KAWASAKI W650 BY REVIVAL CYCLES

Revival Cycles is a long time favourite of ours, the team of custom motorcycle builders based in Austin, Texas have produced some of the most eye-catching American customs in recent history. When we discovered they’d been hard at work on a Kawasaki W650 we were understandably intrigued and so emails were exchanged and the images you’re seeing here today are the result.

The Kawasaki W650 is a carburettor-fed, parallel-twin that Kawasaki introduced in 1999, it’s clearly taken its design inspiration from the 1960s Triumph Bonneville – which is no bad thing. Some have gone so far as to call the W650 the most reliable British bike Japan ever produced, which seems to poke fun fairly at both nations – Britain for building unreliable bikes and Japan for copying the designs of others.

Following in the footsteps of the Yamaha SR400, the W650 has rapidly become one of the most popular targets for customisation both inside and outside of Japan. The simple, reliable parallel twin coupled to a simple frame, twin rear springs and huge aftermarket for parts has led to a massive number of wildly varied designs.

This W650 has been tastefully modified into a timeless cafe racer, a drum brake has been added at the front and a new fuel tank, seat and rear cowl have been bolted into place. Clip-on handlebars, a scrambler-style exhaust and a new headlight complete the bike, and a grey/sky blue paint scheme has been applied to the tank and rear cowl.

Sadly, Kawasaki was forced to discontinue the W650 and its little brother, the W400, in 2008 due to emissions regulations. By 2010 popular demand for the bikes led Kawasaki to develop and begin selling the all-new, fuel-injected W800 – a bike we’re seeing become increasingly popular with custom bike builders.

If you’d like to see the build process of this Revival Cycles W650 you can click here, you might also want to take a look at their back catalogue of customs – it’ll occupy you for at least one full afternoon.

BMW AIRHEAD BY AUSTIN PAINTWORKS

Once in a blue moon, a bike comes along from a workshop I’ve never heard of, and blows my socks off. This is one such bike: a Rennsport-inspired BMW airhead from Bill Twitchel and Matt Musial of Austin Paintworks, Texas.

AP is primarily a paint and motorcycle restoration shop, but I have a feeling their clientele is about to change. Bill and Matt occasionally take on special projects, and that’s how this 1977 R60 became a tribute to the glorious Rennsport RS54 racers of the mid-50s. BMW built very few of these ‘factory racers,’ and today they fetch over $140,000 at auction.

Matt Musial takes up the story: “Our customer Doug Hector bought the R60 frame, engine, tank and forks from a collector several years ago. We restored a 1958 Cezeta scooter for Doug last year and he was pleased with the results, so he asked us to take the R60 parts and build a Rennsport-like rider.

Although the airhead engine and frame are from the 70s, Bill and Matt have captured the spirit of the original factory race machine. It helped that they had only two mandates: make the BMW both track and street legal—hence the headlight behind the front number plate—and keep the project within budget.

With the help of mechanic David Martinez, the bike was completed after 180 hours of work. And that work was considerable, including modifying the frame to receive Earles-type leading link forks and a stiffer, racing-style rear end.

The tank is from metalworking genius Evan Wilcox. Once in Texas, it was brushed and painted blue-grey with old school lacquer, and pinstriped by hand in black. It’s finished with hand-formed aluminum badges, again painted with a brush. The wheels and hubs are just as immaculate, sanded and painted to a better-than-new finish.

The engine has been upgraded with Mikuni carbs and velocity stacks—rarely seen on a vintage airhead—and the airbox has been removed to make space for a modern battery, refinished to match the classic vibe.

Fashions come and go in the motorcycling world, but this is the kind of build that will never lose its appeal. Keep an eye out for the Austin Paintworks name—I’m sure we’ll be hearing a lot more about Bill and Matt’s work in the years to come.

Images © 2014 Jake Herrle. Contact Austin Paintworks via their website or Facebook page.

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HARLEY-DAVIDSON 883 BY TJ MOTO

It isn’t everyday we get an email from a new custom motorcycle builder based in India, despite the fact that the country has a billion-plus residents and an enormous motorcycle culture – most of the more creative Indian customs don’t make it beyond the country’s borders. That said, I think this bike is destined to be an exception.

It was built by Tushar Jaitly, the owner and head builder at TJ Moto based out of Delhi. Tushar just graduated from an automotive design school in Italy, he moved back to Delhi to begin to apply his newly acquired skills to a line of unique, handcrafted motorcycles. This bike, called Nadia, is his first creation. It was completed at the end of September this year and if first impressions are anything to go by, I think this motorcycle might just launch him to the forefront of the Indian custom motorcycle scene.

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Nadia is based on a Harley-Davidson 883, though most of the original bike has been removed and replaced with new components. In fact, Tushar only really carried over the down-tube, engine and engine mounts from the original motorcycle. A new hard-tail frame was fabricated with an interesting top tube that runs over the fuel tank, giving it an almost board-tracker look.

Firestone Deluxe Champion tires were added front and back and the fenders were removed, a new sprung seat was added and a fuel tank was handmade to slot in between the top tube and the engine. Once all the major work was done, Tushar settled on a British racing green paint job and then set it off with leather and brass accents, giving the bike a timeless, almost steampunk feel.

I suspect that we’re going to see a lot more from Tushar over the coming years, in the meantime if you’d like to stay up to date with the new creations from TJ Moto, you can click here to Like their Facebook Page or visit his website here.

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