vendredi 9 janvier 2015
DUST MOTORCYCLES – THE JEKYLL
One of the perineal problems with motorcycle ownership is that one bike simply can’t do everything, resulting in garages bursting with solutions to first-world, two-wheeled problems. Golfists are allowed a selection of bats, each numbered for a specific purpose, and are rarely frowned upon for such frivolity. Yet us bikers are made to pick and choose, either by partners that just don’t get it, bank managers who can’t comprehend the need for a tracker and a scrambler or the silly, piddly little island that us brits live on being so expensive that a garage usually costs more than a Ducati Desmosedici.
Steve Bentley of Dust Motorcycles has a solution, make one bike with two personalities. The Jekyll wasn’t pre-planned but the result of flitting between two slightly differing design ideas, the fact that there were two matching tanks hanging up and a spare subframe kicking about made the decision not to simply build two bikes even harder.
The donor bike is a 1992 R80 RT Mono which has undergone a thorough mechanical shakedown with the usual freshening up of cables, wiring, fluids etc. The engine was in fine fettle so required a thorough service and tune-up to make the most of the cone filters and slash cut mufflers but apart from that was left standard. The handlebar switchgear and levers are all perfectly good so left alone. Much as Motogadget’s emporium of miniaturisation has infiltrated the custom scene, the original BMW kit isn’t that bad to look at and is properly engineered. Anyone who’s seen the chain and gear throttles on these things will know what I mean. The brakes and shock are original too, with added TLC.
Drag bars from the RT have been widened slightly to give better tank clearance and an Acewell speedo sits on top. The slightly more conical than normal headlight unit adds character to the front end and stands out, particularly on the burgundy version.
Those who’ve seen Dust bikes before will recognise the fuel tanks as late seventies Yamaha RD. Despite the heft of the boxer motor the slim tanks require only minor modification to fit over the spine frame and give a lovely straight line to the seat and tail. With pull-off fuel lines and a single 13mm bolt to take care of the swap over is simple and takes less than ten minutes.
There are more customs featuring optional pillion arrangements and Dust have made a few themselves but Steve says“It’s a difficult thing to get across in pictures but this build really affects the psyche. I’ve done a couple of builds this year where the seats and tanks have been swapped out but they still had the same vibe about them. This does genuinely morph from daily hack to weekend special and whilst I haven’t given it much thought I’m sure it makes sense on some level”.
The milk float battery that comes standard with most BMWs has been binned, superseded by a modern lithium option by Earth X which lives in a small box suspended between the subframe.
A trimmed and reshaped RT mudguard keeps most of the crud at bay and leaves a near full view of the Pirelli Scorpion ATs. Steve reckons these are a great all-round tyre, especially up in Yorkshire where farmers kindly do their bit to keep ambulances busy by depositing cow crap and mud all over the roads. Anyone out there in cyberland who harps on about dual sport tyres being being a silly option on a custom clearly haven’t spent much time blatting between the hedgerows in rural England.
The Mono suspension set up with decent rubber at either end is a vast improvement over the handling of the twinshocks according to Steve.
Something for the weekend Sir? In about as many minutes as it takes to wax one’s beard this weekday commuting hack is transformed into a more handsome Sunday bike. This could catch on. Leather expert Aaron upholstered both seats, the bases being Steve’s handiwork. On the flashy version the tail was swiped from a Kawasaki Zephr 1000 and modded to fit.
It certainly makes economical and spacial sense to have one bike with two personalities, maybe we’ll see more of this in 2015. In the meantime keep an eye on Steve’s future builds over on Facebook.We hear that there are a few exciting projects waiting in the wings, one being a BMW shaft to chain drive conversion; should be interesting.
A big thanks to Robin Zahler for the photos and Ian and Dave from Grove Hill for the paintwork.
via The Bike Shed
‘72 CB350 Honda – Chappell Customs
Copper is a deceptively difficult colour to pull off on a custom bike. For all the wins we’ve spotted over the years, we also see a hell of a lot of gaudy, steam punk train wrecks that succeed in being beautiful the same way an unwashed, Victorian-era guttersnipe succeeds in being British royalty. But prepare yourself for a masterclass in metal patina. Using the transparent powder coating, Chappell Customs have managed to make a finished product that takes the look to another level. Queen Vic herself would be proud.
