ELLASPEDE R65

Having just complained that we don’t get enough builds from Down Under, this lean and tasteful R65 airhead popped into our inbox from Bruce, a bike built in collaboration with Ellaspede in Brisbane. …We’ll let Bruce tell you the story in his own words.

I always viewed BMW bikes as bikes for old guys, but something happened that I had no control over, I got old. Well, this isn’t strictly true. I got older, that’s true, but I kept seeing some cafe’d BMWs that I thought looked off beat and cool at the same time. Particularly a La Corona build off a couple years back.

I also wanted a German stablemate for the BMW E21 coupe that I’ve owned for many years. I settled on a R65 mono, partly because I think that cafe racers should be of a modest capacity, and partly because the smaller R series bikes were a little cheaper. A 1987 R65 was found local for the right price and it was in fairly good condition

I tore it down and dropped off the rolling chassis into Ellaspede with a a bunch of parts, a brief and an idea of what I wanted the finished bike to look like. They fabricated the rear subframe and battery box to suit the Nitroheads seat, took off all the unnecessary brackets and dropped the front end by 45mm by modding the top tree. They also sorted the mudguards and fabricated the headers that have 12” Dime City Cycles stainless mufflers keeping the noise to a socially friendly level.

Ellaspede are a Brisbane based shop founded by Steve and Leo who are both industrial designers, Located in the hip West end of Brisbane, they bring unique talents and unique eyes to bike builds. I actually went to school with Steve and it was only fitting to work with them on this build. I’ve owned many bikes, but this was to be my first custom build.

Back together, everything looks right! Tear it back down and off to paint. A few mates in the auto collision industry offered to paint it for me at their shop. Over a weekend and a couple of days the Hotrod black was applied, along with the custom colour for the wheels.

Back home for reassembly, then back to the shop for wiring and firing. Gearbox was rebuilt locally by a BMW fanatic, and he also found some bits and pieces for it to finish it off.

From buying the bike, to finishing the build took just 8 months and I am super stoked on how it turned out. I’ve put over 500km on it since it’s rebuild and I’m impressed by the low down grunt of the opposed twin and it’s unique character. It’s low, loud, and slices through the city traffic with ease. Is that Nitroheads seat comfortable? Not really. But motorcycling isn’t about comfort is it? I love the minimalistic look of the mono’s rear end. The fabrication work by Ellaspede is beautiful, as is the paint laid down by my good friends.

Bruce looks pretty pleased with the Bavarian line-up in his garage, and rightly so. Thanks very much for sharing with all of us here at the Bike Shed Bruce. See more from Ellaspede on their website.

Legend of Lombardy: The Moto Guzzi story

It is difficult to think of a motorcycle maker with a more storied and romantic history than that of Moto Guzzi which, 93 years after its founding in Lombardy, is today the oldest bike manufacturer in Europe to have remained in continuous production...

The marque was conceived by World War One pilots Carlo Guzzi and Giovanni Ravelli and their mechanic, Giorgio Parodi. But Ravelli never saw the realisation of his dream as he was killed in a plane crash just a few days after the war's end. Guzzi and Parodi decided to carry on, commemorating their lost friend in the now-famous Moto Guzzi eagle logo (borrowed  from the Italian Air Corps) and using a 2,000 lira loan from Parodi's shipping magnate father to get the company going.

Earning the wings

Guzzi undertook the engineering of the bikes, quickly developing the horizontal, single-cylinder engine that would remain a Moto Guzzi signature right up until the 1960s. The men promoted the new marque out on the race tracks, where it gradually came to lead the Grand Prix scene in the middleweight classes, notching up 3,329 wins, eight world championship titles and 11 Isle of Man TT victories before retiring from competition in 1957.

Along the way, Moto Guzzi established a reputation for engineering excellence, inventing the centre stand and swinging arm suspension, creating the first double-overhead-camshaft V8 bike engine and being the first motorcycle manufacturer to use a wind tunnel to help optimise aerodynamics. By the mid-1960s, however, both founders had died and Moto Guzzi was facing a financial crisis that resulted in ownership by state-run receivers, who resurrected a V-twin engine designed some years earlier by Giulio Carcano, creator of the aforementioned V8 Grand Prix unit.

Lombardy lifestyle

Initially displacing 700cc and used in the V7 model, the engine and its shaft drive transmission became the quintessential Guzzi powertrain at the heart of iconic - and now highly collectable - '70s and 80s classics such as the 750-S3 and 850 Le Mans café racers and the California tourer.

Moto Guzzi is still located in Mandello del Lario where it all began and, under Piaggio ownership for the past decade, now offers a full range of sport, cruiser, tourer and adventure sport machines - all, of course, with 21st Century versions of that legendary V-twin engine.

The marque has even upped its game as a 'lifestyle brand' by employing bike-mad actor Ewan McGregor as its ambassador. For most die-hard Guzzi fans, however, even McGregor doesn't come close in the 'cool' stakes compared with the sight of an original, round-headlamp Le Mans, resting on its side stand in a sunlit piazza...

