Born Free 5

Max Schaaf Bike Builder in another Born Free

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Royal Enfield 500cc Classic by Rajputana Customs

 

India is one of the top motorcycle markets of the world, 1 in 25 Indians are on two wheels and that number is still growing. It is therefore surprising that this is the first custom motorcycle we have featured from India. Rajputana Customs Royal Enfield 500cc Classic named Assault is the feature of the day.

 

The Jaipur based custom shop Rajputana Custom Motorcycles is igniting the spark of the custom scene in India and has been crafting some serious bikes. There is a reason they say Incredible India, my visit to India in 2004 was one of my best holiday experiences. India is known for it’s population, vast cultural diversity, exotic food, vibrant color, organized chaos, Bollywood, and of course the extreme love of cricket! Motorcycles are also an important part of daily life in India. In the hustle and bustle of that life its hard to imagine having the chance or opportunity to build a custom bike.

We asked RCM owner Vijay to give a brief background on Rajputana Custom Motorcycles “Building bikes here at RCM has always been an eventful learning process. We are pretty much self-taught due to the fact that we weren’t lucky enough to have a generation before us to lend a helping hand or advise us correctly. We have learnt quite a bit about building custom bikes over the last few years and have only begun to scratch the surface as far as the potential for growth is concerned. There is still a whole lot left to learn and implement over the next few decades, which will only add to our aesthetic sense and functional skill in the years to come.

To sum up our build philosophy I feel we are complete ‘newbies’ in this trade who relish steep learning curves and are looking to build 10 odd old school custom bikes a year. As a team we have 4 metal fabricators, 1 machinist, 1 mechanical engineer, 1 shop foreman, a lady who handles the administration, & myself to oversee the whole lot.

Assault was built on a Royal Enfield 500cc Classic for Mr. Kumar Kundan from New Delhi. He came to us looking for a bike, which would be raw, minimal, and subtly painted. It took us 2 months to complete in which time we gave her (Assault) a new set of rims & tyres, KTM Duke front suspension, clip-on handlebars, CNC machined headlights, custom gas tank, extended rear swing-arm, customized the rear frame, rear fender, seats, & added a few details to the gas cap etc.”

This build was not all that complicated as we have previously worked on Royal Enfield 500′s with minimal frame modifications. Machining the CNC headlight and then getting it to mount the KTM fork required a little thought but it was pretty straight forward other than that.

My personal favorite on this custom Royal Enfield 500cc Classic has to be the matte paints, tyres and the bikes lines. I feel all 3 go really well together.

Going forward for the future our plan is to concentrate on the bikes and let the rest take care of itself. We are not too clued up with the business aspect of RCM at this point. We are concentrating all our time and effort on making the bikes more functionally sound and aesthetically appealing. It is a very organic process of evolution which requires a lot of my involvement and we plan on letting it expand at its own pace.

Royal Enfield 500cc Classic specifications:

Bike:
Engine:
Bars:
Exhaust:
Paint:
Frame:
Front Suspension:
Rear suspension:
Seat:
Grips:
Throttle:
Wheels:
Tires:
Fuel tank:
Oil Tank:

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Royal Enfield 500cc Classic
Royal Enfield 500cc
Custom built in house
In house
Matte green & matte black
Extended swing-arm and a few chop/welds at the rear
KTM Duke
Stock RE 500
In House (Brown Leather hand etched design)
Stock
Stock
19×3 Front & 16×3.5 Rear
MRF 110×18 Front & Avon 5.00-16 Rear
In House (Capacity 8 Liters)
Oil is housed within the engine

Rajputana Custom Motorcycles
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Holographic Hammer

 

Sylvain Berneron works as a designer for BMW Motorrad in Munich, he started riding Motocross when he was just 8 years old and has continued to ride and race ever since. “Bikes are all I know and that’s what I live for” he says.

 

Recently Sylvain launched his Art page on Facebook called Holographic Hammer. Here he is to tell us all about it “Building a custom bike takes a lot of time and money, as a designer I realized that the first idea is rarely the best. Perfection comes with exploring different options and trying unusual things. All my friends ride or work in the custom motorcycle business and I was always around them to quickly Photoshop their garage builds, and make them logos.

That is the meaning of Holographic Hammer, a digital tool helping and simplifying the manual labor. I am convinced that doing a sketch before building helps to get the global proportion right and stay on track while doing it. Because you can easily get lost redoing the same part again and again until it works.

