Yamaha XV750 – Hageman Motorcycles

Written by Martin Hodgson.

The artist and engineer usually come at their work from completely different ends of the creative continuum and often go together about as well as a bull in a china shop. But on the rare occasion they do mix well, the results are truly spectacular – and this Custom Yamaha Virago known as “GoGo” just happens to be one such example.

The artist and owner is photographer extraordinaire Erick Runyon and the engineer is the king of custom Yamaha’s, the one and only, Greg Hageman. Erick photographs Greg’s spectacular creations and it was at one of their get-togethers that they discussed seeing how nice a job they could do on a XV750 with a limited budget.

The bike was built and that might have been the end of the story until as Erick explains “I was shooting another build for Greg that fell on me in the studio and broke my knee in two places”. Out of action for six months the budget XV750 would look at the crippled Erick and whisper ideas into his creative brain, ideas that Erick would suggest to Greg over the phone. Given that they live in the same Neighbourhood Greg had the bike brought over to his place and with the budget now “extended” GoGo was about to go from budget build to one of Hageman’s XV masterpieces!

What makes GoGo so special is not just that it was built by Hageman but that there were also contributions from some of the best in the business. The front end is the work of Alain Bernard of Santiago Choppers who put the GSXR 1000 forks on the Yamaha frame. The wheel and tyre combination take chunky to a whole new level, wheels are 16 inches front and rear with incredible custom inserts from Sean Skinner of MotoRelic. While the tyres themselves are one-off Dunlop American Elites normally reserved for Harley’s fleet of touring bikes, measuring a giant 130 in the front and 150 in the rear with raised yellow Dunlop lettering.

Power for the XV750 now comes from its big brother the XV1100 a conversion Greg did himself and one that makes great sense given the 1063cc donk punches out a considerable improvement in torque over the stock 750 and does it much lower in the rev range. Fuelling the V-twin is now a single carburettor from the kings of V muscle, Harley Davidson, this particular item being from a Sportster model complete with a grilled cone filter. As mentioned earlier there were contributions to this build from some big names and the shorty stainless steel muffler finishing off the growling exhaust comes from Florida’s kings of café racer cool, Dime City Cycles who also provided many of the other bolt on mods.

Greg Hageman has pioneered one of the most enduring looks of the café racer Renaissance, the fitting of Benelli’s Mojave tank to the Virago series of bikes and it is simply a match made in heaven. With artistic input from Erick and guns swung by two of his friends Moe from Moe Colors and Craig Skiver of Craig Paints Bikes the mix of raw metal and deep red find their homes in all the right places creating an industrial feel that works perfectly with the aggressive stance of the rest of the build. While many would paint the swingarm black or the same colour as the frame Erick had Joe from ProFab Powder coating finish the metal in a clear powder that not only further enhances the size of the rear tyre it further accentuates the negative space offered up by the new seat arrangement. Which comes the way of a totally redesigned and custom fabricated subframe that supports a beautifully stitched single seat.

Everywhere you look on GoGo, whether it be form or function, it is clear that Greg and Erick were speaking the same language, even if Erick admits his constant changes of mind may have gone close to driving Greg up the wall. It can often be that a great build falls down in the final details, but not here, the purposeful custom rearsets aren’t just added for cool factor they are exactly what is needed when converting a cruiser to a café racer. The headlight also plays its role with a raw metal finish and aggressive grill expanding on the tough industrial look.

While just below the Yamaha logo on the seat sits a neat LED strip that takes care of taillight and turn signal duties. More of the meshing between artist and engineer comes in the little touches you could easily over look. Hiding parts behind rattle can black paint is an easy way out but Erick and Greg have left items like the forward engine mount and shaft drive in their raw state and it’s these little touches that are as equally as important as the major changes in creating a machine that is truly world-class.

With such an incredible team assembled and Erick’s artistic vision recreated into an automotive masterpiece there is just one part of the story left to tell. The nickname “GoGo” comes from a sexy little assassin GoGo Yubari – a character from the Kill Bill movie. And if a severely disturbed 17-year-old schoolgirl is on her way to disembowel you in a horrific style only Quentin Tarantino could dream up she may as well be aboard her namesake, a Greg Hageman special shot to fame by the Superfoto himself, Erick Runyon!

[Photos by–you guessed it—Erick Runyon]

via PIPEBURN

Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride (DGR)

Photo by Amy Shore

Written by Mark Hawwa – Founder of the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride.

The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride had very basic beginnings when I created the event three years ago. I wanted to unite the classic and custom classic motorcycle scene. This idea turned into 2,500 dapper ladies and gents riding on the same day throughout 64 cities all across the globe back in 2012.

