Guzzi V50 Monza by Revival Cycles

There will be many, many beautiful machines at this weekend’s Handbuilt Motorcycle Show in Texas. But I’m prepared to bet that one of the stars will be this Moto Guzzi V50 from local heroes Revival Cycles.
There’s an elegant, unforced style to the bike, which builder Alan Stulberg describes as having ‘good Karma.’ It was one of those projects where everything fell neatly into place—although I’m sure Revival’s renowned craft skills helped.

The V50 originally belonged to a friend of Stulberg’s, who used it on several cross-country adventures before deciding it was time for a new owner to enjoy it.
Then Revival had a call from a client looking for a vintage, lightweight and small displacement bike that handled well. “The V50 fit the bill perfectly,” says Stulberg. “It does all of that, with the bonus of a fantastic Italian twin-exhaust growl.”
Despite the budget being tight, the build looks a million dollars. “It’s not one of our bespoke machines. It’s more of a tasteful combination of off-the-shelf parts that were modified to fit together, as if they were intended to be that way from the beginning.”
Stulberg and crew started with a cylinder head rebuild and electrical overhaul, and then turned their attention to the fuel tank. “The factory one is bulbous, and frankly not that flattering for a small motorcycle. We chose a Yamaha RD400 tank.” In fact, Stulberg chose two RD400 tanks: the second one was reworked into the seat cowl. “The lines of the tanks seem to fit with the squareness of the engine and chassis perfectly.”

Hidden under the ‘proper’ fuel tank is a tiny lithium-ion battery weighing just 1½ pounds, plus all the electrics—which were previously hidden behind plastic side covers. “As with all of our Guzzi projects, we prefer the visual ‘lightening’ that occurs when we open up that area behind the carbs. It isn’t always as simple as it seems, but it’s worth it.”
To maximize electrical reliability, Revival hooked up a Motogadget m-Unit control box. “It means we can hide all the switchgear in the handlebars, using tiny signal wires instead of heavy gauge full-load wires,” says Stulberg. “Not having to run full-load wires all over the bike is such an advantage to a custom builder.”

After fabricating rearsets and pegs to suit the new owner, Revival moved onto the exhaust. “We chose to build a complete system from head to tail in stainless, and we kept the angular style—tight and close to the frame.”
Rebuilt forks and a brace machined out of aluminum keep the front end solid, and contribute to the effortless handling of the little V50. The headlight was more complicated: “We chose a Honda Dream headlight, but didn’t want the headlight shell and bezel it came with. So we fabbed a new shell and a polished alloy bezel.” In the top of the shell is a cup that holds a Motogadget instrument. It allows the rider to keep up with the charging system, the speed, the time, and the distance. It even auto dims depending on the surrounding light.

It’s a supremely classy build, with bare metal finishes that will age well and eventually gain patina. “I plan to ask the owner to never wash it, but send us photos as he starts to put the miles on it,” says Stulberg.
To see this beautiful machine before it gets dirty, you’ll need to head over to the Handbuilt Motorcycle Show in Austin this weekend, coinciding with the MotoGP.
Sponsored by Moto Guzzi, the event will showcase over 100 custom motorcycles—from the likes of Shinya Kimura, Roland Sands, Deus Ex Machina and Walt Siegl.

The post Guzzi V50 Monza by Revival Cycles appeared first on Bike EXIF.

Officine Rossopuro Guzzi cafe racer

The custom world is rife with fads and fashions, but there are a few one-marque specialists taking the slow and steady route to win the race. On the east coast of the USA, Walt Siegl springs to mind for his high-performance Ducati builds. In Italy, if you want a Guzzi cafe racer you give Filippo Barbacane a call.
Barbacane aims to make his bikes “elegant and refined,” and he invariably succeeds. “It’s a bit against the trend,” he acknowledges. “It seems to be the fashion to leave bikes looking well ‘lived’.”

There’s nothing ‘lived-in’ about this Moto Guzzi 1000 SP, called Purosangue (Thoroughbred). It’s clean, well-balanced and ready for the road, a precision tool crafted for Mandello Del Lario enthusiasts. Unlike most Officine Rossopuro builds, this bike was not a commission—Barbacane built it to suit his own tastes. But before you ask, it has been sold.