It doesn’t matter if the bike is going to be built or if it’s just about making a cool picture, I am always having fun drawing custom bikes for friends. That’s how I ended up sketching for El Solitario MC, Untitled Motorcycles, Fuel Bespoke, Icon 1000,  Lucky Cat Garage and Derestricted.

If you would like to visualize your dream custom bike or simply see some cool shit? Make sure you check Holographic Hammer on Facebook and I will be very happy to sketch it up for you!” Sylvain Berneron ~ Holographic Hammer

As I am getting ready to embark on my own first custom project I think I will be taking you up on that offer Sylvain!!

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TOP 5 HONDA CB750S

The original Honda CB750 Four is one of the most sought-after bikes to customize. And it’s not hard to see why: classic 1970s style, peerless performance for its era, and that legendary Honda engineering.

It also means it’s getting harder to find a good, serviceable SOHC CB750 for reasonable money. Anything under $4,000 is likely to need remedial work, and a pristine 1969 example with the ‘sandcast’ engine will set you back three times that.

With CB750 Four values escalating, the stereotypical checkered-stripe-and-clip-ons CB custom is on the wane. The best builders are now putting more thought into their CB750 builds, as befits the first production motorcycle to crack the 200 kph (124 mph) barrier. So take a look at these five customs from the USA, Europe and Australia. Each one puts a unique spin on the ‘world’s first superbike.’

WRENCHMONKEES GORILLA PUNCH If there’s one bike that put the Danish masters on the map, it’s ‘Gorilla Punch’ (above and top). Four years ago, this CB750 made the custom world sit up and notice, and not just because it’s the first time whitewalls have looked good on a post-War bike. The engine gets a healthy power boost from Keihin CR29 carbs and a straight-through exhaust system, and the bodywork is all-new new. There are too many custom parts to list, from the triple trees up front to the extended swingarm out back, and a complete new brake system in between. ‘Gorilla Punch’ was put on display at at Kunst Industri Museet, the Danish Museum of Art & Design, and today it lives in Dubai. Hopefully it’s being ridden as it was intended. [Wrenchmonkees]

STEVE ‘CARPY’ CARPENTER’S CYCLONE Carpy is the world’s pre-eminent CB750 specialist, and a real character to boot. An expat Londoner living in the USA, he’s known for his jovial personality as much as his bike builds. But there’s little this guy doesn’t know about building CB750s. ‘Cyclone’ is his tour-de-force, a bike that has been stripped down to its core components and painstakingly rebuilt with a nod to the traditional ‘Ace Café’ genre of customs. [More about this bike | CB750 Café]

MOTOHANGAR 1976 CB750 Pat Jones knows how to make a bike look good, but this has got to be the most arresting of all Motohangar builds. The biggest stroke of genius was fitting a Kawasaki KZ tail, instantly giving the CB750 a rakish stance—accentuated by the edgy graphics and monochrome paint and powder. It’s an unapologetically ‘new wave’ build, complete with pod filters, pipewrap and Firestones, but we don’t care. With ample power on tap to match the brutal looks, this bike has attitude by the bucketload. [More about this bike | Motohangar]

HOUSE ROCKERS This Japanese workshop is not well-known in the West, but should be. It builds CB750s with a strong performance slant, starting with seriously hot-rodded engines. This one is sporting a forged crank, big valves, a Wiseco 836cc kit and Yoshimura-tweaked carbs. The suspension on has been upgraded too, with new Kayaba forks up front, Öhlins out back, and magnesium wheels. It might look a little high-ridin’—but this is a CB750 built for pure speed. [More about this bike | House Rockers]

EXTREME CREATIONS DICK MANN REPLICA Dick Mann was one of the all-time AMA racing greats, and there are several CB750 replicas bearing his name. This, in our opinion, is one of the best. It was built by the Australian shop Extreme Creations, and promptly delivered to the Deus studio for a shoot before it went on sale. As a transformation, it’s beyond reproach: the donor CB750 was a complete wreck, and the result is jaw-dropping. The frame was blasted back to bare metal, the bodywork is hand-formed, and beautiful details are everywhere you look—including a CNC-machined stator cover with a sandcast finish. Automotive jewelry of the highest order, with performance to match. [More images of this bike | Extreme Creations]

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