Design classics ripe for investment

Otl Aicher, Alvar Aalto, Marcel Breuer, Max Bill, Dieter Rams, Jean Prouvé, Gerrit Riedveld, Hans J. Wegner – at the Quittenbaum ‘School of Design’ auction on 9 December in Munich, the great designers of the 20th Century go under the hammer. We present some of the most special pieces….

The Quittenbaum ‘School of Design’ catalogue is a journey to the centre of European creativity. You can find Art Nouveau from Austria and Hungary, silverware from Darmstadt, Bauhaus classics from Dessau, industrial furniture from Paris, Scandinavian chairs and postmodern objets d'art from Milan.

From sheepskin to pew

For cozy winter evenings, we’d choose the Scandinavian sheepskin armchair by Philip Arctander, while the Finnish pew by Alvar Aalto and the ZigZag-chairs of the Dutch designer Gerrit Rietveld are more suited to Lent. Meanwhile, post-War modernism is represented by some very interesting pieces: take the simple prototype chairs and table by Otl Aicher, that influential German designer best known for his Lufthansa logo and that of the 1972 Olympic Games. The estimate is €18,000 to €20,000. Even the highly touted French designer and architect Jean Prouvé is represented at the sale – in addition to his 1950s armchair, there’s also one of his aluminium building components. 

We'd bid on these lots...

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Four protoype chairs and a table, c1955

EUR 18 000 - 20 000

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Sun screen / sliding panel, c1954

EUR 22 000 - 25 000

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Floor light 'lampadaire simple, 1953

EUR 7 000 - 9 000

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Clam chair, 1944

EUR 10 000 - 15 000

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Two 'ZigZag' chairs, 1932-34

EUR 12 000 - 14 000

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'2003' ceiling light, c1940

EUR 7 000 - 8 000

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'Egg' chair and ottoman, 1957

EUR 10 000 - 12 000

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Whale, 1972

EUR 1 000 - 1 200

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Lounge chair / daybed, c1948

EUR 6 000 - 7 000

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Ceiling light 'XXL', 1950s

EUR 4 500 - 5 000

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'Floris' chair, 1967

EUR 5 500 - 6 000

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Unicum sofa / daybed for Heinrich Loffelhardt, Stuttgart, 1953

EUR 3 500 - 4 000

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Coffee and teaset, 1905-15

EUR 1 500 - 1 800

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'Muurame' church bench, 1926c.

EUR 4 000 - 5 000

SHOP VISIT: HEIWA

The country with the most influence on the modern custom scene is Japan. The machines we loosely call ‘café racers’ actually have more in common with the Japanese style of bike building than the British originals of the 1960s.

A handful of Japanese shops are on the radar in the west, notably Zero Engineering, Brat Style and Ritmo Sereno. But most are relatively unknown, because Japan is still a closed book to a lot of the western world.

One of the most respected Japanese workshops is Heiwa—meaning ‘Peace’—run by Kengo Kimura (below). It’s in Hiroshima, a four-hour trip from Tokyo on the super-fastShinkansen bullet train.

Kimura-san is a prolific builder, but his work is always of the highest quality—and it has that instantly recognizable yet strangely indefinable Japanese ‘look.’

We caught up with him to find out a little more about his shop and how he operates.

How long has Heiwa been running? Just over nine years: we opened on April 9, 2005.

When did you become interested in bikes? Very early, while in elementary school. My big brother read motorcycle magazines, and then I read them all too. I thought they were so cool, and ever since then I’ve been a big fan of motorcycles.

What’s your location like? Our first workshop was in the center of Hiroshima City, but it was inconvenient. So we relocated to our current place, which is in an industrial area near the port. It’s now easier to get the materials we need for custom work, and we’re near the sea and many great roads. This area is more fun for riding motorcycles.

Who do you work with at Heiwa? We have two mechanics, Daisuke Noda and Ryusei Tasaki. Then we have Lou, who is our pinstripe artist. She also manages the shop, and her own miscellaneous goods shop Poppo, which is next door.

They’re all custom motorcycle fans, who became fans of Heiwa and wanted to work here. So the four of us now run Heiwa together.

