Retrobike

WORDS ALAN CATHCART PHOTOS STEPHEN PIPER A SELF-EMPLOYED carpenter from the Yarra Valley east of Melbourne, Roland Skate has been stuck on sixes since 1982 when he bought his first Honda CBX, a well-used ex-drag racer. “I fell in love with it becaus

WORDS GEOFF SEDDON PHOTOS ARTDEFENSE DEEP Creek Cycleworks is a motorcycle speed shop located in Diepenbeek, Belgium. They build customs from all manner of bikes, including early and late-model BMW twins, SOHC and twin-cam Hondas, Moto Guzzis and Du

IN 1988, Ducati revived the famous Super Sport model name with an altogether easier-to-live-with belt-drive V-twin in place of the revered but high-maintenance bevel-drive engine. Basically a Pantah top end on a set of beefy 851 crankcases (also scor

WORDS GEOFF SEDDON PHOTOS VANGUARD/GARNET ULFERT Janssen lives the life. Formerly an automotive designer for Renault, he now pens mostly two-wheeled customs for well-healed clients through his business, Garnet Design, in Switzerland. Not all get bui

WORDS & PHOTOS GEOFF SEDDON THE new Triumph Bobber was another of those bikes that I was hanging to try since spying the first photos a year ago. My tastes in the modern British stuff naturally lean towards the Thruxton, but I’ve also been a fan of

WORDS GEOFF SEDDON PHOTOS COLIN ROSEWARNE BY THEIR nature, racing motorcycles have a short shelf life, especially at the sharp end of competition. It’s hard enough being thrashed to within an inch of self-destruction every time you go out, even wors

WORDS GEOFF SEDDON PHOTOS GIGI SOLDANO WE’VE made it our rule here at Retrobike not to run stories on new bikes we haven’t ridden, but rules are there to be broken when a bike like the MV Agusta RVS#1 comes along. There’s nothing retro about it eith

WORDS GEOFF SEDDON PHOTOS MAURICE VOLMEYER “VISUAL IMPACT AND CREATIVITY COUNT AS MUCH AS PERFORMANCE, IRRESPECTIVE OF THE CLASS” THE Glemseck 101 is Europe’s biggest custom bike festival. Held over three days each September on a small section of w

WORDS GEOFF SEDDON PHOTOS INDIAN MOTORCYCLE THERE is little doubt that Burt Munro has sold more than a few Indians since the famous marque was relaunched by Polaris Industries in 2013, so good on the factory for returning the shout. To celebrate the

WORDS & PHOTOS GEOFF SEDDON EARLY Harley-Davidson Sportsters are thin on the ground, even in the US. Made in their tens of thousands today, total production run for the first model year in 1957 was just 1983 bikes, plus a small batch of XLAs for the

WORDS GEOFF SEDDON PHOTOS JASON SCHULTZ JAY Donovan is a 24-year-old Canadian panel-beater who quickly tired of straightening busted Jeeps to pursue his passion for automotive design and traditional coach building. He set up his own workshop, BareSt

WORDS ALAN CATHCART PHOTOS KYOICHI NAKAMURA & KEL EDGE “FABIO TAGLIONI ACCEPTED THE COMMISSION AS A TECHNICAL CHALLENGE” FEW motorcycles ever built have enjoyed as mythical a reputation as Ducati’s legendary but abortive V4 Apollo, the Italian marq

YAMAHA was already a well-respected musical instrument brand (hence the tuning fork logo) when it produced its first motorbike, the 125cc YA-1 two-stroke single, in 1955. It stuck with two-strokes exclusively until the end of the following decade, re

WORDS & PHOTOS RUSS MURRAY “NEW YORKERS MIGHT SCOFF, BUT MELBOURNE IS THE CLOSEST CITY WE HAVE TO DON DRAPER’S BIG APPLE” BY NOW many readers will have heard of the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride (DGR) and, in all likelihood, participated in one. T

WORDS ALAN CATHCART PHOTOS KYOICHI NAKAMURA JUST over 60 years ago in 1957, Mondial capped its mercurial rise to road-racing supremacy by winning both the 125cc and 250cc World Championships. The Italian factory then withdrew from racing at the heig

WORDS GEOFF SEDDON PHOTOS JEREMY HUDSON WAYNE Fazzalari is a life-long petrolhead from Adelaide with an enviable collection of automobiles, including a couple of Porsches and a serious Ferrari. “My father was into speedway so I was always around car

WITH JAMIE McILWRAITH “My Suzuki decided this was a great spot to drop its sump plug” MOST blokes don’t like to admit this fact — male pride and all that — but I know that I am not a good mechanic. I wish I was. I’m not hopeless, I know the theo