Custom and small-batch bike building are back. These rides are retro, minimalist, and very cool. Here are 11 of our favourite boutique bike builders.
1. Ryca Motors
Ryca offers kits to transform a once-humble (and dorky) Suzuki Savage/S40, a cruiser that's been in production since 1986, into something more: Your choice of cafe racer, Steve McQueen-style dirt tracker, or hardtail bobber. The transformation is radical. But the price tag isn't. A nice, used Suzuki S40 can be found for around US$2000, and the CS Tracker kit starts at US$2795. With a little elbow grease, you could have a killer custom motorcycle you built yourself for less than US$5000.
2. Deus Ex Machina
Deus Ex Machina is an Australian custom bike builder with six flagship stores around the globe. Each location crafts its own machines. The Los Angeles store, the only one in the U.S., specializes in frame-up customs by design director Michael "Woolie" Woolaway. These bikes aren't cheap (starting around US$40,000) but they are exceptionally cool, and blend the simplicity of the cafe bike with modern high performance.
The Deus showroom is packed with cool clothes as well as a coffee bar. So even if the bikes are out of your price range, it's a fun place to visit.
3. Revival Custom Cycles
Revival Custom and Vintage Motorcycles is the Texas go-to spot for cafe-style customs. Located in the hip enclave of Austin, Revival specializes in custom builds, many of which use stock Moto Guzzi bikes (or at least engines) as a basis. In fact, Moto Guzzi itself has recognized Revival for its work with their bikes, and features the spectacular Le Mans I bike on the company website.
4. Royal Enfield
This small Indian company (originally British) has been building the Enfield Bullet off and on since 1949. Today's 500-cc Bullet will run you just under US$5000 and is visually indistinguishable from the circa 1950s versions. They may look old, but mechanically, these bikes are built with fuel injection as well as modern tires and braking systems. You can even option a sidecar for the perfect vintage look. The Bullet isn't a quick machine, but if you want the best handling version, opt for the US$5999 cafe sports version, the Continental GT, which is new for 2014.
5. AVA Velocity Works
At just US$3900, the AVA 250 could be the least expensive way on two wheels to turn heads. It looks like a rare race bike from the 1960s, but it's an impressive transformation of a Chinese-built commuter bike.
AVA founder Adrian Van Anz created a lightweight (200 pounds) gem that looks like a vintage collector bike but is as accessible and rideable as a common scooter. And AVA will offer a full line-up of accessories with the potential to make every bike unique. Van Anz even envisions a spec-racing series with these bikes.
6. Roland Sands Designs
Roland Sands' bike designs blend several styles of custom into one signature look. The result is a batch of bikes worthy of a magazine cover. These are full frame-up customs. But on quite a few bikes, Roland retains the original frames, which brings the cost way down. Sands has a deep catalogue of bolt-on parts too, so you can strip down your Harley Sportster or Triumph Bonneville and recreate the look of a classic cafe racer with a relatively modest investment.
7. Renard GT
Even among boutique motorcycles, the Renard GT by Renard Motorcycles stands apart as a concept bike come to life. It’s a stunning retro-futuristic machine loaded with exotic components including a carbon fibre monocoque frame that weighs just 20 pounds and a wild adjustable suspension. The 1300cc Moto Guzzi Twin is more conventional than the rest of the bike and makes 123 hp, but it’s uncorked and sounds magnificent. These beautiful 374-pound bikes are designed and assembled in Estonia. We’ve never seen one of these six-figure motorcycles on American roads, but we’d sure like to swing a leg over one and hit a canyon or two.
8. Ecosse Moto Works
Ecosse was born more than a decade ago. Today the company's original Heretic bike is joined by several others in the line. The look of these bikes blends a bit of Ducati Monster with a big shot of American muscle cruiser. Between the frame rails of the Heretic is a unique 45-degree American-made V-twin with 130 hp. But the craziest ones receive a titanium frame and a supercharged V-twin pumping out a full 200 hp and 200 lb-ft of torque. Expect prices well north of US$100,000 to park one of these in your garage.
9. Lauge Jensen
Danish small-batch motorcycle builder Lauge Jensen made news earlier this year when the company unveiled its Viking concept bike. The Viking didn't grab headlines merely because it's a tough-looking cruiser. This bike was designed by Henrick Fisker - yes, the same man responsible for the short-lived but beautiful Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid. The concept cruiser uses a 100-hp V-twin said to be made in Wisconsin, coincidentally the same place Harley-Davidson makes its V-twins. So should the Viking be brought to production (which seems likely) and imported to the states, you can expect to see this bike at the nations' hottest bike hangouts.
10. Norton
Few motorcycle brands are as revered as Norton. Though the British brand was born way back in 1898, it is Norton's bikes of the late 1960s and early 1970s that inspire nostalgia. The 750 and 850 Commandos were some of the best-riding British bikes of their day, known for power and smoothness. The brand was revived more than a decade ago and today produces some stunning retro-styled sport bikes packing a 961-cc parallel-twin engine with 80 hp and a full Ohlins suspension for back-road fun. We particularly dig the Commando 961 Sport - it looks the most like the old bikes.
11. Ural
There is a certain subset of motorcycle geeks who can't get enough of simple and rugged military-style motorcycles, especially when that bike is equipped with a sidecar. No bike today satisfies that craving better than Ural - a Russian-built line of off-road/on-road bikes that offers real two-wheel drive, thanks to a driven axle on the sidecar. Every Ural for 2014 has a fuel-injected boxer two-cylinder engine and an upgraded braking system. The bikes start at just under US$13,000. Not a bad deal for such an interesting bike.
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