London town can be a beautiful place. Soggy trips through a smog filled Blackwall tunnel may do their damnedest to numb you to its appeal but on a crisp weekend morning, before its streets are overcome with the cities vast throng of humanity, its cobbled roadways and eclectic architecture are quite the treasure to discover. These evocative images of the latest steed to roll out of the Untitled Motorcycles workshop have me pining for some early morning explorations before the sun surrenders its alarm clock for the winter. That little motorcycle in the middle of the pic doesn’t look like a half bad companion for such a jaunt either…
Untitled Motorcycles (and the Bike Shed) have come an awfully long way since they first featured on these pages in early 2012 with a work in progress, gaffa taped seat mock up. Back here in 2015 they have now moved from their first archway workshop in Camden to a new, larger home in the salubrious Swiss Cottage area. The new venue has the space for four bike ramps, one of which was the birthplace of this latest machine. Not content with their North London post code Untitled are now reaching across the globe and have developed a secondary unit in San Francisco from where the evidence of some exciting projects is trickling onto Facebook.
Back to this sun bathed London machine.
“Bruce Condor came to UMC after meeting one of our customers Jimmy on a black retro BMW scrambler at a café in Maida Vale and something inside him just clicked. Bruce felt he had to do something similar, he set about checking out BMW scramblers on Google images and found hundreds out there and they looked beautiful. Bruce could see himself blatting around town with an open face helmet, goatie beard, looking cool, but more importantly to him would be the pure joy of riding such a lovely retro custom and not being bothered what he looked like.”
“The brief was to make a rugged road bike that could take off road use in its stride. The sub-frame was shortened and a slight kick put in the rear hoop. New front and rear mudguards customized to fit the sub-frame and new fat tyres. The tank paint had to match a favourite T-shirt of Bruce’s and the key was moved to the rear left hand side of the sub-frame for the retro look that Bruce was after.”
That teal T-shirt of Bruce’s just so happens to be the hue of the season (apparently) and when not adorning interior design books and countless pinterest boards the colour is starting to find its way onto some mighty fine motorcycles from the likes of De Bolex and Wrench Monkees. The in vogue brown leather diamond stitched seat is present and correct to set off either muddy lanes or London brick stock depending on which habitat the Beemer finds itself being photographed in. Credit for the seat goes to Glenn Mogor. Black satin powder coat greeted the rest of the freshly finished parts.
Bruce also wanted a new speedo in a period style, a new old stock BMW gauge was found which just so happened to perfectly compliment the gearbox ratios. Bruce is rightly delighted with his finished ride which turns the heads of passers by (the phone gazing coated lady excluded) wherever he goes.
Last words to Bruce. “I’m very glad I went to UMC as the team all shared my vision, had proven experience and the models on their website are even better in the metal. I couldn’t have met a nicer bunch of guys.”
via The Bike Shed
