Table of contents for Issue 48 in Retrobike

First Look ROYAL ENFIELD SUPER METEOR Royal Enfield’s Super Meteor is now available in Australia, the third motorcycle to run the company’s 650 parallel-twin powerplant. Heavily influenced by cruiser designs from around the world, the Super Meteor is going against the trend of recent years which has seen classic deigns favoured over cruiser designs from most manufacturers. Of course, almost all of Royal Enfield’s bikes are retro designs, and they lend themselves to being transformed into cruisers quite readily. The lines run from a 19-inch front wheel — cast, with different sized spokes — and upside down forks to an almost bobbed rear end, a large guard covering a 16-inch wheel. In between is a single big, round headlight, a set of pull-back handlebars, a 15 litre tank above the…

Modern Retro2023 HARLEY-DAVIDSON NIGHTSTER Designed from the ground up to be modified, built to be relatively light and easy to ride, styled to have retro cues with a modern look, the new Nightster is Harley-Davidson’s way of offering fans of older sportsters something they can really relate to. More traditional in style and design than the radical Sportster S, the Nightster has conventional wheel and tyre sizes rather than the fat 16s of its sibling. It’s also fitted with easily replaced twin shocks, conventional forks and some neat bodywork … plus it’s three grand cheaper. It’s powered by a variant of the 1250 engine in the Sportster S. The smaller 975 Revolution Max actually displaces 975cc thanks to its heavily over-square bore and stroke, but it’s not designed to be…

Radical customBANB MOTORCYCLES MOTO GUZZI GRISO Moto Guzzi’s muscular naked Griso stormed onto the bike scene in 2004. It was the motorcycle Guzzista the world over had been waiting for and stayed in production until 2015. First conceived while the manufacturer was under the ownership of Aprilia then released after Piaggio took the reins, the Griso paved the way for a new, exciting era of Guzzi design and manufacturing. The Griso was a modern motorcycle with performance to boot. The naked roadster sported premium components from Brembo and Marzocchi and was powered by an 80hp, 1064cc, two-valve air-cooled V-twin. It was, as is customary with Guzzis, a tad on the portly side, but the engine’s ample torque made riding the Griso infinitely enjoyable. To its credit, in the model’s later…

I’ve often said that motorcycles are worse than drugs … because you can get off drugs! Like the evil allure of many things that threaten to rob you of your money, time and sanity, once afflicted with the motorcycle bug it remains in the system FOREVER! Whether you just ride, choose to race, collect, restore, repair, commute, combine them with travel/adventure, write about them, photograph them for publications, or any combination of the above they’re probably going to be there in some capacity until the bitter end. As an ageing motorcyclist myself, I can speak from experience when I say that the mind is willing, but the body isn’t always able, however that shouldn’t stop the aforementioned motorcycling types indulging in their pursuit of happiness. And as evidenced by the…

BACK PAGE THE FIVE SECOND RULE You’ve all heard of the “Five Second Rule”? It’s a food thing. If you drop something on the floor, and you pick it up within five seconds, it’s still OK to eat. This is an important principle in feeding children. Not only does it save on money, it also helps to build up their little immune systems when they swallow a nano-parcel of beneficial germs each time they eat “a la floor”. Along with all the dog slobber kids are smeared with by their loyal buddy, Fido the Drain Explorer, your progeny will be set up for life health-wise if you follow the Five Second Rule. Even if they’re not actually your progeny and you’re just their uncle, the Five Second Rule will keep…

Custom buildsBMW R 18 MAGNIFICA Built for Officine Riunite Milanesi, a bar-cum-workshop in Milan, this BMW R 18, named Magnifica, is about as extreme as we’ve ever seen in a bike still recognisable from its host, but also something which started life as a BMW. Built by Andrea Radaelli from Radikal Chopper with support of BMW Motorrad Italia, the Magnifica uses noble materials such as brass, aluminium and wood in its execution to be completely different from almost anything else ever built. “The bike has to be my own creation,” Radaelli said. “I don’t feel like dredging up or modifying a concept already set up and done very well by others.” The inspiration for the design of the BMW R 18 Magnifica winks at the vintage motorbikes of the 1920s,…

