Twenty Eight Feet: life on a little wooden boat

A short documentary about David Welsford, who has given up the luxuries of land in search for happiness and adventure on a 50 year old wooden boat he restored from a scrap heap. Featuring music from Bahamas, Acres & Acres and Ben Howard!

Vossen World Tour | Wörthersee 2013

It’s May and that means the event season is now in full swing. We’ve got some especially big ones going on this month with Wekfest in both Japan and LA, along with Wörthersee in Austria.

In this video from Vossen we can get a little idea of the craziness that goes down at Wörthersee every year. They will be back there this year, as well as at the two Wekfest events happening on both sides of the Pacific; and naturally we’ll be along to follow. In fact, Keith will be taking the Vossen-equipped KM4SH FR-S to Long Beach, Dino is tagging along with the Japan wing, and Bryn will be getting amongst the action in Europe.

We’ve been checking out the social media feeds and it looks like a lot of you are going to be at these events too, anybody got any plans we should know about? It’s going to be crazy, so buckle up and we’ll see you there!

Vossen Wheels

Circular X Kawasaki | Motorcycle Design Workshop 2014

Motorcycle Design Workshop is a one-week-workshop format with young transportation designers.
The aim of the course is to design a new bike for Kawasaki.

Circular X Kawasaki | Motorcycle Design Workshop 2014 from Circular on Vimeo.

Moto Guzzi ‘Retro Le Mans’

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There’s not many bike builders that would buy a brand new Moto Guzzi Griso just to cut it into pieces. But then there’s not many customizers that are as passionate about Guzzi’s as Stefan Bronold from Radical Guzzi. When it comes to building bikes, he really aims to put the “racer“ back into café racers. Everything on the bike is there for a reason and helps to achieve Stefan’s favourite word… performance.

The starting point for the ‘Retro Le Mans’ project was a simple question: What kind of bike should Moto Guzzi come up with to create a similar sensation as BMW with the R Nine T? A bike combining heritage and performance. For Stefan the combination of the modern 4 valve engine with it’s powerful punch and the classic Tonti frame was the perfect base for a contemporary Guzzi in the tradition of the Le Mans models.

The outcome is visually stunning, offering outstanding performance and handcrafted detail. The 1200cc engine was bored to 1450cc and delivers around about 120 – 130 HP. The chassis features a self made rear end, integrating a stabilizer that delivers a better performance than Guzzi’s stockl rear ends. Ohlins chassis components and a Ducati 1098 front fork further improve the bike’s road performance.

When asked what the most difficult part of the build was, Stefan had a hard time defining it. “Of course, the engine did not want to fit into the frame very easily” he says. He did eventually make the engine fit but there was no way of using the modern gearbox. So the ‘Retro Le Mans’ now sends its power through an adapted classic five speed transmission. Another headache was caused by the intention to do without the fuel injection in favor of carburetors. It meant adapting the round opening of the carburetor to the oval outlet of the Griso’s cylinders.

The custom designed mono shock in the rear took several stages of fabrication due to unexpected powers eating up the fixing plate. The list of trial and error solutions is a long one. It is truly amazing that a bike like this could be designed without the help of computers the good old fashioned way of a hands on approach.

The ‘Retro Le Mans’ is Stefan’s most ambitious custom project so far. Some of the parts developed in the 6 year building process are now part of Radical Guzzi’s catalogue. If you like what you see, check out the bike in action here – it helps if you speak a little German.

via PIPEBURN