Several classic Moto Guzzis can be found for sale in the Classic Driver Market.

YAMAHA SR250 BY AUTO FABRICA

The Yamaha SR250 is the hardworking little brother of the inimitable SR400/SR500, many of the components are shared between the SR models making repairs simple and the straight-forward mechanical set up of the SR series means they’re excellent bikes to learn wrenching.

Originally released in 1982 the Yamaha SR250 was designed to fit in below it’s larger siblings as an exceedingly economical daily commuter bike. The engine is just about as simple as it’s possible to get – a single cylinder with one valve in, one valve out and none of that fancypants camshaft malarky.

Taking a stock SR250 commuter and turning it into a bike that people might actually get excited about isn’t as easy as you might imagine, the best builds we’ve seen have all focussed on reducing weight to boost performance and removing as much plastic as possible. The SR250 you’re looking at here is the work of Auto Fabrica, a custom garage run by brothers Bujar and Gaz Muharremi, they’re both designers with a background in fabrication so the detail and quality of their work is always impressive.

When Bujar and Gaz first got their hands on the SR it was looking like it’d seen better days, the previous owner had attempted an ill-advised chopper conversion and without a rescue it was heading for an unceremonious end at a local scrap yard.

When the bike arrived at the Auto Fabrica garage the first job was to strip it back to its bare essentials and see exactly what was salvageable . The frame, engine and fuel tank were straight but much of the rest of the bike had to be tossed in the trash, once the frame was exposed it was decided that the rear-loop would be cropped to shorten the tail a little.

The electric start, battery and wiring was removed and the centre of the frame was cleared out – the bike is now kick start only, but as a 250 that isn’t a particularly difficult thing to live with. A new set of handlebars, a new headlight, a custom seat, new blinkers and a new speedo were all added and rather tastefully – the same cut of leather was used for the seat, grips and kick starter.

As summer is fast approaching in the Northern Hemisphere Bujar and Gaz decided to fit knobbly scrambler tires – this allows the mighty little SR250 to do a little trail riding, depending on the courage and skill of the new owner of course.

If you’d like to see more from Auto Fabrica you can click here to visit their website, if you’d like to follow them on social media you can click here for Instagram and here for Facebook.

via SILODROME

JUSTIN’S RD350

Take a look around this page, this website, in fact any custom motorcycle website for that matter, and you’ll see that two strokes crop up less frequently than Ducati MotoGP victories.  But Idaho based Justin might be about to change all that by showing us the light with this absolutely drop dead gorgeous RD350.

So what made Justin buck the trend and go down the two stroke route?  Quite simply it was the smell and the power. If you’ve ever ridden an RD, you’ll know what he means. Once you’ve experienced hitting that power band and hurtling off towards the horizon in an intoxicating blue haze, you never forget it. Keen to relive the experience himself, Justin put an ad in the local classifieds, and in 2 weeks he had himself a donor bike. Right from the off Justin had a vision of how he wanted the finished bike to look – the perfect blend of modern world and 1975. This is how he went about it.

Justin’s brother happened to have a front end from a 2006 RM85 lying around.  Cutting 5 inches off the springs and adding 13 ¾” Hagon shocks to the rear, achieved the exact cafe racer stance he was looking for. The stock RD steering stem was fitted into the RM85 triple and tapered roller bearings were added to improve the steering. A front disc brake replaced the standard drum, and the Excel 1.85×18′s were laced with custom stainless steel spokes, and wrapped with delicious looking Pirelli MT90′s.  Despite limited fabrication experience and equipment, Justin was able to design and make the seat, tail section (with integrated taillight), side panels and fork guards by himself.  All the unnecessary tabs were cut off, and the frame and other parts were sent off for black powder coating.  The frame area under the seat was kept open by doing away with the oil tank and switching the bike to pre-mix. A modern reg/rec was wired in, and with a couple of small mods to the frame he was able to hide a small 4cell Ballistic battery under the fuel tank.

The engine had very low miles on it and checked out almost perfect. So all Justin did was clean it up ready for a coat of paint and install a new set of rings. He added the pod filters and DG pipes to help her breath and help improve the soundtrack. The rear sets were custom made by Nick Pastore at VintageSmoke.com, and Justin added a custom rear brake stay arm and rear motor mounts specifically to match.  The decision was made to stay with the original orange and black Yamaha paint scheme in order to keep the vintage look. Right decision.  It looks insanely good.

The build took Justin a year from start to finish, working in his spare time and saving money for all the parts as he went.  He is rightly chuffed with how it turned out and as an FYI, points out that ‘this thing is freaking FAST!’  Even in standard form, a 1975 RD350 flies.  And despite the low clip ons, he says he still has a hard time keeping the front wheel on the ground- what a shame.  This bike has really got us excited here in the Shed.  We’re all riding 4 strokes, but this bike has shown us what we’re missing out on.  The super light, super intoxicating sound, smell and acceleration, of a two stroke.  This could be the start of something.

See Justin’s previous build here on the Bike Shed.