docu : voyage moto Inde - Alexandre Debanne au Rajasthan avec Vintage Ride

Découvrez le nouveau film d'Alexandre Debanne : "Vintage Rides sur la terre des Maharajas". Un voyage moto au Rajasthan au guidon de la mythique Royal Enfield à la découverte d'une population attachante et d'une culture haute en couleurs !

D-LUCKS RBK R80

Dennis, or D as everyone knows him; is no stranger to the bike shed, but usually his work is shown on other peoples pro built machines. D is a custom painter based in Brighton, UK and works under the name D-Lucks Custom Paint. He paints for the likes of Spirit of the 70s and RB Kustoms as well as many others.

D has had an array of bikes over the last few years and grew up in both Germany and the USA, where motorcycles have always played a part in his life. For his own ride, D called upon RBK to prime their fabrication talent and spread it on thick. The donor is a BMW R80/7 from 1973, D bought it over a year ago as an honest cafed out bike to use over summer and Autumn ’13; come winter he decided he didn’t want to part with it, so chose to make it personal to him.

So the brief was set; get rid of everything on the frame that wasn’t good looking and replace or redesign the parts that didn’t live up to D’s eye for beauty, D says: “From the seriously cleaned up frame to the custom made tail end, to the new clean & streamlined front end it was all about keeping this bike looking tidy while showing off the slightly cleaned vintage engine and wheels.”

Now RBK’s Russ is a seriously talented fabricator and has no fear of the unknown; which is handy, because the tank got de-seemed and had about 2.5” taken off the bottom and staggered toward the back to give it a racy feel. Once the front and rear of the tank were sealed up, D asked for the huge fuel cap to be cut out to make way for a Harley neck.

The rear suspension was found in D’s loft, they are from a Harley he used to own. The sleek looking yokes were designed by RBK and a Dakota digi speedo completes the top shelf. Out front the bike wears a Halo headlamp… how Angelic! And the bars carry stunning ISR hand controls from Sweden with the levers shortened to visually fit. The ignition is neatly hidden away within the frame just under the bottom yoke.

Moving down the bike from the wrapped headers to the TYGA Moto Maggot end cans, we look up to the seat unit which hides away the battery and then onto the comfy area with diamond stitching; upholstered by The Trimming Centre in Brighton.

Tyres are Avon Road rider, they look great and D says they ride even better.  The internals aka the electrics, wiring, coils etc are all new and modernised with things like mini coils and Boyer digital ignition.

Did we mention that D is a painter? Well there’s no prize for guessing who was behind the bikes elegant cloak; so to round things off let’s hear from the man himself: A lot of work went into this bike but it still comes across subtle in stance and that was the aim. The paint was simple, I wanted to stay away from the 2 tone paint jobs or not paint which seem to rule the roost with cafe racers and do something more interesting. It’s a personal paint job from D-Luck’s Custom Paint Workshop in Brighton and not everyone will like it, but like I said, it’s personal and I’ve always wanted to use the slogan “humble on the rumble” which defines me quite well! also it shows that you can have some fun with your paint regardless of what sort of bike you have.

Huge appreciation goes to RB Kustoms with special mentions for Russ and Tom… and some back street paint shop called D-Lucks Custom Paint! To see more from all involved check out RB Kustoms website and D-Luck’s Facebook page

EBAY FIND: 1975 HUSQVARNA 175 GP

I love a good Husky. Especially the older models like this one, there’s just something glorious about them, I could park this in my living room just as soon as I could take it up a trail.

The Husqvarna story started all the way back in 1689, they produced muskets for the Swedish Army before expanding into bicycles, chainsaws, motorcycles, sewing machines and lawnmowers. In the 60′s and 70′s they dominated the motocross world with their lightweight, 2-stroke designs winning 14 Motocross world championships, 24 enduro world championships and 11 Baja 1000 victories.

This 1975 Husqvarna 175 GP is offered up for sale out of Buffalo, New York. The seller explains that it’s been totally rebuilt and restored by a Husqvarna specialist and looking at the photographs, it’s easy to see that they did a great job. There are 4 days left on the auction with bidding stalled at $1,275, if you’re in the market for a retro off-road belter, this might just be your ride.

Check out the auction here.

 via BIKEEXIF

‘01 Kawasaki W650 – Old Empire Motorcycles

Wales. A rather quite place, all things considered. Unless coal mining or male choirs are high on your list of wow, it probably doesn’t cross paths with you all that often. But magically zap yourself back in time a few thousand years and Wales would be offering up a whole different set of attractions. And the foremost one amongst a list also featuring dragons, giant Celtic armies and beautiful maidens would be one Mister Myrddin Emrys, a.k.a. Merlin the Magician. So, inspired by Wales’ greatest ever son, our favourite Brit builders have taken inspiration from their wand waving western neighbours and conjured up this little wonder from their alchemic cauldron. Hey presto, meet Old Empire’s magical ‘Merlin’.

“The Merlin is our first attempt at a custom parallel twin and our first Kawasaki W650,” notes Alec Sharp; OEM’s chief knight. “We were approached by a customer who is based in Amsterdam. After some emails and skyping, we had a good idea on where we wanted to go with the build. Although much was sent over using ourbuild idea sheet, it was left to us to ultimately come up with a design to take the W650 somewhere we felt it had not been before.”

“Looking at the stock frame and engine layout, it became clear why it’s favoured for custom builds. It lends itself to a variety of modifications; from café racer to flat tracker to bobber, the bike has the potential of creating many great custom motorcycles. However, we were not after creating just another great motorcycle. What we wanted to conceive needed to be the best custom W650 in terms of design and functionality. We find it’s always best to aim high.”

“The first thing to sort out was the stance, which was achieved by dropping the front of the bike using a set of Ducati USD forks. And although the stock rims are both 18’’, we installed a wider front rim to accommodate the same size Coker tyres front and back. The blunt end was raised 1’’ using a set of  Hagon shocks to achieve that acute angle of attack.”

“Fabrication-wise, there was significant workshop and design time getting that minimal rear cowling just right. The original tank retains its front mounts, but we raised the rear end to get that top line running nicely from the yoke down the tank into the seat and off the rear cowling. Making a custom seat pan and installing some handmade gussets front and back was critical in keeping the bike in proportion. The tank also features indents in which leather scallops have been inserted as well a welded skirt that hides the ugly box section top tube.”

“We managed to keep all the controls stock, but added some hand-dyed leather wrap and a bit of scotching. Front lighting comes in the form of a big bates headlight with peak and the customer asked for mini led indicators which we mounted as discreetly as possible. We also decided to work with our friends at Smiths again to make up an OEM grey-faced metric speedo which, safe to say, looks mighty fine integrated into the custom top yoke.”

“The original state of the engine and frame required us to send them off to be soda blasted by a local firm who did a sterling job of cleaning it all up. The the engine was masked up and the crankcases repainted a high temperature satin silver with the barrels and head going satin black with polished fins. The casings were then fine scotched and the rebuilt carbs with custom air filters were installed to leave the engine looking fantastic.”

“Exhausts were hand made from tubular bends, TIG’d together and wrapped to stop them melting your leg. Mini baffles with a good deal of sound deadening material installed take a little edge of what is a really fantastic sounding engine.

The paintwork deserves a special mention as it has to be seen to be believed. Greg from Black Shuck Kustoms achieved the fantastic dark green, smokey, bare metal high gloss finish with gold pin striping you see here. Amazing stuff. In conclusion, this may be one of the finest OEM builds in terms of aesthetics and functionality. We like to think we are improving continually and we can’t wait for our next opportunity.”

via PIPEBURN