RIGHTEOUS

If you gotta have a brake light...it might as well be hardcore!

Triple treat

Ok, it's essentially a glorified GPZ 900 lump- but Hinckley Triumph's 900 Triple is a great motor for any special, and of course has the right label! I really like late-model motors in classic-style packages (chop, 'fighter, whatever) and this cafe-influenced project works beautifully. Bet it goes a bit too.

Like Ursula Andress

as in unattainable perfection...azur blue skies and a chica chopper...dig.

hard to beat

Once the sporty's fixed ( i got a few days off, so rings are getting ordered today), she's off to fleabay with hopefully a rich fool on the wrong end of a 'buy it now'. Ok, actually I'd like a fair price and it to go to a good home, ie someone who'll hardtail it without mercy.

That should leave me with a decent wedge, once a few bits n bobs are paid off. And that wedge- hopefully- will be wisely spent on one of these frames from 'hard up choppers', a UK builder down in Sussex. £495 with engine plates and battery box is an absolute steal, to my mind, and hopefully the result will be something like this. It's actually their kinda show/demo bike, and was in BSH recently; the whole idea of the kit is that bandit 6/12 or GSXR motor and running gear fits right up (within reason- nothing's an airfix kit, right?!), and you get to sling together a nice chop without being a master welder etc.

I'd prefer more stretch, and I'd rather have spoked wheels or mags (19 or 21), and probably a few other thing, but I need a rigid with a modern motor, and this looks a pretty smart way to get in the game.

Roll on june- I gotta do my final exams/project and the small matter of gettin' hitched(!) first, then it's back to the shed!

life's a drag

proper sprint missile. you need some bottle to ride a grenade like this down the 'strip, and then some. respect.

zed's dead baby, c'mon

Have a break from bobbers, have a kwik zed. Like most things, the earlier ones look better- just compare the ducktail on the top pic to the boxy thing on the late-model- but there's pretty much something cool about every motorcycle kwaka put out with the hallowed Z prefix.

goot-zzi

wicked guzzi project.

GIXER LOVE

Or could be bandit 6/12s, late model GSX etc- doesn't really matter- check this pair out, hand stolen off Blue's excellent BSH blog. Note if you will particularly the first one- whose wheels/forks etc suggest it to be based on one of the earlier slab-side style GSXRs- which is one of the best bikes I've seen this year. I'm hatching a plan at the moment, and this lowrider is a major inspiration.

TASTY

Tidy xl-based street tracker. Something tells me that pic wasn't taken anywhere in Northern Europe!

caff-u-like

pure iron caff class. Wouldn't take much to deck out that license plate!

Something else

as in 'Wow, that's somethin' else'- how about this for a different take on things? Somewhere there's a little of the cafe racer in this unreal machine, but really it's fighter all the way.

Yeah, this one!

I've gone all stock-sportster again. Good, innit? Here's one in its natural environment- a trailer park.

You would...

...take this baby for a spin, wouldn't you? Ok, it's not the finest custom sportster ever built, but for a quick backyard project, it's another great example of having fun with bikes without having to break the bank. And if you drop it, you fix it, NP. I bet that seat and the rigid struts give a er, 'challenging' ride quality! Sportsters rule.

Swede-style

Remember 20'' over tolle forks, sprocket brakes and fat back tyres? Swede bikers may not have been first to build long bikes, but they sure refined the style and made it all their own during the 1980s and '90s. Here's a couple of pics to cast your mind back to when we all hankered after these unfeasible yet beautiful machines.

with evo spo

WES seems to be one of the most popular recent blogs around- everyone seems to like his stuff(some of the photography is top-notch, not just bikes either). It's the trouble with the Japanese blogs, no one has a scooby doo what they're on about! But it's said that a picture paints a thousand words, and that's certainly true in the universal language of chopper wisdom. Check this here stock-frame sporty- once again, with more class than it really should, a great little bike.

red white an' blue

I figured this was some kind of GP/circuit race thoroughbred- til I clocked the rigid struts, drag pipes and lack of front stopper! Hell of a drag racer tho'...superb iron, wish I could tell you more.

SHOVEL LOVE

Wicked Shovel chop from my favourite Jap chopper shop- note nifty exhaust and use of mustang tank, makes a change.

HONDA HEAVEN

This is what ya get when you cross the genius of soichiro honda with the (almost equal!) genius of his fellow countrymen at crazy orange- a heavenly honda indeed.

BRATSTYLE

Bratstyle are a Jap outfit who should need no introduction- suffice to say they've put their name to their own individual take on custom bikes, and not too many shops can claim that.


On another note, I finally got round to servicing my sporty this morning. Last year's riding season was cut short for me due to a smoky back cylinder- as the top end had been stripped and checked only a few months before, I had a dim hope fresh oil might help. As cockneys would say, I had two hopes- Bob Hope and no 'ope. Time to get a compression tester and tear that SOB down again!

showin'class

No words necessary. AFFA.

It's the men in white coats

Looks like it's the whitecoats who are off their rockers in this shot, a totally bonkers BSA sprinter for ya. And if that isn't nutty enough, how about a row of 2-strokes sittin' right below yer crown jewels? That's what I call a speed triple. You might as well pull the pin on a hand grenade and lie on it.

funky flame-out

gotta love flames, right...here's an unusual take on the oldest paintscheme in the book. Sure brings that evo lump to life!

BOO YAH!

Did I say I'd had my fill of bobbers? Man, I talk some cobblers sometimes. Check this little cracker from Boneshakers out. Are sporties the new shovels? I neither know nor care, but they're a cracking base for an authentic choppa that goes well and handles.

Camerades Francais!

Picked this mag up whilst 'en vacances' over in France- excellent gazette of all things rockabilly-stylee. That's not really where my heads at right now, so like all my other car mags it's on ebay right now, that whole plastic greaser thing has really lost its appeal for me.

JOB DONE

No nonsense about how hard it is to caff a sporty- just dig this beauty, ticks EVERY box. Crackin' skinny tank too, reminiscent of 6 pot 2-stroke Honda TT works racers from days long-gone.

freestylin'

Great shot- isn't this what it's all about? Tastefully-modded sporty lookin' fine as it goes down the road.

Whole lotta shakin'

I have had my fill of bobbers it's true, but I can't deny the quality that comes out of Boneshakers' shop. Benny has both a great eye and skill with the metal,turning out wicked stuff like this natty XL chop. More comin' soon!