After a second bout with cancer, Jay LaRossa of Lossa Engineering built himself a custom Honda CL450 as a form of personal therapy. He’s attempted to sell it a couple of times since but for reasons I’m not privy to the sales didn’t go through. So now he’s trying something different – he’s going to raffle it away! $100 buys …
Manta – 1976 Yamaha XS650 by BareSteel Design
View Post1970 Triumph T100C Bobber
Post Listing Update: This custom Triumph did not get any interest at the opening ask of $4,500. Offered by a Bike-urious reader, this Triumph was acquired as a chopper build that had been sitting in a woodshed for 32 years. He rescued it with a “frame-up restoration” 3 years ago, and in the process he turned it into a bobber.
“Fenrir” by JTEC MOTO – 1982 Yamaha XV920 Custom
I first came across JTEC MOTO after the Los Angeles-based shop produced a particularly cool one-off Ducati 900SS cafe build. Though the small outfit has worked with a wide range of donors, it seems to have of proclivity for V-Twin-powered projects in addition to a serious knack for creating some pretty stellar one-off subframes. Recently an XV920-based cafe build the …
“V10 Sport” Sidecar – 1999 Moto Guzzi V11 Bassa
Post Sale Update: This custom Guzzi sold for $8,000 after 16 bids on eBay. Known as the Jackal in Europe, the V11 Bassa was Moto Guzzi’s “Cruiser Italiana”. They said it had “attitude with atmosphere” and it was designed to add some Italian style to the cruiser market that America so thoroughly enjoyed. Yet none of that really seems to …
“The Grey Mare” by Dromos Motorworks – 1975 Honda CB550 Custom
Dromos Motorworks originally built this one-off cafe racer – entitled “The Grey Mare” – with the intentions of utilizing the CB project to attract future clients and generally garner some hype within the industry. According to the shop, the build’s aim was to create a cafe-racer that, in its own words, “didn’t look like all the other cookie-cutter racers”, and …
OG Moto Show Featured – 1977 Suzuki GS550 Bobber
Los Angeles’ Outlier’s Guild Custom Motorcycle Show – better known as the “OG Moto Show” – has quickly become one of the most renowned customs shows on the West Coast, despite 2017 being the events inaugural year. In addition to a large crowd of fans attending the inaugural event, the show also garnered some big sponsors including Honda Motorcycles, Roland …
1963 Norley
Post Sale Update: After 11 bids on eBay, this “Norley” sold for $5,300. Combine a HD 1200 Sportster motor and a Norton Featherbed replica frame and you get a Harton. Wait, I got that backwards – it’s apparently actually called the Norley (or the Project Manxster, as it was dubbed in the pages of Cafe Racer magazine). This bike was …
The Bullitt Build – 2016 Ducati Monster 821 Dark
Exactly a year ago, I featured a beautiful custom Triumph built by Patrick Flynn, founder of The Bullitt. Here we’ve got his newest creation, a Ducati Monster 821 Dark that is a triumph of subtlety.
Unexpected Custom – 1983 Yamaha RX50
Post Sale Update: after being relisted, this little Yamaha sold for $2,200 on eBay. Japan enjoyed some weird 50cc bikes in the 80s, and some of the weirdest were the baby choppers like Suzuki’s OR50. Yamaha’s entry to the market was released in 1983 as part of a promotion for the “Midnight Special” cruiser line. They called it the RX50, …
World Ducati Week Garage Contest Winner – 2001 Ducati “Grit 944”
Ducati’s 900SS has become an increasingly popular platform for building customs, and despite having seen quite a few bespoke builds of the air-cooled, 80hp classic, this build from CC Racing Garage has to be my favorite. Apparently I’m not alone in my enthusiasm as this one-off example took home first place at the Ducati Garage Contest at the 2016 World …
Woody Custom in Australia – Braaap ST250
The use of wood as a major body (or body panel) was once popular on cars, though the trait has yet to pick up steam or be widely emulated by the two or four-wheeled customs scene since the days of the iconic Woody Wagons. There was a slight resurgence of wood (or faux wood) on SUV’s a few decades ago …
1 of 10 – 2014 MV Agusta Bol d’Or by Walt Siegl
Post Listing Update: This incredible custom did not meet reserve with 4 bids up to $28,888. I love the look of endurance racers and I love Walt Siegl’s work, so you can probably guess how I felt when Walt debuted the Bol d’Or back in 2014. Just like with his Leggero series, just 10 were built. Here’s numero uno, and …
Zuma-Powered, Composimo-Built – Custom Honda Ruckus
At any given point you can find dozens of custom Honda Ruckus examples floating around on Craigslist and eBay. Extended swing-arm conversions and bespoke paint jobs are pretty run of the mill modifications and I’ve never given much thought or attention to bespoke Ruckus examples, but today’s thoroughly modified build is a different story altogether.
Land-Doo – Custom Sea-Doo Trike
Built by placing a Sea-Doo body on a homemade frame (isn’t that a sentence that inspires confidence?), this custom trike would be an amusing way to get around town before you were inevitably arrested and tested for a DUI.