Dauphine-Lamarck’s Honda 125

Honda 125

The Honda CG125 is one of the most popular and dependable bikes in the known universe, responsible for providing transport for millions of people around the world, but they don’t usually look this good. This mini street custom – based on Honda’s unstoppable workhorse–can be found cruising the suburbs of Paris and is the work of Dauphine-Lamarck.Dauphine-Lamarck specialise in small capacity 60s, 70s & 80s Hondas, providing accessible, affordable customs to those that appreciate their philosophy and approach.They love the popularity and ubiquity of the little Hondas, but what they really enjoy is making them relevant to the modern streets and to the cafe custom scene.The donor for this build is a 1998 model, complete with topbox, which was well passed it’s sell-by date According to the guys the only thing they needed to keep from the bike was “the essence”.The tank come from a 1975 CG175 and “ducktail” seat from a CB50. It looks a little like a mini CB350 scrambler.The 12v electrics have all been replaced with Takegawa components’ the CDI, lighting, speedo, etc. The power was beefed-up by transplanting a carb and header pipe from a CB750 Four, which improved the soundtrack as well as the grunt.The whole thing comes together into a very desireable little street custom – part brat, part scrambler, all understated class, amplified further by cool photos from the lens of David Marvier. If you were looking for a credible learner legal runaround that would last for ever, this would be a great contender.The 12v electrics have all been replaced with Takegawa components’ the CDI, lighting, speedo, etc. The power was beefed-up by transplanting a carb and header pipe from a CB750 Four, which improved the soundtrack as well as the grunt.

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Steel Bent Customs' CB350

Steel Bent Customs CB350

Steel Bent Customs are better known for their uncompromisingly naked, stripped-back, brat-style and cafe racer customs, with super-slim seats and empty subframes that fill the comments boxes with questions about where the batteries are hidden and how long you can ride the bike before your backside gives up. Paint schemes are usually, gloss black, matt black, or maybe dark grey.In comparison this 1973 CB350 four with a rigid rear-end and decorative patterned paint looks like a major departure, but this SBC build is still clean and simple without any frills – whoever, she didn’t start out so clean. This is how the Honda looked when Michael Mundy and the guys found her in Gibsonton, Forida.“We’ve love the rigid frame designs, and we’ve had a smaller 350 bobber build on our list.” Michael went on to tell us that while they appreciate the popularity of the cafe custom scene they also want to build bikes that will bring the same relevance and buzz to rigid bobbers.The bike was stripped and the frame was chopped at both ends, right down the frame tubes to the engine mounts. Everything else was thrown away. The new rear end was a pre-built unit made for an xs650 by Cycle One which they grafted on.The back bone needed about two inches to give us a more level look as we didn’t want the appearance of a chopper. We found new rims, new stainless steel spokes, and a front drum off a CL350″. The bike was rewired to run as kick-start only but retains a small battery to keep things running on an even voltage, and this is tucked in to the small oil tin in the subframe.“We had the frame powder coated gloss black, polished all the aluminum engine cases, and gave Mo Colors carte blanch on the paint scheme.”  And then there’s that exhaust: “The exhaust was something I was just toying around with, and really had no intention of using on the build, but after time it became something greater than I expected.”“We wrapped the stainless steel & added some small baffles to give her some back pressure & she has a incredible low growl.  The pipes clear your leg fairly well, at stops you feel the heat a bit…”But they are something we haven’t seen before and we feel if we’re not doing something different, we aren’t doing something right. We like her, and if everyone did, we wouldn’t.It’s great to see something different coming out of the Steel Bent Customs workshop, and this is certainly a bike that stands out from the crowd, building a bridge between the cafe/brat and bobber worlds.

