A Ducati Scrambler with a weird Manga vibe, a Yamaha XJR1300 with monocoque bodywork, and one of the best custom Bonnevilles we’ve seen in years. Check out the motorcycles that revved our engines this week.
Ducati Scrambler by Vibrazioni Art Design The first motorcycle to capture my imagination as kid was the Delta Mk IV Megafighter from the admittedly abhorable 1982 Hal Needham movie, Megaforce. The Suzuki RM125s were outfitted with weapons and solid block wheels, and they could fly. At four years old, this was enough to convince me that bikes were the coolest thing on the planet.
This Ducati Scrambler from the welding-masked men at Vibrazioni Art Design has a very similar vibe. ‘Flamingo’ doesn’t have cowl-mounted missiles, but it looks ready for war. The remote reservoir, balance-free-fork style front suspension should tackle any terrain, and the high-mount oil cooler with integrated headlight exemplifies form meeting function.
If the multi-faceted and heavily-dented bodywork with Texaco logos isn’t your ideal, just let your eyes fall south—and focus on the weld work on the exhaust. [More]
Yamaha VMAX by it roCkS!bikes It seems a week can’t pass without falling in love with yet another Yamaha Yard Built project. This time, the yellow and black object of affection is a quarter-mile VMAX from the Portuguese duo at it roCkS!bikes, dubbed ‘CS_07 Gasoline.’
This is Osvaldo Coutinho and Alex Santos’ third bike for the Yard Built series. Built to celebrate 30 years of Yamaha’s muscle bike, this VMAX was designed to be quick and slippery. The aerodynamic metal fairing is handcrafted and blends perfectly with the workshop’s signature monocoque tank, seat and tail unit. Of course, the real fuel cell resides below the seat, so the false unit houses electrical necessities such as a slick digital display.
The four-into-two exhaust is capped with free-flowing SC Project cans, and the rear rubber is a 6” x 18” Mickey Thompson slick. Somebody drop the flag already. [More]
Triumph Bonneville by Rustom Over the course of its fifteen-year run, we’ve seen almost every imaginable iteration of the Triumph Bonneville. Trackers, cafe racers, scramblers, bobbers…you name it, we’ve seen it. And thanks to this overexposure, our eyes can tend to gloss over as soon as “Tri” is read in a heading. Thankfully, there’s plenty to focus on here.
After some 300 hours of work and finesse, a 2002 Bonneville was transformed into this ‘Triumph Forty’ by the skilled Italian hands at Rustom Motor Art Design. (Its name stems from the fact this build was commissioned for a customer’s fortieth birthday.)
Everything you see is hand-shaped metal. The girder-style front fork caps are the absolute business, their muscularity balanced perfectly by board-tracker bars, and complemented by the wide tire conversion. On top of the aesthetic changes, Rustom added modern touches like fingerprint ignition, a tank-mounted GPS and that gorgeous LED headlight.
If my wife is reading this, I can only hope I’m so lucky when I hit that milestone in the next couple years. Hint, hint. [More]
Adam McCarty’s Ducati 350 Is a renowned design house behind this Ducati ‘wide case’? Its clean lines and delicacy would look at home in a Deus shop, or even Revival’s garage. But no: this 1967 Ducati is actually a home-built project, a labour of love from Adam McCarty of Denver, Colorado.
After finding and winning the bike on eBay, Adam took a clean and minimalist approach to the Italian thumper. Over the next eighteen months, almost every part received his touch: he completely tore the bike down, before trimming excess, deburring and repainting. The 350cc mill was rebuilt and a Mikuni carb fitted. From there Adam added custom touches to the tank—including knee dents and a carved tunnel to hide the coil—and fabricated the seat and tail from aluminum to deliver a clean, cafe aesthetic.
The purity and balance of this build are second to none and truly capture the character of this Italian single. [More]
Yamaha XJR1300 by Motorrad Klein Had your fill of Yamaha’s iconic ‘wasp’ livery? Then take a look at this gorgeous blue-on-white XJR1300 from Motorrad Klein of Röntgenstraße, Germany.
Built for Yamaha’s European Dealer Contest, it’s a 2016 model treated to a bevvy of performance upgrades. A full SC Project four-into-one exhaust was fitted, plus Öhlins suspension. There’s a custom monoshock set-up at the back, and a custom single-sided swingarm too. Brembo handles the braking, both front and rear, and Kineo spoked wheels add a classic vibe.
It’s way more than just bolt-on upgrades, though: Dominik Klein’s bespoke work on detail touches like the front fork brace/fender mount truly set this bike off. [More]
Harley-Davidson Street 750 by Custom Works Zon To help gain international sales traction with their new entry level bike, Harley has invited some of Japan’s top builders to have their way with the 750 Street. We’ve already seen some of the stunning results, but this one, from Custom Works Zon, took home the top honors at Yokohama’s Mooneyes Show.
Dubbed Zonnevlek, or Sunspot, the Custom Works Zon creation is a drag strip scorcher with just the right amount of decoration. The H-D’s frame was rebuilt into a cradle design to lower the center of gravity and help shed some weight. To further this, the fuel cell hides beneath the seat and that gorgeous, angular tank now hides the electrics—as well as the upper linkage for a jockey shifter.
The forks are CW Zon one-offs and are only slightly less impressive than the gold leaf pinstriping and intricate engraving that adorns the rest of the build. [More]