The People’s Bike: A custom chopper with a VW Beetle engine

There’s a long history of purpose-built automobiles that use motorcycle engines. Combine a strong enough motor with a light enough chassis, and the results can be very satisfactory. But what about sticking a car engine in a bike? That’s an entirely different ballgame.

Fans of vintage German engineering should recognize the power plant at the heart of this hand-built chopper. It’s powered by the air-cooled four-cylinder boxer from a VW Beetle—and, as you’d imagine, it took a little bit of ingenuity to put together.

It’s the work of Paul Clark—an English hobbyist that builds custom bikes for the love of it, rather than for commercial gain. A fan of older and rarer marques, he’s built up quite a collection of machines (and spare parts) over the years.

“I’ve built a Dnepr chop, and a J.A.P. rotavator-engined bike, as well as others,” he tells us. “These bikes are not shiny—far from it—and they are not something where someone will pull alongside and say ‘I’ve got one of those.’ They are unique to me, my style, and I love them—but it’s also nice when other people appreciate them too.”

Paul also likes to keep his projects low-cost, by using as many up-cycled and scratch-built parts as possible. This one kicked off with an eBay find; a £300 [about $379] VW Beetle engine begging for a home. “Using the engine as a base, sat on my workshop floor, I started to visualize the finished bike in my head,” he says.

The first challenge was to attach a transmission to the motor. Paul mated a Dnepr MT 650 gearbox to the VW mill, via concentric flanges that were waterjet-cut from aluminum. A Dnepr clutch and flywheel were adapted to work, too, along with the alternator from a Kubota mini digger.

Wassel Evolution carbs inhale through an Amal velocity stack, attached via a custom manifold. The snaking pipes on either side of the engine seem messy at a glance, but if you trace them carefully you’ll be able to make out the line of Paul’s bespoke stainless steel, four-into-two exhaust system.

“Once they were fitted, they were dangerously close to the rider’s legs,” he adds. “I didn’t want exhaust wrap or heat shields, so I opted to buy some knee high boots to wear when riding; the things we do to keep the aesthetics as we want them!”

With the basics out of the way, Paul set up a makeshift wheel alignment jig using a steel beam. 16” rims were laced to a Dnepr front hub and a Honda Goldwing rear hub, shod with fresh rubber, and set in the jig, along with the engine and gearbox.

Starting with a partial 1983 Honda Goldwing frame, Paul mocked up the chassis with bits of spare tubing and broom handles (yes, broom handles). The final frame was welded up out of steel tubing, again procured from eBay, with the triples and forks from a Yamaha XJR1300 up front. The frame’s 50 mm stainless steel top tube also acts as an air reservoir, for a TC Bros ‘Air Ride’ system that sits under the slim chopper seat.

“I think that the seat always looks better as close to the tire as possible,” says Paul, “especially as there is no rear mudguard. It occurred to me early on that it would be great to have a seat that goes up and down—but I didn’t want springs, so I opted for an air bag. It looks great when the bike is parked up, and is really comfortable when riding.”

A small 12 V air compressor ‘charges’ the top frame rail to around 40 PSI, which is enough for the seat to go up and down about four times. Look closely, and you’ll spot a small air pressure gauge mounted just in front of the seat.

If the fuel tank looks familiar, it’s because it came off a Triumph Bonneville. Paul cut-and-shut it to sit wider, and adapted it to fit his frame. Just in front of it are custom-made handlebars, with Big Port Beston-style grips, a throttle, the brake and clutch levers, and little else.

Paul doesn’t like new and shiny bikes, so the frame was shot blasted and zinc plated, then wiped over with a firearm coating and stove polish. That gave it an aged cast appearance that would match the engine. First Choice Body Shop handled the red paint job, Central Wheel Components did Paul’s powder-coating, and Brimscombe Platers tackled all the polishing and plating jobs.

As a final touch, Whiteway Craft Foundry built a small battery box that doubles up as an alternator mount. The fact that it looks a little like an old VW bus is no accident.

With the project nearing the finish line, Paul pondered if his 132-pound frame would be able to kickstart (yes, he opted for a kickstarter) the chunky VW boxer. “Yes, it started—what a relief” he quips. “It’s actually quite easy to kick over.”