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Hammer Kraftrad R80 Bobber

Hammer Kraftrad R80 Bobber

Our pages are full of R-Series BMWs that have been given the racer or scrambler treatment, and there are a few more exotic iterations too, but very few bobbers, like this one from Michael, AKA, Hammer Kraftrad in Germany.The bike is a 1979 R80/7, and is one one of several builds by Michael – you can see more of his work on his Blog. If I’m reading Michael’s notes correctly he tells me this one was sold to him by a pair of arms dealers, so who knows what it was used for. He did mention that it wasn’t actually registered until 1981 despite being a ’79 bike. Hmmm…Anyway, Michael’s build ethos is right up our proverbial street. With each build he strips away everything that’s not essential and focuses on revealing the bike’s lines and stance. There’s plenty to do on a bobber build like this despite appearances. Removing the subframe means finding a place to attach the rear shocks, fender and seat, plus the battery and electrics have to magically disappear. “Less is More” translates literally into “Less on show – More work in the build”.The tank is obviously not the original BMW item, nor are the shrouded shocks, rear fender, lighting, instruments, and a whole host of parts. Michael also had to fabricate all the various lugs and brackets to accommodate all the new relocated parts.The seat is made from aluminium and Michael’s wife did the upholstery. The exhaust system is a Harley 2 into 1 system, modified to fit. The battery has been tucked into a new box hidden under the swing arm and painted black. The forks have been shortened to get the bike sitting properly in it’s bobber setup, and the side-mounted reg plate holder was fabricated by Michael and neatly welded into position at the end of the left-side swinger.After the build the bike was stripped and sand-blasted, ready for new finishes, paint and powdercoat. The wheels were also re-finished and rebuilt with new spokes and bearings. The engine was treated to a strip-down, blast and rebuild, although it was in good enough condition to not need any mechanical intervention.It’s a very tidy bike, with no more and no less than a man needs to just sit on and ride. Well and truly bobbed.

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Christian's Exesor

Christian’s ExesoR

You may have seen this beautiful CB250 already but we had to have her on The Bike, and besides, we have a few extra ‘unseen’ photos of the bike, and of course our unique Bike angle on the build  – and the bike is pretty special, especially for a Shed build.The man behind all the hard labour is Austrian engineer, Christian, who has never worked on motorcycles professionally, but his skills have clearly have clearly been applied to this remarkable bike which is laden with exotic materials, one-off bespoke items and clever engineering solutions.Having rehearsed his bike-building skills on streetfighters Christian’s attention eventually turned to the cafe racer scene. He started out with a CB400 which was modified to run at Classic bike races, and then along came this 1976 CB250. It was an Ebay find in terrible condition, but at least it was cheap at just €250.Being a proper engineer Christian started with drawings. He’d wanted to build the bike for a ‘well-known coffee company” but this didn’t work out, so he needed to create an alternative brand & logo, and ExesoR was born. …I can almost smell the beans roasting now.Unlike most builds on here – especially shed builds – Christian’s goal was to use as few stock parts as possible and to manufacture as many of the replacement components himself. His second rule was to avoid silver chrome, so every metal part on the bike is either nickel plated, black chrome, galvanised or raw metal.One thing Christian is particularly proud of is the way he concealed the throttle cable inside the handlebar. While this isn’t unique, it is very clever, and it wasn’t achieved through any off-the-shelf kit. Another notable feature is the use of “Diamond-like Carbon” (DLC) coating on the fork internals, which is a new treatment you might find on modern KTMs and race-bikes.Many of the main components on the bike were created using CAD (computer-aided design) which Christian had to teach himself to use as he went. The designs were then used to create CNC parts. This clearly went very well.Along with all the clever exotic stuff there were some more familiar engineering upgrades. To compliment the coated fork internal surfaces Christian fitted Wirth springs. The rear swing arm, from a CB400, is suspended with Koni shocks. Motogadget clocks (of course) take care of instrumentation but the mount was custom made.The bike also got a stronger motor, courtesy of a CB360 bored-out to 390cc and running hot cams and open velocity stacks. A Dyna ignition maximises the spark along side a light-weight mini Lithium Ferrous Phosphate battery, and the drive-train uses a race clutch.All this work took Christian 460 hours over two and a half years to complete, and it’s real mix of ultra-modern tech and old school design aesthetics. Whether you’re a tech-loving, race-bike convert to the cafe scene or an old-school petrol head who likes things to look right, this bike has a little bit of something for everyone Custom Bike.

