The Week In Bikes, May 30th 2014

Welcome to The Week in Bikes, your weekly Cliffs Notes version of the best new custom bikes in the world.

Kent Riches' 1972 Yamaha TX650
Since 1977, Kent Riches has spent pretty much every day of his life devoted to bikes. He runs his own accessories company, with literally thousands of parts at his disposal, and still it wasn't easy for him to put this Yamaha together. He made some of his own suspension pieces from scratch, swapped in the front suspension from a different bike, then raided his parts bin, modifying most of those pieces to fit the look he was going for. All in all, it's pretty intense.

"Oldtimer" by Kevils Speedshop
If you can imagine anyone other than Steve McQueen riding this bike, you're doing it wrong. Kevils Speedshop designed it to be a follow-up to a bike they made for an "Unseen McQueen" exhibit last year, and at it's core, it's a 1978 BMW R100/7. Of course, they stripped it down and threw on a bunch of "generic" pieces from assorted Triumphs of the 1950s. The engine is vintage, but completely refreshed, and much of the wiring's modern. It's reliable, it's quick, and its probably the most stylish bike we've seen this year.

Kingston Customs' 1979 BMW R100/7
Builder Dirk Oehlerking isn't just a fanatic when it comes to owning bikes (he's literally owned dozens of them over the years), but he's also an endurance racer at heart. This bike might look like a pretty slick cafe racer, accentuated by a Yamaha fuel tank and a brake light made from an old BMW exhaust, but it's the technical details that set it apart. The engine's as fresh as it was when it left the factory, and the brakes are thoroughly modern, as are most of the controls, so you can drive this thing as hard as you want all day long and it'll never break a sweat.

Dagger Cycles' Triumph Scrambler
Dagger Cycles is a little shop in Northern Italy headed by a man who grew up around bikes and who has — wait for it — tattoos of daggers on his arms. He loves his punk music, too, which is where this bike gets its personality. At its heart, it's all Triumph, with nothing more than a lot of detail work done to just about every external piece. Look really closely at the exhaust, and you'll see where they literally cooked it over a spit to give it just the right look.

click to play video

Roland Sands' KTM 690 Tracker
You'd be hard pressed to find a brand with more purely off-road tradition than KTM. We're just going to let Roland Sands' video explain how involved this build is and how awesome this bike plays on dirt.

El Solitario's "Marrajo" 1998 Harley Davidson Sportster 1200
Built by a Spanish outfit noted for doing, ahem, eccentric rides, Marrajo was commissioned by a customer from the Canary Islands who wanted a dead-on reliable bike that could comfortably fit two people on long road trips. Thus, the bike is a bit of a hodge-podge, with the soul of a Harley, a Ducati fuel tank, fenders from a Bultaco, and plenty of custom pieces scattered throughout.

The BMW Motorrad Concept Roadster
Around this time last year, BMW dropped the retro-glorious NineT to celebrate 90 years of motoring. This time around, they've dropped all pretense of retro, opting instead for the full-on futuristic look. Everything about the frame is minimalist to help keep weight down. Even the headlight weighs next to nothing, since it's LED. The rear? All made from a single piece of metal. Basically, this is what happens when a Fortune 500 company builds its dream bike.

Ad Hoc's Honda 750 Nighthawk
This was Spanish shop Ad Hoc's second build a few years ago, when it was converted from a normal Honda into a part Honda, part Yamaha, part Ducati hybrid. But something wasn't quite right on it. After a few months of thinking, a couple relatively minor body changes, and a completely new paint job, it's stunning, and worthy of anyone's garage.


Aaron Miller is the Rides editor for Supercompressor, and for his money, that McQueen-esque Beamer is the absolute essence of motorcycling.