Month: September 2010

Reader Ride. BADASS DR650 Streetfighter / Motard.

Mike Sternick writes in:
Good Morning,
Its a 2003 Suzuki DR650 with a few mods and it gos like stink!
Cheers!

Later he updated me with some build details:

Hey Steve,               
Thanks for your comments.Like you said great handling bike just cluttered and a little ugly.The rear rim is a stock 17″ the front I changed to 18″ it balanced the profile and lowered it an inch.The front and rear suspension were lowered 3″ and still has 7″ of travel.I cut about 12″ off the back frame and welded a new hoop.Seat pan is stock with new foam.The tank is off an old Harley and mounted like the factory. The exhaust, side panels and head light bracket are all one off made by me.The oil cooler I remounted off the front of the frame.All the old tabs were cut and ground off to clean up the frame.The stance of the bike came out perfect and I can still lower it an inch front or rear. The motor is stock except for the pipe,jet kit and K&N filter.Tires are Scorpion A/Ts.The bike is for sale so I can start a new project over the winter.

I’m not interested in becoming a for sale site but if anyone’s interested I’ll get you Mike’s Contact info. I think it great and I’d seriously consider buying it myself but I’ve alead got a DR650 (much more stock) that I’m modding.

Reader Ride. Benelli Tornado 650 Cafe Racer. A Somewhat Rare and Exotic Custom.

From Marco Silvestro who writes in:

I’m really happy to give you this picture of my Benelli Tornado 650.The work was long but the result is unique.  More nice Benelli shots here http://www.wix.com/benellitornado/650

Thanks Very Much!

Reader Ride. Morocco Wanderlust.

Francesco Veneziani writes in:
Hello
Thanks a lot for the countless moments of deep inspiration or simple daydreaming thank to your blog
 Here a couple of shots of the morocco trip in 2008
Pippi looking at road ahead down from Imilchil to the Todra Gorges
The plateu going up toward the Djebel Sangro
Just south of the Plage Blanche, desert’s ships, animal and mechanical
Congratulation for your job.
Thank you for the excellent Pictures!

Reader Ride. Triumph then and now.

Reader Chris Cullen Sends in a few pics that really being home just how far Triumph motorcycles have come on their long and convoluted journey.  My eyes like them both but my back would probably prefer the older one

Then…

And Now..

Really excellent shots Chris.  Thanks Much!

Reader Ride. A nice triumph Chop.

Apparently the universe is sending me some really nice choppers lately and I’ve definately learned NOT to screw with the universe. Here’s a really nice Triumph TR6 from Michael Haar.

Thank You Michael!

Follow-up Post From James Willis….

….with a little bit of backroad wanderlust. a follow up to this earlier post. I like your work James. With the bikes AND the camera. Thanks again for the pics

Here are some shots from the weekend! Thanks for the kind words.
James

Update: (missed a good pic) Very Nice Low Budget Chop From the Netherlands.

More proof that you don’t need big money or big horsepower to build a cool ride.

Bjorn Writes in:

He hello my name is Bjorn I’m 20 years old and I’m from the Netherlands. I’m a regular visitor of your site. And i love it especially the frequent updates i digg. I have a picture of my motorcycle as well, hopefully you like it.

I bought it as a stock Honda shadow vt600 but right from the start i knew I was going to chop it. Because i dont like stock stuff in general. I bought this Honda because i wanted a vtwin but because of legislation here in the Netherlands you cannot ride a bike with more than 25 kW (34 hp) if you are under 21 years old. since i was 19 at the moment i had to buy a bike with this power restriction and this bike has 34 hp stock.
I tried to make as much of the components myself from the handlebars to the stainless steel exhaust, sidecovers and everything in between, because i didn’t want to buy shit out of catalogs because everybody can do that. I could use the lathe and mill at my school to machine parts. And my little brother is a welder so he helped me out with that. Lots of time went into making a foot clutch and a tank shift. It worked in the end but after some test riding i found it to dangerous to drive here in Holland with the million roundabouts, so i changed it back to stock controls. I also had an open exhaust but i found it to loud so i tried making a muffler with a design like i had never seen on a other bike. It works very well actually. Also made my version of a sissybar.

I use it as my daily driver to school, work, friends you name it. i now you didn’t ask for this whole story haha, but me personally, I’m always interested in the story behind a bike. At the moment the bike is nearly done, the riding season here is at its end so i can put the finishing touches on it like a muffler decoration and new pegs. I cant wait to start a new project.

greetings from the Netherlands!

Bjorn

 

One More Fantastic GS Wanderlust Shot.

Thanks to EnderTheX over on the ADV Rider Board for these last two GS pics.