Almost ready for his first shakedown run, Paul then hit the biggest snag of the project. “I’m a bit of a hermit when building,” he explains, “but advice about strange technical details is always on hand from my oldest friend, Neil Baxter. He came over for a cup of tea one evening and casually said, ‘are you sure the rear wheel isn’t going to run backwards with the shaft on that side of the wheel?’”

“The propshaft was closely fitting with no room to change anything. We tried it, and, shock and horror, the wheel was running backwards! I was so dejected at this that I nearly scrapped the whole project—but with some encouraging words, it was a case of sorting out this unforeseen problem.”

In the end, Paul had to scrap the Goldwing rear wheel and bevel box, and replace them with a repurposed Dnepr final drive and hub. With a custom steel cover on the final drive, the whole arrangement only just fit into the frame—but the important thing is that it did fit. Two weeks later, the VW bike was ready for its shakedown.

“I got 20 feet, and it died,” says Paul. “A burnt-out coil seemed to be the problem. Two further coils later, it turned out that that the Lithium battery would not behave with the alternator, and replacing it with a small gel battery sorted the problem.”

Finally on the road, Paul’s happy to report that the bike pulls strong, topping out at around 60 mph. But since the Dnepr transmission has a four gears and one reverse gear, he might modify it to add a fifth gear.

“It’s not funny when you’ve spent a lot of hours building a bike, only to find that it has one forward gear and four reverse gears. Having to cut up a freshly built, laced and painted wheel is annoying in the extreme. That particular problem nearly did it for me—but I’m so glad it got sorted and the bike got finished.”

“The bike has its own logo, which is a reverse VW; the W on top with the V underneath, as a reminder to check such things much earlier in the build next time. It also goes by the name of ‘Bootsy,’ a reminder to put my new very high boots on unless I want to set fire to my trousers.”

Images by, and with thanks to, Del Hickey

from Bike EXIF https://ift.tt/xBqEQNW

Think Different: A hopped-up BMW R65 café racer from Slovenia

Last year, Žiga Petek did something truly refreshing—he built a custom BMW boxer that bucked all custom BMW boxer trends. With sharp lines and not an inch of pipe wrap in sight, it turned heads wherever it went, and it planted the seed for Žiga’s latest build.

Based on a BMW R65, this one is just as creative as his previous effort, while also being totally different. The story starts a few years ago, when Žiga became an ambassador for Flex Tools via Gas&Retro—his custom bike workshop in the Slovenian town of Notranje Gorice. Before long, Žiga and the head of Flex Tools Slovenia, Boštjan Vidrajz, became friends.

Then Žiga built the aforementioned BMW, and Boštjan was hooked. “He fell in love with BMWs,” Žiga tells us, “so it wasn’t long before he bought himself an 1983 BMW R65.”

“He drove it through the summer, and then he brought it to my work shop with some pics of custom BMWs. I asked him ‘do you trust me?’ He said ‘yes,’ and that was it.”

As it turns out, Žiga already had a design in mind. He envisioned a café racer—but, once again, it had to be a café racer that would eschew typical BMW café racer themes. So he stripped the R65 down to just the main part of the frame, and started scheming.

Starting with the rear section of an old Honda fuel tank, Žiga proceeded to shape up a new tank, tail, fairing, front fender and belly pan, all out of aluminum.

“The front fairing was a challenge,” he tells us. “I wanted to make as narrow as it could be, but still match the gas tank line and style. I worked hard to finish the fairing and rear end in the way that I wanted them—so the hammer, English wheel, shrinker, stretcher and welding machine were my best friends for quite some time!”

The BMW’s new body parts are as sharp as they are interesting. The bike’s silhouette tapers neatly to the rear, with bespoke side covers adding visual presence to the front half of the bike, without completely hiding the boxer engine. The belly pan even hides a custom oil sump.

The lines feel a bit traditional from the side—but rotate the bike 45 degrees, and all sorts of interesting details pop out. “I created these kind of aero wings that cover the sides of the engine and go over the cylinder heads, to add some performance style,” says Žiga. “Over those wings I added two small forged carbon winglets on each side.”

Taking advantage of the extra real estate, Žiga actually tucked the bike’s Motogadget keyless ignition receiver into one of the carbon winglets. There are more forged carbon touches front and rear, all of which took quite a process to produce.