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Marco's Bullet "Hind Ki Rani"

Marco Moeller’s “Hind Ki Rani” has already been celebrated online, but it was Marco’s wife Antje that brought HKR to our attention on The Bike Shed, with her take on the build; “from Trash to Treasure” and a new set of photos taken in the parched dry desert by Colin Handy.
What really stands out on this Enfield 500 Bullet is the work that has gone into the metalwork with hundred of hours spend hand-chiseling patterns into the raw metal, but take a step back and she also has a superbly balanced silhouette. We can see how “she” has made her mark on Marco & Antje’s lives.Marco is German and based in Dubai. Having not ridden a motorcycle for years he took pity on the bike when he came across her three years ago in a very distressed state in his boss’s backyard. The desert heat hadn’t been kind to the little Bullet but Marco could see beyond the filth & grease. He wanted to build something unique, that suited him as a person, but also helped reflect 60 years of Indian heritage.The bike was initially fixed-up and rebuilt to a decent standard, so Marco entered her into a local competition in Dubai. The bike won the best customized European category trophy at the Gulf Bike Expo 2011, but this was only the beginning, as Marco’s vision was far from complete. This was when all the craft-work started in earnest and the bike began to take on a far more exotic temperament.The donor was built in 1994, a bike pretty much unchanged for decades, and the principle work was all about restoring her to to working condition and with the stance he wanted. Just getting the bike running was a bit of a mission but with plenty of help from the Internet Marco struggled through and bought her back to life. From this point onwards the guys at Classic Motorcycles sorted the engine properly and allowed Marco to start thinking about the cosmetic side of his build.The front 19′ wheel was swapped to 18″ and the rear was reduced to a 15-incher to wear a fat back tyre, while paint was taken care of by a friend. Much of the carved metalwork is made of brass, sourced in India and then hand engraved by Marco using a hammer and chisel. Doing the same to the aluminium pieces took “an insane amount of time”Marco: “…it’s by far and away not finished yet. I guess you cannot put my modified Bullet in any category like bobber, chopper, café or anything else. However it was very critical that I maintained the basic features of a typical Royal Enfield as those are indeed what make her special and remarkable. I do enjoy it when people are coming up to me, showing interest, asking questions about the bike whenever I stop. But if anyone asks me, she’s not a show bike! She’s pretty much more that! She’s loud and furious, she’s moody and temperamental…Anyone who’s ridden an Enfield Bullet will relate to the sentiment behind this bike (and it’s temperament). It’s great to see a motorcycle inspire so much passion and dare we say it ‘love’, and even better to read about a bike that seems to have brought a couple closer together. Antje is obviously fiercely proud of Marco’s work and wants the whole world to see what her man is capable of. See more on their Facebook Page.”https://www.facebook.com/pages/Karachimotoindex/

Spirit of the 70's xs400

The xs400 is an often overlooked machine, but like it’s cousin, the SR, it’s a great basic platform for a practical custom that can be ridden every day. It’s also not the kind of bike that needs to be dripping with expensive Ohlins or Brembos, or have new wheels made up with extra-wide rims. Builds like these are all about simple good taste – and what makes them special is the detail. This bike, from Co-Founders Spirit of the Seventies, belongs to Charlie, who seems to be a very happy customer.“I guess for me more than anything it is the sheer art, design, craftsmanship and attention to detail that goes into creating bikes like the ones coming out of Spirit’s garage that got me into this scene. Just to have that one-off bike that’s tailored to your own style is just an incredible feeling.”“Also, it sets you out of the crowd of homogenous people that choose the same things and have no flair or excitement about them and just go through the motions. I wanted a bike that had style and character and that had its own soul, and not one of the new crappy plastic machines out there at the moment.”“I set myself on an old 1980′s XS400 because I could see that once you stripped away the bulky seat and fenders, you would have a bike that would deliver bold lines but also could look clean and simple once it was stripped down. Once I had bought my XS400 and had it in my garage I found out that it had some pretty terrible carb problems, and I was told to cut my losses and get a new bike.”“The only problem was that I had already found from my first day of owning it that I was completely and emotionally attached to this bike and could never part with it. I initially thought that I would customise the bike myself in my garage, but quickly found out I didn’t have the time to do that and study at the same time.”Around the same time as this was going through my head our family suffered a bereavement, and it was out of this loss that came a substantial amount of money my way. Being the rational and logical 21 year old I immediately grabbed my copy of Iron and Air I had on my table at home and saw Spirit of the Seventies on the front cover and thought, man these guys are the shit! So I started to play with the idea that these guys might be able to help me out.”“I fired off an email to Tim and within days I was down at their HQ talking bikes and going through my ideas I had for the bike. I have to say too that I was probably a difficult customer because I had given them sketches and pages of notes on what I wanted.Tim from Spirit pitches in here… “Charlie is not our typical customer, it’s not everyday that a 20yr old walks in and talks about a build. Charlie was keen for us to crack on. His 21st Birthday was on the horizon and he really wanted the bike to be ready for it. However, the bike wasn’t running correctly, despite paying a lot of money to an established bike shop to sort it out it was still running rough and it soon became evident that they had ripped him off…”“All of this took time and ate into Charlie’s budget for the project. This meant that we couldn’t strip the entire bike and powder coat the frame, clean the engine up etc. He had very firm ideas of what he wanted and (see notes) and we had to try to work the now extremely tight budget as hard as we could to make his vision a reality. We used some parts that we had on the shelf such as the Renthal bars, leather grips and indicators. their Website & Facebook pages https://www.facebook.com/pages/Karachimotoindex/