This year again, ladies and gents will be dressing in their finest for this ride on the same day, only now with over 30,000 riders across over 80 countries. This has turned into what would have to be the largest global rides held. The 400 cities involved in this years ride has formed a beautiful community for riders of café racers, bobbers, classics, brats, trackers, choppers and everything niche bike in-between.

Photo by Amy Shore

This common passion for machines and riding has evolved into something even bigger, and in 2013 we made the decision to support a cause that was affecting countless people. We teamed up with multiple prostate cancer foundations across the globe, and our goal this year is to raise $3 million to aid in prostate cancer research.

Photo by Baptiste David

It has been an amazing journey for me and everyone involved. Very testing at times and the logistics of such a large event will never be easy. We’ve been fortunate enough to have the help of literally thousands of people dedicating their time and effort to the cause. One of my favourite parts of DGR is checking out the amazing photography from the 4 corners of the globe. Here’s a selection of my favourite images from 2014.

If you haven’t already signed up for the DGR ride, make sure you register at gentlemansride.com and raise some money for a great cause. 

Photo by Aymeric Michaud

Main street of Sydney. Photo by Baptiste David

Zurich ride. Photo by Christain Jung

Porto, Portugal. Photo by Delfina Brochado

London. Photo by Amy Shore.

Sydney gentleman. Photo by My Media Sydney.

London ride. Photo by Amy Shore.

Dutch from the Bike Shed. Photo by Amy Shore.

A dapper Ducati hitting the streets of London. Photo by Amy Shore.

Andrew from Pipeburn smoking a pipe. Photo by Baptiste David.

The French ladies looking the part at the Paris ride. Photo by Laurent Nivalle

Yard Built Goes Racing at Dirt Quake IV

This year’s annual Dirt Quake event in the UK, Dirt Quake IV proved a great opportunity to prove this theory and give one of Yamaha’s latest Yard Built creations a proper work out. Yamaha teamed up with recent collaborators Deus Ex Machina to bring the Yard Built ‘D-Side’ trackside for some dirt track action.

FIA WEC Nurburgring 6 Hours; Au tour de la N°17…/ The N°17 Porsche’s turn!

Après la Porsche N°18 (14 à l’époque) aux 6 Heures de Sao Paulo, la N°19 aux 24 Heures du Mans, la Porsche 919 Hybrid N°17 a enfin gagné ce week-end, aux 6 Heures du Nürburgring.

Le marketing de Porsche aurait sans doute préféré que la N°17 offre la 17^e victoire de Porsche au Mans 17 ans après son dernier succès. Oui, mais voilà… Si le marketing est omniprésent tout autour de la piste, il ne l’est pas encore (trop) sur la piste. La N°17 restera comme celle qui a gagné pour Porsche en Allemagne.

La Porsche 919 Hybrid N°17 et son équipage hybride composé d’une superstar, d’un surfeur et d’un passionné, méritent amplement cette première victoire après trois pole-positions et beaucoup de malchance en course. Ce week-end, on a bien cru que la N°17 allait encore passer à côté quand elle est rentrée moucher son nez au 24^e tour, mais non… Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley et Timo Bernhard l’ont enfin conduite sur la plus haute marche du podium.

Les ennuis se sont concentrés sur la N°18 avec un capteur-moteur défectueux. A quatre reprises, le 2.0-Litres V4 turbo a excédé la consommation maxi autorisée d’1,423 kg d’essence par tour. La Porsche N°18 a dû observer trois stop&go de 5, 30 et 60 secondes.

Quatrièmes à environ une minute des Audi, Marc Lieb, Neel Jani et Romain Dumas ont effectué un double relais pneumatiques et ont cravaché pour doubler les deux machines d’Ingolstadt. La N°18 était incontestablement la plus rapide ce week-end avec pole, meilleur tour absolu (1min36s036, Lieb) et meilleur tour en course (1min37s955, Jani).

Les Audi ont été battues dans tous les secteurs du Grand-Prix Strecke (parties lentes et même en Vmax). Le package aéro, proche de la version spadoise, n’était sans pas assez performant sur ce tracé. Et puis la N°7 doit soigner le dernier moteur qu’il lui reste cette saison…

Grâce à leurs succès à Silverstone et Spa, et à leur 3^e place ce week-end, Marcel Fässler/Benoît Tréluyer/André Lotterer sont toujours en tête du championnat Pilotes. Audi Sport va-t-elle mettre un terme à la domination naissante de Porsche en FIA WEC ? Les R18 e-tron quattro ont gagné les deux dernières courses à Austin…

En revanche, on se demande si on va revoir les Toyota TS040 Hybrid sur un podium cette année, tant l’écart avec les autres prototypes hybrides est important. L’équipe Toyota Gazoo Racing est tournée vers 2016 et de nouvelles solutions techniques. La fin d’année 2015 risque d’être longue pour les pilotes.