To create each bit of carbon trim, Žiga first had the fairing and tail 3D-scanned to create a digital canvas to work on. ER Motorcycles’ Blaz Sustarsic then lent a hand, by translating Žiga’s ideas into digital renders. A company named VG Forma 3D printed each prototype part, then those prototypes went to Angström Performance, who replicated them in forged carbon fiber.

Up front, you’ll spot a MotoGP-inspired front wing—but if you look really closely, you’ll also spot a pair of LED turn signals sunken into it. The tail is dressed with side fins that also sport LED turn signals, and a rear strip that wears a vertically-mounted LED taillight strip.

The fact that Žiga was busy making the anaemic R65 look fast wasn’t lost on him, so Gas&Retro treated the engine to a full rebuild—including a bump up to 890 cc. It also got new valves, valve springs and bearings, and a Motogadget-equipped rewire with a new charging system and a Silent-Hektik ignition. The original valve covers were trashed, so they were cleaned up, modified and dressed with more forged carbon trim.

The original Bing carbs were swapped for Mikunis with velocity stacks. At the opposite end, Jaka Legiša fabricated the BMW’s meandering exhaust system.

Gas&Retro specced the running gear to match. The R65 wears the same Showa forks as the Kawasaki ZX-10R, while the swingarm comes from a newer BMW GS model. A custom-made shock from YSS Europe props up the rear.

New spoked wheels sit at each end, finished in black and shod with Pirelli Phantom Sportscomp tires. The brake calipers are from Brembo, the discs are from Motomaster and the lines are from Goodridge.

The cockpit sports TRW clip-ons, fitted with a Tomaselli throttle, Brembo clutch and brake controls, and Motogadget grips, mirrors and push buttons. The digital dash is another Motogadget part, while the LED headlight comes from Koso. Lower down you’ll find new rear-sets, with a custom shift lever and a Brembo master brake cylinder.

Finer details include Alcantara on the seat, courtesy of Mitja Bizjak, and a handful of red anodized bits and color-coded hoses and wires.

With the finish line in sight, Žiga’s final hurdle was settling on a livery. “I was determined to use a dark metallic blue from BMW, but with all those gloss-coated forged carbon parts, I just couldn’t see it. Then I saw BMW’s 2023 ‘Brooklyn Grey,’ and I knew it would be the perfect fit.”

Matej Mrzlikar from MM Auto laid down the paint, right down to the logos, striping and honeycomb graphics. Everything was done by hand; no vinyls.

“This is probably my best build in my 13 years of custom bike building,” Žiga adds. “It’s been many long night shifts, but I would do it all again.”

“I remember myself 20 years ago, how I dreamt about bike building and admired what custom bike builders could do with their hands… and here I am now. It’s just who I am, and if I wasn’t doing this, I don’t know what I’d be doing with my life.”

Žiga is right to be proud—this R65 is a fresh take on the BMW boxer café racer genre, with a level of finish that few custom boxers reach. But is his customer happy?

“When Boštjan from Flex Tools Slovenia saw it for first time,” Žiga tells us, “he couldn’t speak for an hour.”

Gas&Retro | Facebook | Instagram | Images by Rok Plešnar

from Bike EXIF https://ift.tt/asevlD0

SoCal Shredder: Norman Reedus’ spicy Indian Sport Chief

There’s no shortage of celebrities that own motorcycles, but that doesn’t make them real riders. Norman Reedus might be best known for his role on The Walking Dead—but he’s also spent five seasons chasing the passion of motorcycle riding with his own show, Ride with Norman Reedus. When it comes down to it, he’s just a guy that likes bikes and rides the hell out of them.

This is the latest addition to Mr Reedus’ stable—a brand new Indian Sport Chief, customized by Yaniv Even at Powerplant Motorcycles. It’s the ultimate LA machine for this LA motorcyclist, built by a stalwart of the LA custom scene.

Just as London is known as the birthplace of café racer culture, Southern California is widely regarded as the first place that choppers and custom V-twin show bikes really started to take off. Long stretches of road curving along sunny beaches, with winding hills just inland; those early days were an idyllic setting for a custom hardtail hotrod with limited braking power. But that was before a few million people moved in and jammed up the works.

Now there are 12 major freeways in Los Angeles alone. If cars aren’t bumping along in traffic, the average speed is somewhere around 80 mph. So, like the roads, traffic, and just about everything else, choppers in LA have evolved—at least at Powerplant.