The handling is a quantum leap from the 1982 original, with modified 45mm Marzocchi forks matched to Bitubo shocks. The brake system is built around Brembo’s upscale Serie Oro components, with 320mm discs and four-piston calipers. And the wheels are now lightweight spoked Borranis, shod with Metzeler rubber.

Barbacane is not afraid of CNC work to create new components, and for this bike he’s designed a custom mount for the rear caliper and a new engine mount. He also designed the minimal exhaust system, which was built by MASS. Despite the straight-through look, concealed baffles in the end pipes reduce the sound to acceptable levels.

Adding to the super-clean look are a compact battery, a rewire, and discreet hand controls originally designed for custom Harleys. The engine and frame have been refinished in matte powder, leaving just the tank to provide a splash of color.
Fine work from a master at the top of his game. Visit the Officine Rossopuro website to see more exquisite Guzzi cafe racers, or hit up our Archives.

Originally appeared in www.bikeexif.com

Tricana Mondego Moto Guzzi V65

Last time we featured the Portugese workshop Tricana motorcycles they had just completed their first Moto Guzzi Cafe Racer build. Today I'm visiting Jonathan's workshop again to reveal his latest Moto Guzzi based Cafe Racer build the “Mondego”, named after the river that runs through his hometown of Coimbra. Based on the garishly ugly (opinions may vary) Moto Guzzi V65 Lario, Jonathan has done an impressive job and converting the Guzzi into a rolling work of art.

"The idea was to create a bike that looks light and ready to race, aggressive with a hint of elegance"

This '89 Moto Guzzi V65 Lario donor bike was discovered in a cellar. As the story goes it had stopped running 10 years earlier and was left abandoned in the darkness. The new owner brought the bike to Jonathan at Tricana where it was decided that the bike would be a solid base for a Café Racer project. 

"The modifications are endless. The idea was to create a bike that looks light and ready to race, aggressive with a hint of elegance. I wanted to make a pure café racer with big drum brakes, instead of the original 16” alloy rims with brake discs."

To achieve his "pure Cafe Racer" look Jonathan swapped out the stock wheels for a pair of Akron Morrad rims, 19 inches at the front 18 in the rear and wrapped in Michelin Pilot Active rubber. A redesigned custom made linkage allowed the fitment of a 70's Guzzi drum on the rear and a vintage Triumph hub with its drum brake was laced to the front.

The bikes suspension has received a serious upgrade with a pair of Bitubo shocks in the rear held in place by repositioned upper mounts. The front forks were then modified to level out the stance of the bike after the change in suspension and wheel dimensions. The 650cc powerplant retains it's stock internals but a pair of free flowing filters and rejetted carbs combined with titanium Akrapovic exhausts beef up the power figures.

Jonathan's most proud of the work he did to create the bikes unique bodywork and as you can imagine the one-off fuel tank and seat took the longest to complete. Constructed using 2 layers of fiberglass and one of carbon fibre it's lightweight and beautiful. The Mondego has been finished in a classic racing green and gold paint scheme with a section of clear coat in the tail to show off Jonathan's carbon fibre work. Tan leather on the saddle and brass highlights on the engine and wheels then tie the whole package together perfectly.
The Mondego boasts an interesting mix of old and new components. On paper you wouldn't expect them to all work together but it seems that Tricana Motorcycles is more than capable of proving they can.

