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    mardi 31 décembre 2013

    HONDA CBS125 BY DAUPHINE-LAMARCK


    Honda CBS125
    There are dozens of builders who work on nothing but Harleys. Countless others stick exclusively to Indians, Moto Guzzis or Ducatis. But we didn’t know there’s a workshop that specializes in tiny Hondas from the 60s to the 80s—until now.
    This classy little Honda CBS125 comes from Dauphine-Lamarck, a small outfit in the southern suburbs of Paris, just off the Autoroute du Soleil. They build strangely engaging, oddball customs—mostly focusing on CBs and CLs, but occasionally having fun with an ATC or Monkey bike.
    Honda CBS125
    Why? “We have a passion for history,” the two founders explain. “What can we do with an ‘old thing?’ Honda has a beautiful history with small two-wheelers, but few people accept it. We want to make people discover that story.”
    This 1974 CBS125 is the sort of build that should make Europeans take notice. Compact and chic, it’d be perfectly at home on the busy streets of Paris, dicing with the swarms of scooters and bicycles.
    Honda CBS125
    “We wanted a no-fuss 125,” say the Dauphine-Lamarck boys. “A simple racer look, in gray. Something timeless.” They decided to use only Honda components, starting with a conversion to 12 volts for the electrical system. The engine has been uprated with an XL350 piston, and it’s now fed by a carburetor from an ATC 200.
    Honda CBS125
    To add to the racy look, the swingarm has been extended by 9 cm (3½ inches) and the front forks trimmed down. The wheels are now from a CB125 K5, with a bigger front drum brake. The tank and bars are from an equally diminutive Honda S90, and a CB200 headlight has been installed to give the machine more of a 60s vibe.
    Honda CBS125
    No vintage Honda CB125 is ever going to win the traffic light grand prix—even with a major engine upgrade. But for charm and style, this one is hard to beat.
    Head over to the stylish Dauphine-Lamarck website for images of their other, equally charismatic customs.
    Images by (and thanks to) David Marvier.
    Honda CBS125
    from BIKEEXIF

    TOP 10 CUSTOM MOTORCYCLES OF 2013


    Honda CB cafe racer
    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.
    Ducati Monster 1100
    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.
    Ducati 900 custom
    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.
    Honda CX500 custom motorcycle
    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.
    1979 Yamaha SR500
    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.
    Kawasaki W650
    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.
    Moto Guzzi V50
    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.
    Dual sport motorcycle
    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.
    2008 Triumph Bonneville custom motorcycle
    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.
    BMW R100RT
    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.
    via BIKEEXIF