What bikes do you ride yourselves? I ride a Norton Model 50 (below) called ‘Gentleman.’ Daisuke has a Suzuki T500, Ryusei has a Triumph T120R and Lou rides an AJS called ‘Green Peace.’

What kind of people visit? Can you categorize your customers? I would describe them as diverse. There are many motorcyclists who are interested in culture and fashion.

What are the most popular products that you sell at Heiwa—apart from the bikes? Our own brand of t-shirts—and our Original Tail Lamp.

How did you get into the custom motorcycle business? Before opening Heiwa, I managed a conventional motorcycle shop. Their main business was selling new motorcycles, so I produced custom parts to fit those bikes.

I had always loved vintage motorcycles: at that time, I was riding a vintage Triumph. But in that shop, you were not allowed to customize vintage motorcycles. So I decided to run my own motorcycle shop. “If I have own shop,” I thought, “I can customize anything.”

So what’s next for the Heiwa brand? Any plans for expansion? I hope to increase, little by little, sales of our original custom parts. And I’d like to exhibit in custom shows overseas.

We’re heading over to Japan for a visit. What are your opening hours? We’re open from ten o’clock in the morning until eight o’clock at night, every day except Tuesday and Wednesday.

Heiwa Motorcycle, 2 Chome-19-20 Dejima, Minami Ward, Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture 734-0013, Japan | Website | Facebook

Images for Bike EXIF by Hiro Arimori. With thanks to Tadashi Kohno.

via BIKEexif

OC GARAGE MORTAIO

Lewis Hamilton has just ensured his place in the history books by winning a second Formula 1 world title in a modern era where the excessive cockpit adjustments have garnered opinion from some that currently drivers have too much to concentrate on. I beg to differ. The steering wheel goes left to right and the pedals are in the same layout as in a Hertz rental car.

Imagine being a motorcyclist and getting called up to fight in a World War, pretty bad news. Then you find out you’ll be a motorcycle dispatch rider, slight improvement. But you turn up and find throttle is on the left, the clutch lever is now the front brake and the actual clutch by your left foot and there’s a suicide shift for the gears. Oh, and a foreign man is shooting you, so you must shoot him back, reload and shoot his mate whilst riding fast across a deeply rutted field in the pouring rain. And it’s winter, your fingers don’t feel your own and they’ll be no champagne spraying when you deliver your important documents.

So, now we’ve set a gallant, macho and heroic tone hopefully some of it will blend into the picture at the bottom of this page. The man sporting bare feet and half a suit is Oscar Tasso, he is Italian, from Milano, and therefore fully accredited to suggest such sartorial juxtaposition. If it wasn’t for the fact that we know Oscar and OC Garage we’d possibly have a dig.

OC’s last build, Dark Lady, was the result of a truly life changing moment, one reason why Oscar is so very passionate about what he creates for a living. This BMW was to be the antithesis to the Dark Lady, a bike to exude testosterone. “Mortaio” started out life as an R80RT and is just about recognisable as one.

Obviously to achieve this degree of paint finish a complete strip down was required. Everything was cleaned and blasted before the various tones and textures could be added. The wrinkle finish on the engine and transmission is particularly resilient and hard wearing. The subframe and luggage racks are Oscar’s handiwork, the pillion pad a detail reminiscent of bikes from decades earlier. This and the main seat are of course handmade and covered with fine leather.

The engine and gearbox were also stripped and refreshed with new bearings and seals. Bing carbs enjoyed an ultrasonic bath and new jets to cope with the free-breathing cone filters. The usual truck sized battery has been recycled, probably now being used by some soap dodgers living off-grid in the Dolomites, a minuscule Lithium-Ion version is now hidden away in one of the ammo cases.

The fuel tank is from a Honda and modified to fit, with textured paint to match the engine. The forks have been firmed up with a thin but strong steel tubed brace. Trials tyres are a welcome break from the aggressive knobblies we often see in the Shed, offering a off-road potential and vintage looks.

The R50 style headlight is mounted in a bracket fabricated in the same way as the fork brace, with an Acewell all-in-one speedo making up the cockpit. The ignition key and switch have been located rearward, below the saddle. Wide, flat bars compliment the retro aesthetic whilst helping Oscar lever his way through Milano’s mean streets.