Classic Bike1959 PRE-UNIT TRITON In the fifties and sixties in England there were the Mods and the Rockers. The mods dressed in clothes influenced by Italian or French fashion and rode Italian Lambretta and Vespa scooters often adorned with numerous lights whilst the rockers wore white T-shirts, jeans and Marlon ‘The Wild One’ Brando styled leather jackets emblazoned with pins and studs, engineering boots and a white scarf wrapped around their neck. For transport they rode BSAs, Nortons and Triumphs. It was from the Rockers that the café racer was born. They would ride their bikes between the transport cafés that existed along the arterial roads between the English cities on what were then seen as ‘track like’ roads. At the cafés they would listen to the American music of…

EventSHEILAS SHAKEDOWN "HEAVY RAIN COULDN’T PUT A DENT IN THE LADIES’ SPIRITS …" Motorcycling brings people together as riders, groups sharing the passion, adventures and community of a shared activity. It’s been that way for over 100 years, since the mass production of bikes cranked up around the world. It’s this spirit that breathes life into the legendary Sheilas Shakedown — Australia’s largest motorcycle rally for a community of dedicated female riders. Founded in 2015, Sheilas Shakedown has consistently attracted hundreds of riders from around the country who descend on regional Victoria for a weekend of camaraderie. The rally typically includes group ride opportunities, car and bike shows and a games event known as the Sheila-lympics, which includes the time-honoured Sheilas Shakedown tyre throw and hot-dog chomping contests. This year…

The Purpose Built Moto Signature series has been occupied by a distinct style of motorcycle. Starting with the CX500, then the Ducati GT1000 and most recently our Harley Davidson Sportster scrambler. Although very different, each bike has a decidedly modern edge. With this XS650 Café Racer, the Signature series takes a classic turn. I’ve been working on this style of motorcycle for a while, learning what works for me in terms of Style, Rider Experience and Performance. This XS650 represents my collective experience and learning on what a classic motorcycle should mean and feel like for a rider. I was never present during the time these bikes were stripped and raced, so all I have to go by are images and stories I hear. Speaking with the client Paul, he…

Using one of only three surviving J.A. Prestwich V8 aircraft engines to power a motorcycle is a crazy idea, but Czech toolmaker Pavel Malaník has done it. At 4400cc and nearly two and a half metres long, the rider's feet almost touch the vibrating valve rockers as it’s being ridden at speeds up to 130 km/h. It’s a beast of a bike. “This engine has maximum power already at 1000 revolutions per minute, Pavel told Retrobike. “Therefore, it is not necessary to use first gear. I can start without problems in second gear and reach a maximum speed of 130 kilometres per hour. “It is a completely different style of driving compared to modern-day motorcycles where a lot of actions are automated. Here everything is manual and needs to be…

Generalisation it may be, but most special-framed Harleys are built for show, not go. Whether aimed at Daytona’s annual Rat’s Hole Hogfest or your local equivalent of the Chelsea Cruise, the idea of wrapping a special chassis round an H-D V-twin, ancient or modern, generally has only one objective: making it look cool by making it look different, usually in stretched, lowered or other visually extreme form. The idea that anyone might actually re-chassis a Harley in order to improve the handling is just so much Hogwash: hey — this is Milwaukee's finest, right? If God intended Harleys to handle, he’d have made Willie G. marry Tamburini’s sister. What you see is what you get: now go ahead and customise the hell out of it, just like any other righteous…

Until 2011 the thought of Ducati building a custom cruiser, let alone a chopper, would have been like Ferrari building a minivan. As in, don’t go there, amici. But that year the Italian bike firm unveiled its Diavel in disguise, a desmo V-Max with half as many cylinders complete with styling that Roland Sands or Jesse James would be proud of. That made it finally OK to think of Ducati as a custom bike company — at last. Except, their oldest South African dealer, the firm that introduced Ducati to the Dark Continent exactly 60 years ago, had already gone and done it for them — and, arguably, more authentically. For the MFR Ducati Mutant powerchopper was an improbable blend of several Ducati trademark design elements, including a trellis frame…