Les 6 Heures du Nürburgring ont confirmé la suprématie de l’Oreca05-Nissan KCMG et de la Ferrari 458 SMP Racing depuis Le Mans en LM P2 et LMGTE Pro. Les voitures sont fiables et performantes, et les deux équipages comptent chacun un pilote de pointe (Tandy, Bertolini) et deux pilotes-amateurs très rapides (Bradley/Howsson et Shaytar/Basov).

Les Porsche 911 RSR n’avaient plus réalisé de doublé depuis Shanghai 2014. Comme leurs grandes sœurs en LM P1, elles ont dominé la catégorie LM GTE Pro. Comme la N°18, la N°92 (Makowiecki/Pilet) a été retardée par deux stop&go (départ anticipé et collision), mais elle a repris la Ferrari N°71 pour assurer le doublé avec la N°91 (Christensen/Lietz). L’équipe Team Manthey a joué une bonne stratégie de pneus en n’utilisant qu’un train pour les qualifs.

Following the success of the N°18 Porsche (N°14 at the time) in Sao Paulo last year, and the N°19 car’s triumph at Le Mans, the N°17 Porsche 919 Hybrid got its first taste of victory at last at the 6 Hours of Nürburgring.

Perhaps Porsche’s marketing boffins would have preferred to see the N°17 car clinch Porsche’s 17^th win at Le Mans 17 years after its last success, but marketing doesn’t yet dictate what happens on the race track…

The car will at least have notched up the 919 Hybrid’s first win on home soil in Germany. Its three drivers – a world superstar, a surfer and a true-grit endurance racer – fully deserved their maiden victory together after earning three pole positions, but they have frequently been unlucky on race day.

At one moment on Sunday, it looked as though it would lose out again when the N°17 car had to pit for a nose change on Lap 24. But Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard bounced back to spray the champagne at the end of the afternoon.

This time, the gremlins focused on the N°18 car in the form of a faulty engine sensor which, on four separate occasions, allowed the two-litre turbocharged V4 to consume more than its allocated 1.423kg of petrol per lap. The penalty was three Stop&Go penalties of five, thirty and sixty seconds each.

Marc Lieb, Neel Jani and Romain Dumas consequently found themselves back in fourth place, a minute short of the Audis. The trio fought back, however, and, assisted by a double stint on the same tyres, took the chequered flag in second place. The N°18 car also won pole position, posted the fastest lap of the meeting (1m36.036s, Lieb) and also the fastest race lap (1m37.955s, Jani).

The Audis were dominated over every sector of the Nürburgring’s grand prix course, as well as in terms of top speed. The Ingolstadt make’s aerodynamic configuration – similar to that seen in Spa – was no doubt ill-suited to the German track. On top of that, its N°7 car needs to take care of the only remaining engine it can use this season.

Thanks to their wins at Silverstone and Spa, and their third place on Sunday, Marcel Fässler/Benoît Tréluyer/André Lotterer still top the Drivers’ classification, though, and the R18 e-tron quattro has won the FIA WEC’s last two visits to Austin, the next clash on the calendar.

Meanwhile, it’s unsure whether we will see a Toyota TS040 Hybrid on the podium again this year as Toyota Gazoo Racing focuses on developing new technical solutions for 2016. It could be a long autumn for its drivers.

In the other classes, Nürburgring confirmed the supremacy of KCMG’s Oreca05-Nissan and SMP Racing’s Ferrari 458 in LM P2 and LMGTE Am respectively. These cars are reliable and fast and both teams benefit from a quick number one driver (Tandy, Bertolini) and two talented amateurs (Bradley/Howsson and Shaytar/Basov).

In LM GTE Pro, the Porsche 911 RSR hadn’t secured a one-two finish since Shanghai 2014 but the car dominated its class at the Nürburgring. Mirroring the N°18 car’s fate, the N°92 (Makowiecki/Pilet) was delayed by two Stop&Go penalties (jump start and collision) but still finished clear of the N°71 Ferrari to finish behind the winning N°91 car (Christensen/Lietz). Team Manthey benefited from a shrewd tyre strategy by only using a single set of rubber per car for qualifying.