The stainless exhausts headers are tailored to fit and held in by a rather tasty machined aluminium rose nut. Which not only looks great but saves that knuckle-skinning, thread stripping episode if the heads need to ever come off.

Oscar has executed his own brief with crisp detail and built something a little different form the norm, hear hear for that.  Other examples of his “Moving Art” can be found on his website as well as videos of previous builds. With a few more commissions he might even be able to afford a pair of trousers and some nice shoes.

via The Bike Shed

DUTCH TREAT: JULES BRANS’ YAMAHA XS750

The Yamaha XS750 triple is one of the most underrated motorcycles of the 1970s. It never achieved the cachet of the Honda CB750, and these days, its smaller SR400 and SR500 brethren are more popular with custom shops.

That makes the XS750 affordable on the secondhand market, and this super-sanitary build from Holland shows what can be done. It’s the work of 33-year-old Jules Brans, who works for an Amsterdam record company.

“I’ve been making things with metal and wood for my whole life,” Jules says, “and since I was a teenager I’ve wanted to build my own motorcycle.” So Jules bought a 1977 XS750, and found himself a tiny spot in an old factory. He worked at night, “accompanied by the local rats and mice.”

His XS750 is lean and lithe, very much in the current ‘Brat Café’ style, with immaculate detailing. The look might be skeletal, but the workmanship is solid.

Jules overhauled and repainted the engine, and fitted compact cone filters and a custom exhaust system to improve the breathing. He’s cleaned up the frame and welded on a new rear loop before giving the whole lot a deep coat of black powder.

The overhauled forks are hiding stiffer springs and have been spruced up with gaiters and custom covers for the lower legs. The brake discs are drilled out and the calipers are hooked up to stainless lines.

The fenders are stock, but bobbed and powdered, and the standard wheels are now shod with grippy Avon Roadrider tires. The deceptively spindly rear shocks are Hagon and will improve the handling no end.

A slim leather seat has instantaneously transformed the usual heavyset looks of the Yamaha XS750, and Jules has fitted a super-compact Ballistic battery to open up the ‘triangle’ under the seat.

Adding to the minimal look are motocross-style bars, mini blinkers, a custom speedo bracket and new grips and levers. The compact headlight is powdercoated to match the rest of the bike.

The tank is one of the few items Jules left unchanged: a lick of dark paint was all it needed to match the rest of the bike.

Jules now plans to build more machines, and has called his brand ‘1130.’ It comes from an old Dutch saying Op z’n elfendertigst, which means great attention to detail—and also implies something that is cumbersome and slow.

“I want to build things with respect to detail,” says Jules, “rather than making things as quick as possible.”

An honorable approach—but hopefully it’s not too long before we see the second build from 1130.

For a completely different style of Yamaha XS750, check out this cafe racer from Spirit Of The Seventies.

via BIKEexif

Time for a quick trip to the 1980s?

Photographers Ben Bernschneider and Marie Schmidt are children of the Eighties. Using a DeLorean as the subject, and their favourite high school hangout as a setting, they recently travelled back in time using a set of analogue cameras…

“My heart lies in the 1980s,” says Bernschneider. “In 1986, I was 10 years old, living in Brazil, and I had nothing on my mind but girls and movies. Me and the others from our American school would run into the mall to watch The Goonies and Back To The Future, dreaming of some glorious days to come. Sadly I haven’t returned to this place for 24 years. But nothing in my whole life had a deeper impact than this popcultural decade.”

Life in the 1980s

Bernschneider’s nostalgia has now been realised in a visual form in his book ‘#Diamondtimes’, which contains both analogue and digital 1980s-inspired imagery taken using a Yashica T4, Leica Mini 3, Nikon EM, Nikon AE, Nikon DF, Nikon D800, Canon 5D Mark II and the first-generation iPhone. “The analogue images have colour casts like the old movies; the colours are never matched to each other,” says Bernschneider. “That’s just the way I like it.”

 

Further information about Ben Bernschneider's photography can be found at benbernschneider.com. 

Pirelli 2015

Démarrage