A glorious Thruxton R from Down & Out Motorcycles, a dynamite Ducati from Iron Pirate Garage, and a classy BMW R100 from Kevil’s Speed Shop. These are the machines that spun our wheels this week.
Ducati 750 SS by Iron Pirate Garage In last week’s best custom bikes selection we were introduced to Iuri Castaldi and his crew from Iron Pirate Garage of Empoli, Italy. Their custom Buell XB9 was arguably the most talked about bike from last week’s selections. Well, get ready to have Iron Pirate on the tip of your tongue again as they’ve now released The Kraken.
Working from a Ducati 750 SS, the Kraken takes post-apocalyptic themes to an entirely new level. The intricate trellis of the rear subframe is an absolute work of weld porn, putting the upright cylinder of the Ducati’s motor on full display—and creating an almost flat ‘bone line.’ The yellow divide line wraps completely around the bike, creating a simple yet beautiful visual break.
The bespoke tank bucks tradition and features a horizontal strap at its tip, just above the emblazoned phrase, “The rougher the seas, the smoother we sail.” In another unique twist, the exhaust finishes with two, equally horizontal pipes flanking the underside of the frame. We suspect they are loud enough to actually wake the Kraken. [More]
Triumph Thruxton R by Down & Out Motorcycles Triumph’s new Thruxton R is an entirely impressive bike. It sets a new standard for factory cafe racers and, thanks to Triumph’s accompanying line of ready to bolt-on parts, can be easily customized by most shade tree mechanics.
But what excites us most of all is seeing what professional builders will do with the new high-performance platform. Partnering with Barbour International and Triumph UK, the lads from Down & Out Motorcycles pulled the wraps off ‘BIT2’ at London’s Bike Shed show this weekend.
The front fairing is a custom aluminum unit that moves the headlight to a side-mount position, and features a Barbour/Triumph button grafted into its housing. The seat is upholstered in Barbour waxed cotton, and tucks under the hand rolled aluminum tail.
Up front, the wiring has been tucked in and hidden to accommodate lowered gauges, new switchgear and aggressive upside-down clip-ons. Oh, and yes—the rubber has been fattened up too, in true D&O style. [More]
Harley-Davidson XG750R When you envision riders gettin’ sideways around a dirt oval, the Harley-Davidson XR750 is the bike they’re riding. So ubiquitous is Milwaukee’s machine with the sport, the 44-year old platform is still being used today… but maybe not tomorrow.
Built using Harley’s Street 750 as a base, the new XG750R is the long awaited evolution of The Motor Company’s only racing effort outside of the quarter-mile. The new XG750R is powered by a modified version of the water-cooled 60-degree, V-Twin 750.
To handle the extra abuse, there’s a collection of go-fast parts including titanium intake valves, CP Racing pistons, Carrillo rods and a trick two-throat throttle body—which boosts the motor to 110 hp. Vance & Hines tackled almost all of the development with the XG, hence the signature placards on the high-mount exhausts. A Showa suspension set-up and chain-drive round out the major changes. Now, if they’d only crank out a couple of street-legal versions… [More]
Triumph Trident by Oldscool Mechanics Drop the name Dave Degens or Dresda Autos around any Ace Cafe aficionado and you’ll surely raise an eyebrow or two. Degens is synonymous with the cafe racer scene, and Triton builds specifically—so you know the bike will be special without even seeing it.
This Triumph Trident cafe racer comes to us from Antwerp’s Oldscool Mechanics [sic]. Their hands are deft at tuning vintage racers, so Bernard, the owner of the Triumph, knew he’d get a high performance machine. But to make everything work the way Bernard wanted, a custom frame needed to be built. And this is where Dresda comes in.
Dave Degens was tapped to craft a frame specific to Bernard’s proportions—one that would also get the most out of the Oldscool-tuned Trident. As Bernard puts it, the build took “a lot of sweat, swearing and time.” But the efforts obviously paid off. This is a sublime cafe racer built in the truest of Old Sc(h)ool ways.
BMW R100 by Kevil’s Speed Shop When it comes to bespoke builds on a vintage BMW base, few builders can deliver the fit, finish and fancy of Kevil’s Speed Shop of Devon, England. Shop owner Kev Hill has always had the keenest eye for detail, and that continues with this new R100 build, ‘Quartz.’
The name stems from the stunning champagne-gold-and-gunmetal stripes adorning this impeccably clean cafe racer. The rear subframe has been modified in typical fashion to deliver a straightened support for the CAD-designed aluminum tail, and the rear shocks have been upgraded to Hagon units. The tuck-and-roll seat is finished in brown leather and sports an upswept rear, peeking just over the top of the tail, to provide extra comfort and support.
The top yoke is a custom billet unit—complete with the shop’s signature engraved on the top. It permits a switch to clip-ons, and there’s also a KSS fork brace to shore up the handling. If you like what you see, and have a R100 donor kicking around, Kev’s crew is happy to build you a Quartz of your own. [More]