Located on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, Powerplant has been working on hot rods and V-twins for a long time—and, as tends to happen, Yaniv’s style has morphed over the years. His focus on old school choppers and traditional forms has shifted towards high-performance components and a mixture between old and new. Now, he blends that early chopper influence with West Coast custom culture and modern technology.

So when Indian Motorcycle approached him to build a bike for familiar customer Norman Reedus, Yaniv built a modern hot rod perfect for shredding the streets of LA. Starting with a brand new Indian Sport Chief—a bike that’s essentially already a little hopped-up—he was after equal parts show and go.

The rear section of the bike was slimmed down with narrowed rear shock mounts and relocated swingarm mounts, preparing the way for a slimmer rear wheel and new fender. The stock gas tank was also skinnied up as much as possible, while still retaining the stock fuel pump mechanism underneath. It sits higher on the frame now too, thanks to a reworking of the tank mounts.

To match the louvres cut into the sides of the Sport Chief’s OEM fairing, Yaniv stamped 3” louvres into the side covers and the gas tank’s center dash. It ties this original design element back to old school hot rod culture in a way the stock bike never did.

The tail section is a riff on Crazy Frank’s choppers, but done in Yaniv’s own way, with a blend of classic Indian Motorcycle style. It has an integrated backrest, license-plate mount and taillight mechanism, but with a lower shape reminiscent of early Indian Scout choppers. The seat pan was made custom, and a new seat was added in a classic cobra style; still able to carry to a passenger, as long as they don’t need foot pegs.

The wheels are chromed replicas of old Morris Mags, updated to fit the modern Indian’s brakes, sensors, bearings, and whatnot. 19 inches in the front and 18 inches in the rear give the bike an aggressive stance—upright with plenty of ground clearance. Lyndall Brakes made a set of chrome rotors to match, but a little smaller than stock to highlight that front wheel.

In order to run those smaller 11.5” rotors and a narrower front wheel, Yaniv had to machine down the fork lowers and make new caliper mounts, still working with the stock Brembo calipers. It’s these subtle details that take lots of work, and that really help deliver a stunning and unique machine.

Custom exhaust headers were fabricated in-house, and capped with a cone from Red Thunder. The system reduces weight, opens up the engine, and changes the auditory personality of the bike altogether. An upgraded air filter with a chromed Powerplant Motorcycles cover sits on the side of the motor.

Up front, Yaniv made a set of 8” risers and one-off handlebars with a lot of pullback, which he says are just what this bike needs. Stock controls are retained, as is the Sport Chief’s digital gauge—but that gauge is now set on a custom mount in front of the riser clamp. Working with modern stock electronics is not easy, and Indian’s digital system displays everything from navigation and music to tire pressure, so it made sense to keep it.

Lastly, and arguably the most effective tie to classic Southern California culture, is the paint job. The base was done by Walt at WW Cycles, using a mix of root beer hues inspired by some of Yaniv’s older builds. The hand pin-striping was laid down by the one and only Pacman Paint.

There are many styles of flames, but these are classic SoCal flames, done by one of the area’s best. The final product is a machine that blends classic California cool with high-performance function to handle the demands of modern LA streets.

With KYB forks and Fox shocks out the box, Indian’s massive 116 ci Thunder Stroke engine, and Powerplant’s tasteful upgrades, this thing is a weapon—both in its ability to garner the right type of attention, and get into or out of as much trouble as Norman desires.

Powerplant Motorcycles | Facebook | Instagram | Images by Drew Ruiz (studio) and Sean MacD (lifestyle)

from Bike EXIF https://ift.tt/celEjsO

Americana Overload: The new Harley Electra Glide Highway King

There’s a new tradition at Harley-Davidson. Each year, The Motor Co. dives deep into their archives, finds a bike that set hearts ablaze in its heyday, and releases a modern replica of it. They call it their ‘Icons Collection,’ and it’s now in its third year.

This year’s Icons Collection bike throws it way back, to the year that Nixon won the election, Led Zeppelin first took to the stage and a Big Mac cost 49 cents. Dubbed the Harley-Davidson Electra Glide Highway King, it’s a modern day re-creation of the ultra-groovy 1968 FLH Electra Glide.