    TOP 13 MOTORCYCLES OF 2013


    2013 has been a fantastic year for Silodrome, the site now has almost a million monthly readers and somewhere in the region of 100,000 social media followers. Our stories have been featured right across the web on sites like the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, Road & Track Magazine, Autoweek Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik and of course, Bike EXIF.
    This collection of 13 motorcycles are the ones that pulled in the most views over the past year, have a scroll through and see if there are any you might have missed, then come back tomorrow and take a look at the Top 13 Cars of 2013.
    Honda CB550 custom Top 13 Motorcycles of 2013
    I’m a big fan of the humble Honda CB550, the model has always been over-shadowed by the far more famous CB750 but the parallel 4-cylinder engine in the CB550 is lighter and has earned itself a solid reputation over the years.
    harley davidson custom motorbike side profile Top 13 Motorcycles of 2013
    Every now and then I like to go and feature a motorcycle that’s a little out of the ordinary, partly to keep everyone on their toes and partly because it’s kind of interesting to see what’s happening in other parts of the motorcycle world.
     Top 13 Motorcycles of 2013
    Slapping a motor into the frame of a bicycle, laughing at the idea of suspension, then setting out to race your friends at speeds that are quite remarkably excessive are the founding principles of the world of motorcycling. The pioneers who created the very concept of the motorcycle could look at the bike picture above and below and instantly recognise it as a motorised velocipede, which if we’re honest, actually sounds a lot cooler than “motorbike”.
    Triumph Scrambler Custom 740x556 Top 13 Motorcycles of 2013
    We featured the official 2013 Triumph Scrambler last week, in the process of writing that piece I got to talking with Joao Alves of Somos and we pondered what a proper, balls-to-the-wall Triumph Scrambler designed to race across Baja would look like.
    Yamaha Bolt Custom1 Top 13 Motorcycles of 2013
    It was built by one of the smallest custom motorcycle garages in the country, it’s so small that it’s actually just one man working alone – despite this he’s gone on to become one of the most famous customisers in the world. His name is Greg Hageman and he’s one of those relaxed, friendly and exceedingly talented individuals who can build a bike alone in a garage that can compete toe-to-toe with some of the biggest multi-million dollar garages in the world. And win.
     Top 13 Motorcycles of 2013
    The Honda CX500 is like a feisty featherweight boxer who’ll take on anyone and will never, ever back down. The model was first released in 1978 and it was fitted with a series of innovative features that were either uncommon or totally unused at the time, things like shaft drive, modular wheels, twin CV carburettors that were tuned for reduced emissions and a liquid cooling system. Interestingly, the electric ignition system was separate from the rest of the bike’s electrical systems, this allowed the motorcycle to be push-started and ridden – even in the case of a total electrical failure.
    1930 Henderson Custom Motorcycle 740x436 Top 13 Motorcycles of 2013
    The 1930 Henderson Custom is one of the most stunning art deco motorcycles we’ve ever seen, it’s based on a 1930 K.J Henderson with an inline-4 air-cooled engine, that bodywork is all custom and it’s the sort of thing that would have impressed even Ettore Bugatti.
    Caterham Brutus 750 740x468 Top 13 Motorcycles of 2013
    If this is the first time you’ve seen the new Caterham Brutus 750, it’s probably safe to say that your lower jaw is now resting on your keyboard. Whilst you gather your wits I’ll hit you with all the important numbers, just so we have it all out of the way.
     Top 13 Motorcycles of 2013
    Walt Siegl is, quite deservedly, one of the most famous custom motorcycle builders in the world. Far from the hideous kitch hellscape of the custom stretched out chopper scene, Walt works from his garage in New England and creates some of the most beautiful and technically advanced custom bikes you’ll find anywhere on Earth.
    Kawasaki GT550 3 Top 13 Motorcycles of 2013
    The Kawasaki GT550 was fitted with a DOHC transverse, 4-cylinder, air-cooled engine with a total capacity of 553cc, it could produce 58hp at 9,000rpm and some claim it could top out above 140mph. Power was fed to the rear wheel via a shaft drive and a 6-speed transmission, making it a slightly unusual bike for the early 1980s.
    Custom Honda CB750 2 740x538 Top 13 Motorcycles of 2013
    Purebreed Fine Motorcycles is a relatively new French Canadian custom motorcycle garage run by Guillaume Brochu, Guillaume is one of those non-traditional intellectuals who find fascination with seemly unrelated things but then somehow manages to pull them altogether. He graduated from college as a certified accountant before eighty-sixing Microsoft Excel for the life of a sommelier, a career he kept for 10 years.
    harley cafe racer Top 13 Motorcycles of 2013
    This bike was nicknamed “The American” by its creator, Michael Woolaway (aka Woolie), the head motorcycle man at Deus Ex Machina in California. The fundamental ethos behind The American was that is should be as American as possible with as few internationally sourced parts as could be managed.
    Honda CB750 Scrambler Motorbikes Top 13 Motorcycles of 2013
    I have this hope that as the cafe racer craze begins to abate we’ll see a surge of other interesting retro-custom motorcycles, like scramblers for example. On the face of it they share a lot with cafe racers, both are stripped back to reduce weight, both typically have air-cooled engines, both came to popularity in the ’60s and both make me want to sell important possessions so I can afford them.
    Read Full Article in SILODROME

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