It’s one of the best selling two-wheelers of all time, plus it’s also impossibly cute.
This custom job from Greaser Garage in Italy adds a dose of BMX style to the lovable Super Cub. Most of the work’s gone into the front end; the original leg fairings are still in play, but the middle section’s been replaced by hand-beaten aluminum. The pieces include new fork covers, and a headlight housing with an LED unit inside.
Higher up, the entire steering cluster’s been ditched for a completely custom setup. There’s a set of BMX-looking handlebars held by a bicycle bar clamp, motocross grips and a GPS-enabled speedo. (Look closely, and you’ll see that the turn signals have been integrated into the lower section of the bars.)
Out back, we can spot a bobbed rear fender with a built-in taillight, new shocks, and a race-style exhaust can. This Super Cub also wears dual sport rubber, and an aluminum rear wheel cover. What we wouldn’t give to park this little pocket-sized smile-machine in our garage! [More]