Tricana Motorcycles

First appeared in www.returnofthecaferacers.com

Top 10 custom motorcycles of 2013 frm BikeExif

It’s been a huge year for custom motorcycles. They’re back with a bang, and the mainstream media has noticed. Even the Financial Times has picked up on the resurgence, reporting on The Comeback of the Cafe Racer. And most of the biggest-selling motorcycle magazines have added ‘new wave’ customs into the monthly editorial mix.
Manufacturers are getting in on the game too. Yamaha Europe is working closely with builders such as Deus, the Wrenchmonkees and Kedo. And BMW has enlisted the services of Roland Sands, El Solitario, Blitz and Urban Motor.
It’s great news for motorcycling in general, and not just the custom scene: Bikes that are simple and fun and easy to personalize are making their way into the showrooms, such as Moto Guzzi’s extended V7 range and now Yamaha’s reborn SR400.
So let’s take a look back at 2013, and pick out the motorcycles that were the biggest hits on Bike EXIF. As always, we look at traffic figures, social media shares, comments and the number of incoming links. We balance this with the age of the post, so that more recent machines are not disadvantaged.
1. Honda CB cafe racer by Classified Moto [top]. For the second time in a row, a Classified Moto bike has taken the top spot. It seems like John Ryland can do no wrong, with a distinctive aesthetic all of his own and a burgeoning order book. ‘Superstrada’ is a heavily customized 1980 Honda CB750F Super Sport, with a Yamaha YZF-R6 front end, Classified Moto’s signature triple tree conversion, and a single-sided Ducati swingarm.
2. Ducati Monster 1100 by JvB-Moto [above]. Ten years ago, Jens vom Brauck won Ducati’s International Design Contest with a retro-futuristic concept called ‘Flat Red.’ He’s now an established builder with a string of stark, brutal-looking machines to his name. At the Glemseck 101 festival in Germany, Jens revealed Flat Red II—and set the interwebs alight.
3. Ducati 900 by Walt Siegl [above]. To move beyond bolt-on parts takes hours of craftsmanship, and true artisans don’t come cheap. Walt Siegl has taken a big step to correct the imbalance with his new Leggero Series, a limited run of production machines based on two-valve Ducati 900cc engines. This is the prototype: you can now order one for yourself.
4. Honda CX500 by Mateusz Stankiewicz [above]. The CX500 is a tough and reliable bike, and still cheap on the secondhand market. This 1982-model custom, built by a Warsaw photographer and the garage Eastern Spirit, was the surprise hit of the year—and made it onto the cover of the 2014 Bike EXIF wall calendar.
5. Yamaha SR500 by Analog Motorcycles [above]. Tony Prust builds elegant, mid-capacity customs: the perfect bikes for barhopping and cruising around town. This 1979 Yamaha SR500 has more of a raw edge though, and a name to match—‘Bruto.’ It’s a machine for evening and weekend rides, with a seat big enough for two.
6. Kawasaki W650 by Skuddesign [above]. Nicolas Barthelemy got the blend of drop-dead gorgeous looks and practicality just right for this Kawasaki. “I wanted to mix aesthetic codes—bobber, brat style and street tracker—to create a motorcycle that corresponds to my world,” he says. The bike is now one of the stars of our best-selling book, The Ride: New Custom Motorcycles and Their Builders.
7. Moto Guzzi V50 by Rno Cycles [above]. Think of a custom Moto Guzzi, and it’s invariably built in the ‘classic’ style: Timeless café racer lines, muted colors and bare metal. So it’s refreshing to see someone take a completely different approach—and pull it off spectacularly. This rapier-sharp V50 is called ‘Opal’ and comes from Arno Overweel of The Netherlands.
8. Harley dual sport by Carducci [above]. A Harley Sportster-based dual sport bike? It might sound improbable, but engineer Jim Carducci has built just such a beast. And with a torquey, reliable motor plus 8+ inches of rear wheel travel and 10+ inches of front wheel travel, it actually works.
9. Triumph Bonneville by MeanMachines [above]. This Triumph Bonneville looks like it’s poised to shred rubber, even when it’s standing still. It’s the work of MeanMachines, an Australian shop very familiar to local owners of Bonnevilles and Thruxtons. Builder Wenley Ng has been modifying Triumph ‘modern classics’ for many years now, but fitting that 200-section rear tire was still a challenge.
10. BMW R100RT by Bill Costello [above]. There were cries of outrage when Bill’s R100RT was omitted from our recent Top 5 BMW R-series piece. Bill made his name with an R50 custom that caught the attention of BMW’s top brass in Germany, but this time he wanted a reliable daily rider. He’s also put the bike on a diet, dropping the wet weight from around 525 lbs to 430.
A handful of machines narrowly missed the cut, including the Sprintbeemer, Valen Zhou’s remarkable Honda CB125 and Café Racer Dreams’ NX650. Indeed, if you aggregate all of CRD’s builds, the Spanish company would join Classified Moto, Deus and Rough Crafts as the biggest traffic sources for Bike EXIF.
So that’s our round-up for 2013. With almost 25 million pageviews, 270,000 Facebook fans and over two million followers on Pinterest, we’ve had a good year.
We hope yours has been good too. Thank you for joining us, and here’s to a 2014 filled with many more exciting bikes.

The post Top 10 custom motorcycles of 2013 appeared first on Bike EXIF. If you like Bike EXIF, you'll love our book on custom motorcycles and their builders, "The Ride." Get your copy here.