Retrobike3 min read
Warsaw Classic
With a customer looking for a naked classic for getting around Warsaw, Poland, workshop 86 Gear Motorcycles went looking for something suitable, finding a 1978 BMW R 100 S in Germany. “Our customer was already a keen BMW enthusiast, and an owner of a
Retrobike13 min read
The Fredder Road Test
Calling a bike a Bobber nowadays has become as ubiquitous a term as Café Racer or Street Tracker, as successive manufacturers rush to jump on a potentially profitable commercial bandwagon. But Fred Walmsley, 76, is old enough to remember the genuine
Retrobike9 min read
The Art Deco Motor Cycle
Art Deco was an innovative and ultra-distinctive style of design, which spanned the boom times of the Roaring ’20s and the bust of the Depression-ridden 1930s. Derived from the French term l'art décoratif, it embraced all forms of design, from fine a
Retrobike4 min read
INSTANT Custom
Choosing a platform to start a custom build is fraught – there are no simple answers to the question, “what bike”? New bikes are generally too expensive, too complicated, too modern and too much. The price of classics is getting out of hand, and the
Retrobike4 min read
Bike Shed Returns
Over three days in May, the London Bike Shed Moto Show at the Tobacco Dock warehouse exhibition space came together, with over 17,000 vistors coming in to view more than 300 custom bikes. The bikes may have been the headline feature, but five live ba
Retrobike4 min read
100hp Mito
Although never selling in big numbers Down Under, Cagiva’s Mito was one of the longest-lived and biggest-selling machines ever produced by the company. From 1989 until the increasingly stringent emission laws killed off the two-stroke road bike in 20
Retrobike1 min read
Retrobike
EDITOR Nigel Paterson DESIGNER Kate AtkinsonVALUED CONTRIBUTORS Alan Cathcart, John Downs, Kel Edge, Jamie McIlwraith, Russ Murray, John Rooth, John TurtonADVERTISING ENQUIRIES Mitch Newell 0402 202 870, mnewell@umco.com.au; David Strong 0411 424 072
Retrobike3 min read
Retro STYLE AND OTHER COOL STUFF
The Ontario leather glove from Oxford is perfect for those longer journeys where the weather could fluctuate and you want to maintain a comfortable and consistent temperature. An all-weather design makes it great for summer and winter riding and the
Retrobike4 min read
Covid Wreck
Heavily corroded, not running with many damaged or missing parts, it’s kind-of a wonder this R 65 isn’t still a pile of junk rotting away in someone’s backyard. It’s even less likely to have been brought back from the dead when you know the owner, 27
Retrobike3 min read
Roothy
Things have been getting weird here on the mudflats and it’s not just because I’m walking around in circles. No, it’s not the drugs. Actually, it might be the drugs, the pain killing variety anyway. Last month I got a new knee on the old principle th
Retrobike3 min read
McIlwraith
What’s that thing?” I asked myself in a pleasantly boozy haze as I waited with my girl for the 423 bus to take us home from her birthday dinner. No drink-driving/riding for me, I’m a firm believer in drink-bussing. Anyway, parked by the bus stop was
Retrobike3 min read
G'day
Another issue of Retrobike and it’s chock-full of interesting bikes, from the old to the new, but all with a bit of Retro style. I would have loved to have included the BMW R 18 Roctane, but I’ve just returned from the Aussie launch of the machine an
Retrobike5 min read
All Sprung Out
Motorcycle suspension is absolutely crucial to a bike’s ride and handling, probably second only to having a decent set of properly inflated tyres. If you’ve got an older bike, there’s a really good likelihood the shocks and fork springs are sagged-ou
Retrobike5 min read
The Dream Bike
Earlier this year, insurer Shannons and Queensland custom shop Purpose Built Moto put together a video series, the Shannons Dream Bike Build – this is the story behind that bike and how it came to be the focus of a video series. PBM didn’t build a bi
Retrobike5 min read
Purpose Built Cafe Racer
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
Retrobike3 min read
G'day
In the last issue of Retrobike we published a feature on Speedgeek Motorcycles, and in particular on Christian Langham, the founder and owner. Chris died from a result of injuries soon after the magazine was published after being hit by a stolen car.
Retrobike3 min read
A Classic ATMOSPHERE
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 FOREVE
Retrobike14 min read
Deviant Desmo
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 ha
Retrobike2 min read
A New Retro Cruiser
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 yea
Retrobike3 min read
Sheilas In The Spotlight
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 bre
Retrobike2 min read
Retro STYLE AND OTHER COOL STUFF
Classy, retro and comfortable, the Richa Orlando is a high quality goat leather glove with modern features and timeless style. Constructed from premium goat leather with a soft polyester lining, the Orlando Leather Urban Glove provides a comfortable
Retrobike3 min read
No Fuss Hog
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
Retrobike4 min read
The Original Hybrid
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 wh
Retrobike3 min read
Roothy
The problem with collecting motorcycles is, ah … Right, so the problem with having too many motorcycles is, er … OK, it doesn’t matter how I work this, I’m an addict, there isn’t any problem so I can’t find one. Which doesn’t explain why I feel the n
Retrobike4 min read
A GOLDEN future?
It’s been over 50 years since a new BSA rolled off a production line, but it’s back, and the first model has the most legendary name — Gold Star. Like the historical model, the new bike is powered by a big single. Styled to look like the older 500cc
Retrobike1 min read
Retrobike
EDITOR Nigel Paterson DESIGNER Malinda HadiwidjojoVALUED CONTRIBUTORS Alan Cathcart, John Downs, Kel Edge, Jamie McIlwraith,Russ Murray, John Rooth, John TurtonADVERTISING ENQUIRIES Mitch Newell 0402 202 870, mnewell@umco.com.au;David Strong 0411 424
Retrobike5 min read
TOOLMAKER Special
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 va
Retrobike6 min read
The Wood Eagle
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 t
Retrobike11 min read
British-american Mongrel
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, anc
Retrobike3 min read
McIlwraith
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 al
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