It’s been a busy past few years for Chappell to say the least. Between moving shops and launching their own brand of hand-made seats, it must be hard for them to find the time to build bikes these days. But when inspiration strikes and a great bike just happens to fall into your lap, then there always seems to be time. “One of the guys that works for me had this little 1972 CB350 kicking around the shop,” says Chris. “We were literally tripping over it, so I offered to buy it from him.”
“The frame had already been de-tabbed and powder coated matte black before I got it, so I decided to leave it alone. The wheels and all the other parts were also in black, but I didn’t dig the color scheme. Instead, I wanted something antique and expensive-looking.” Chris had some transparent copper powder left over from a previous job, so he decided to try it out on the hubs and wheels first. “It looked amazing, so that’s what prompted me to do the fuel tank as well.”
As anyone who has tried it will know, transparent powder coating shows all the metal finishing marks and imperfections, so Chris spent a bunch of hours sanding, scuffing and polishing the metal to give it the unique, weathered finish you see here.
“The engine was already rebuilt and ready to go, so we soda blasted all the old paint and dirt away, polished all the covers and re-painted it black.” Chris then built the nifty little battery box you can see located under the seat and went about rewiring the bike from scratch.
“We had previously traded the stock pipes for these scrambler units so again, we just used what we had on hand. Some shorty glass-packed mufflers and a dusting of high temperature powder coat on the headers made them fit nicely.” Not needing the old ‘bar mounts, Chris milled the top triple down, added a copper block-off plate and bracket-mounted the speedo on the side of the bike.
The pause that refreshes; old-school bottle opener attached to frame
Wanting something industrial for the forks, Chris called on Pierre from Works Performance. He came by the shop with some killer, Manx-style external front fork springs and after a little measuring, the forks were ripped apart and the stock internal springs were removed. The new external fork springs got more copper on the top and matte black down below.
“The rear suspension is a custom set of billet ‘Works Performance’ dual-rate shocks; we also talked them into giving us some more raw metal springs that we were then able to match up to the rears.”
Next up was the seat. “We took one of our own ‘Tuffside’ seat pans off the shelf, form fitted the foam to fill the hole in the tank, added our mounting system and then upholstered it with genuine leather that we had left over from our Enfield project. At the same time we made up some leather grip covers and added a little leather bling to the otherwise boring gas cap.”
The final step was the side-mounted license plate and brake light holder. “We knocked it out in no time flat and took the bike out for a rip or two to enjoy the fruits of our labour.”
For those interested, Chris also mentioned that the bike will ultimately be for sale. “But for now, it’s just fun as hell to ride around on.” Don’t hold your breath, then.
via PIPEBURN
Little car, big memories – a Mini classic remembers its rally cousins
It might have been diminutive, but even the biggest names happily endorsed the Mini in period – including James Hunt, Steve McQueen and even Enzo Ferrari. But it wasn’t only a style icon in a small package, as this video from Cool & Vintage reminds us….
Gone rallying in a Cooper S
The Mini Cooper S MK1 in the video is an original matching-numbers MK1, the subject of a recent nut-and-bolt restoration. It's currently for sale via Classic Driver dealer Cool & Vintage.
Daytona : Jan Heylen associé à Patrick Dempsey
Jan Heylen poursuit son parcours aux Etats-Unis et il disputera les prochaines 24 Heures de Daytona dans un excellent contexte. Notre compatriote sera en effet intégré au team Dempsey-Wright qui, pour l'occasion, travaillera en partenariat avec le Brumos Racing dont les couleurs ont souvent brillé par le passé en Floride. Egalement en lice plus tard à Sebring, Jan fera cause commune sur la Porsche 911 GT America n°58 avec l'acteur-pilote Patrick Dempsey, Madison Snow et le jeune Allemand Philipp Eng.
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