Retrobike Issue 39

WHAT a year it’s been. The January bushfires are already a distant memory as we cope with the bastard Covid-19 virus and its impact on our daily lives. In many cases, our ability to earn a quid has suddenly become more difficult and our freedom of movement has been sorely restricted. It’s been a perfect storm for the magazine industry, as advertisers curtail their businesses and readers stay home, not always at their own volition. Dozens of magazines have closed up shop, including Melbourne-based Motorcycle Trader. In our case, we pulled the issue of Retrobike due to go on sale last July as we rode out the worst of it. So no, you didn’t miss one and yes, we are back. Many thanks to all our valued readers, advertisers, contributors, bike…

IGOR Akrapovič is a remarkable man, who’s earned his eponymous exhaust company’s runaway success and its A-1 Dun & Bradstreet business rating through a combination of hard work, commercial honesty, clever development and an insistence on quality. His company celebrates its 30th birthday in 2021, with well over 100 World Championship-winning bikes having worn Akrapovič exhausts over the past three decades. Still, you wouldn’t really expect the Slovenian sultan of sound’s products to equip Harley-Davidson and Indian custom cruisers alongside the Yamaha YZR-M1 racers of Valentino Rossi, Maverick Viñales and Fabio Quartararo, or Jonathan Rea’s Kawasaki ZX-10R. But that’s indeed the case, for this serial success has been achieved without Akrapovič becoming distracted from serving its everyday retail customers, or from driving expansion in new market sectors where looks and above…

ENGINE Air-cooled 45-degree four-stroke V-twin; OHV, two per cylinder; 92 x 114.3mm for 1524cc; 8.2:1 comp; single 47.6mm S&S Super E carburettor; S&S Super Stock electronic ignition; dry sump; Akrapovič exhausts; Gates belt primary to BDL automatic clutch and JIMS six-speed gearbox; belt final drive; 49rwhp @ 5000rpm CHASSIS 4130 chrome-moly tubular steel single-loop backbone frame with duplex engine cradle; integrated fuel tank; 39mm Air Ride telescopic forks with 3.5 x 30in carbon aluminium wheel, single 26in brake rotor with six-piston Nissin caliper; single-sided tubular steel swingarm with 6 x 17in wheel, with 250mm rotor and twin-piston Brembo caliper; Vee Rubber and Dunlop D407 tyres DIMENSIONS Wheelbase 2000mm (79in); 230kg with oil, no fuel; seat height 70cm parked, 84cm mobile; fuel capacity 9.0 litres BUILDER Dreamachine Motorcycles, Ljubljana, Slovenia; www.dreamachine-motorcycles.com BEST Presence; visual impact;…

I LOVE old-school bobbers,” Christian Jentz says. “And after owning a BMW R 80 café racer, I thought it would be really cool to build a very stripped back, old school bobber from a BMW rather than a Harley.” Wishful thinking turned to golden opportunity on a regular visit to Black Cycles in Coopers Plains, Queensland. “Noel at Black Cycles had done some work on my Triumph so I knew how talented he was. I also do the pin-striping on his bikes, and I saw this on the lift in his workshop in its raw metal state.” ‘This’ was an unpainted, custom rolling chassis to take an airhead BMW boxer engine and not much more, but enough for Christian to take the bait. “I hadn’t mentioned to Noel that I wanted to…

BMW’s first motorcycle was the R 32 of 1923, and was powered by an air-cooled flat twin, in this case a 500cc side-valve making a heady 8.5hp at 3200rpm. It was also shaft-drive. It was followed in 1925 by an OHV version making 16hp at 4000rpm. BMW found its factories on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain after WW2. Production of flat-twins resumed in Berlin in 1950 with the R 51/2 and later the souped-up R 68. The range was updated in 1955 with sidecar-friendly Earles forks and enclosed drive-shafts on the R 50 and R 60, and again in 1960 with the R 50/2, R 60/2 and highly collectible R 69 S. The venerable flat-twin was comprehensively redesigned in 1969 with the R 50/5, R 60/5 and R 75/5, including moving…

ENGINE Air-cooled four-stroke boxer twin; OHV, two valves per cylinder; 94 x 70.6mm for 980cc; 9.5:1 comp; wet sump; 2 x Bing 94/40 carburettors; custom exhausts; dry single-plate clutch to five-speed gearbox; shaft final drive; 70hp @ 7250rpm (stock) CHASSIS Much modified R 100 RS chassis with fabricated subframe; Royal Enfield girder fork, 2 x 260mm rotors with Brembo twin-piston calipers on 19-inch wheel; twin shock swingarm with Burly Slammers, single 260mm rotor with Brembo twin-piston caliper on 18-inch wheel; Avon Speedmaster (front) and Metzeler tyres; all fabrication by Black Cycles BODYWORK Custom peanut fuel tank and rear guard by Black Cycles; leather seat by John Moorhouse; paint by owner SPECIAL THANKS Noel at Black Cycles; John Moorhouse; Cam at Elljays Auto Electrics; Mark at MMM Boxerworks; my girlfriend Kerri Barwick for always…