Editor’s note: Yip, we’re featuring a cruiser-slash-tourer from a major OEM today. It’s part of our drive to bring you, our loyal readers, more than just your weekly dose of the world’s best custom motorcycles. Plus it looks spectacular and comes in magenta—so we’re finding it hard to hate.

Harley-Davidson turns 120 this year, which means that the company has a lot of history to sift through when figuring out which legacy bikes to highlight with its Icons series. We’ve been lucky enough to not only visit the Harley-Davidson museum in Milwaukee, but to gain access to the hallowed archives. Filled to the brim with everything from memorabilia to historic photographs, it’s a deep rabbit hole.

So what exactly does the H-D team consider when picking each Icons model? “Many factors,” says Brad Richards, Harley’s Vice President Of Design and Creative Director Of Motorcycles, bluntly.

“We try to keep a balance between what decades to lean into—and which models ignite the most passion within our customers’ hearts. We also consider the current narrative within the entire portfolio each year. For instance, the Electra Glide Revival [Harley’s first Icons release] was launched adjacent to the Pan America, as a reminder that our current customers are as important as future customers.”

The 1968 Electra Glide is as Americana nostalgia as vintage Harleys get. Splashed in a magenta paint job, with white trim and chrome accents, it’s clear which era it lived in. Customers also had the option of buying it with a deluxe ‘King of the Highway’ touring package at the time, which included fiberglass panniers, a windshield, a luggage rack and engine guards; it’s clearly where the Electra Glide Highway King nomenclature comes from.

The Electra Glide Highway King is based on Harley’s existing single-spar touring chassis, and powered by the company’s Milwaukee-Eight 114 engine. So it has all the trimmings of a modern touring bike; linked Brembo brakes, cornering ABS, traction control and drag-torque slip control, cruise control, and a hill hold feature. You can also upgrade the 160 Nm mill with Harley’s full range of Screamin’ Eagle hop-up kits.

Sitting on top of that chassis is bodywork that mixes existing Harley parts with a few unique items. The fuel tank, tank-mounted clocks, fenders, side covers and fork shrouds look like they come straight from other touring bikes, like the Road King. It’s a testament to how consistent Harley’s design language has remained over the years.

“We’ve stayed so true to our roots, even with our most recent bikes,” says Brad. “The proportions, forms, and the way we visually manage electronic components, means that most bikes are great canvases for future Icons.”

Even the saddlebags have been borrowed from the existing touring range; “Again, the form factor is still very close to the originals from the late 60s, so it worked perfectly,” adds Brad. What makes the Electra Glide Highway King stand out then, is how well its unique trim has been executed.

For starters, the two paint jobs that it comes in are equally eye-popping. You can get it in ‘Hi-Fi Orange’ or ‘Hi-Fi Magenta,’ and each version comes with color-matched tinting on the lower half of the detachable windshield. Bodacious.

The saddlebags on both versions are white, just like they were in the 60s. The center console features a chrome surround with a black center strip, punctuated by white striping. An Icons Collection graphic and serialization badge are etched into the console too.

One utterly unique detail is the Electra Glide Highway King’s saddle. Harley started with parts from their police motorcycle seats, then built a new unit with a custom rail design. Upholstered in black and white, it’s a standout piece.

The rest of the bike is finished with swathes of chrome—from the engine itself, to the crash bars, front fender trim and saddlebag guards. Chromed ‘Electra Glide’ scripts adorn the front fender, while period-correct Harley badges sit against the tank. Twin spotlights flank the headlight, while the classic laced wheels wear whitewall treads.

All that comes at a premium, naturally. The Harley-Davidson Electra Glide Highway King will set you back $26,999 in the States—three grand more than the current Road King Special. As is customary for their Icons bikes, Harley will produce this as a 2023 model only, limited to 1,750 units (1,000 in orange, and 750 in magenta).

Added up, the Electra Glide Highway King sits somewhere between a factory custom and a modern classic. It’ll surely appeal to the Harley faithful, who are known to go gaga over special edition models (especially when they’re released in an anniversary year). But we reckon it could have appeal beyond Harley’s existing fanbase, too.

Would you be tempted?

Images supplied by Harley-Davidson and Harley-Davidson Archives

from Bike EXIF https://ift.tt/E3pHBD4