Down & Out’s R80 Scrambler.

It all went wrong when I saw the sub-frame. “So, Dutch, what do you think of this sub frame?” was Shaun’s innocent question. …The guys from had already made a great impression on all of us at the BSMC when they came and exhibited their bikes at The KMI event last October. They bought with them a pair of mid-sized stunners; a Gold CB450 Brat/Scrambler, dripping with beautiful details, and aSuzuki 400 Tempter, which had been turned into Cafe Racer in metallic sunburst colours.It was clear that Shaun, Carl, Simon & Co weren’t into compromises or short-cuts when it comes to bike building, and not only that, they were really nice guys. Northern charm & talent won us all over, and Shaun & I started to chat – a lot. …So – back to that subframe.Shaun is pretty flexible when it comes to bike builds, happy to work on any base model that comes his way, so eventually a BMW had to appear in the D&O workshop and when it did he decided to look at building a bolt-on replacement subframe which he might sell-on to a few Shed Builders. He wanted my opinion on the height, length and kicked-up rear – but I wasn’t just looking at the frame, I was looking at the whole bike. Having written-off my R100 Racer I was in need of a new daily ride and had settled on another ‘reliable workhorse’ BMW. “The subframe looks spot-on, Shaun… But, er, …what’s happening to the bike?”Now Shaun is a bit of a charmer, so after a lot of banter he suggested that I help guide the build as it went, and if I liked the end result than I’d get first dibs on buying the bike. …So what would you do? …Exactly. …You get totally excited about the whole thing and end-up completely immersed in a fantasy-bike build. I wasn’t really committed just yet, was I?, but I was certainly enjoying the whole process. …The Dutchess used to work in Sales. She just laughed at me. She could see what was coming: A slam-dunk for silver-tongued Shaun and a pretty much guaranteed sale. Maybe she was right, but this was just too much fun..Over the following weeks I watched the bike come together, while Shaun & I planned out the look and the spec, item by item. Having seen a zillion Beemer customs I knew what I wanted, but Shaun also had a clear idea of what he wanted to to present to the cafe/custom community. Fortunately we agreed on pretty much everything..Most of the time I was having to hold him back from doing too much. “This might be my daily ride Shaun… Keep it simple” but Shaun is a detail man, so we needed micro-switches on the braced Renthal dirtbike bars, and the wiring had to be hidden in the bars and frame. It wasn’t good enough just to have a small battery, it had to be in a custom built aluminium box with a leather strap and buckle. The bike had to have old-style rocker covers and curvy silver airbox, plus we needed a whole new loom to accommodate the Bates style headlight, because BMW hide half their wiring in that OEM bucket. This build was to be a labour of love and a showcase for Shaun’s talents.One of Shaun’s touches I loved most was the replacement bear-trap footrests, welded seamlessly onto the original footrest mounts. Part of my brief was to keep the upright riding position (as much like the Dutchess’Dommie Tracker as possible) and I also wanted to be able to accommodate a pillion for when the Dutchess couldn’t be arsed to ride one of her own bikes into town..The bike already came with twin front discs on my favourite BMW “snowflake’ wheels, but brand new levers & MC insured improved stopping power. Twin stainless steel pipes lead to simple megaphone exhausts but we kept the standard Bing carbs and retained the use of the airbox instead of fitting cone style filters. Without the link-pipe the carbs tend to blow-off all too easily – and most Beemers really do run better with the airbox on
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