Retrobike RCBE #25 SUMMER 2016/17

“The first bike I lusted after was a Triumph 650 Bonneville, the best motorcycle money could buy” THE first bike I ever lusted after was a 1968 Triumph 650 Bonneville, then one of the fastest and best-handling motorcycles money could buy. I was the pimply-faced 13-year-old with his nose pressed to the showroom window. The wallopers used to ride them as well, offering up a plentiful supply to the secondhand market, so I figured maybe one day I could get one that way. They were the coolest bikes ever, even the bikies rode them. Over in the US, the Bonneville had Harley-Davidson on the ropes. Half the size and twice as quick, the lithe Triumph showed the way to the future. Well, until the Honda 750 Four came along to…

“THE ENGINE IS MADE FROM TWO ROYAL ENFIELD 500 SINGLES JOINED ON A COMMON CRANKCASE” MAX Hazan is as much interested in art as motorcycles, yet his builds display levels of engineering innovation rarely seen in custom bike circles. His style is minimalist in the extreme which sometimes calls for radical solutions, yet his bikes function. We here at Retrobikecall it art that works. Initially from New York, Hazan moved to Los Angeles, the custom capital of the world, a few years ago and hasn’t looked back. He aims to build just a couple of bikes per year, up until recently just for himself but which he later on-sold. He is grateful that his early builds have now attracted an open-minded client base to fund his art, without in any…

“STANCE IS ALWAYS THE FIRST THING YOU HAVE TO GET RIGHT” THIS build is as unlikely as it is possible to imagine. Commissioned by a Dutch clothing brand, designed by an ex-pat German in Switzerland and built in downtown Amsterdam, the Vanguard V8 Racer immediately evokes the style of the legendary 1955 Moto Guzzi 500cc V8 GP racer. But rather than basing it on a lithe sportster, they went for the portliest model in the Moto Guzzi catalogue, a monster 1400cc Eldorado tourer! Yet somehow it works. The original GP racer was an engineering marvel. There were few eligibility rules back then, apart from a ban on turbochargers and superchargers. While most of the 500 field plodded around on production Manx Nortons, the bike to beat was the factory DOHC…

“THE LESS SUITED YOUR BIKE IS TO THE TASK, THE BETTER SUITED IT IS TO DIRT QUAKE” GOT a motorbike and don’t mind getting it dirty? Latent competitive streak busting to break out? What about a sense of humour? Well then have we got the event for you! Dirt Quake is the brainchild of Gary Inman, founder of uber-cool UK dirt-track magazine, Sideburn. Now in its fifth year, Dirt Quake has spawned similar events all over the world, including licensed events on the west coast of the USA and the excellent Ellaspede Dust Hustle at Mick Doohan Raceway in Queensland that we covered in issue 21. But Sideburn (which Inman modestly and accurately describes as the ‘world’s greatest, go fast, turn left magazine’) and Dirt Quake is where it all…

“WITH THE RUNNING GEAR AND ENGINE UNTOUCHED, IT STILL GOES, STOPS AND HANDLES LIKE A BRAND NEW PANIGALE” DESIGN houses will often customise a new bike to promote their work; think Roland Sands’ Indian Scout and Deus ex Machina’s Heinrich Maneuver BMW. Sometimes it’s a commission from the factory or distributor, sometimes a wealthy client and sometimes it’s just for the hell of it. Invariably it will be a retro-styled bike that they start with. Meanwhile the rest of us forage for older models whose best resale years are behind them, or build customs from later-model damaged bikes too expensive to fix. So it’s not often a brand new sports bike gets the custom bike treatment at the hands of its owner, let alone turned into a rat bike, but…

“THIS IS NOT A COMFORTABLE BIKE AND GOOD LUCK PUTTING BOTH FEET DOWN AT A STOP LIGHT” IF YOU have to ask who Mert Lawwill is, then you’ve never seen the best bike movie of all time, Bruce Brown’s On Any Sunday. For Lawwill, now 75, was AMA champion in 1969, and the movie chronicled his bid to defend his title. By the time he hung up his racing leathers in 1977, he’d amassed a total of 161 AMA Grand National race finishes, including 15 race wins and a second in the 1965 Daytona 200. For almost all that time, Lawwill rode an XR750 Harley-Davidson, the most successful Harley race bike of all time and also one of the most distinctive, with twin carburettors mounted high on the right-hand side…