Wind Burned Eyes

The BMW R100R That Side Rock Cycles Reimagined as a Scrambler

Precision Hydration makes fuelling products for endurance athletes, and when the British company wanted a motorcycle of its own, it handed the job to Side Rock Cycles. The result is this custom BMW R100R street scrambler, built around one of the final air-cooled boxers.

BMW built the R100R from 1991 through 1996, and the Paralever version counted among the closing iterations of the airhead boxer. Side Rock already had a suitable donor in the workshop, so the bike went straight onto the bench.

The airhead twin has served custom builders well, from the R100RS cafe racer by Minami Motorcycle to this project. Precision Hydration’s brief emphasized road performance over trail ability.

Custom BMW R100R street scrambler by Side Rock Cycles with satin black frame and orange rear shock spring — Photo: Side Rock Cycles, via Pipeburn.

From Paralever to Street Scrambler

Side Rock replaced the original wheels with refurbished 17-inch spoked rims from a BMW R1200R. Dunlop Mutant rubber gives the set a chunky, contemporary footprint.

Up front, the forks were rebuilt and shortened, while the fully adjustable rear shock was stripped and Cerakoted black. Its spring received an orange powder coat that ties into Precision Hydration’s corporate colors.

The frame and swingarm were stripped, fitted with fresh bearings, and powder coated satin black to suit a new stepped dual-seat subframe. Glenn Moger shaped a bespoke aluminum seat pan, wrapped in brown leather with contrasting stitching and embroidered detailing.

An earlier BMW Monolever tank, chosen for its cleaner shape, was modified to fit the chassis. Armours of Bournemouth built the low stainless exhaust, finished in black Cerakote.

Flatslides and Hidden Electronics

Side Rock had good results with Keihin FCR flatslide carburettors on earlier Moto Guzzi builds, so the shop tried them on the boxer. The swap from the original Bing units brought crisp fuelling across the rev range.

Renthal Fat Bars and an Accossato radial master cylinder with adjustable folding levers sit up front. Brembo calipers, larger discs, and Venhill braided lines handle the stopping.

A Motogadget m.unit Blue runs keyless ignition and the full LED lighting, including compact three-in-one rear lights. An Antigravity lithium battery sits in one of Side Rock’s signature under-transmission boxes, all wired through a custom loom.

The orange spring against all that satin black is my favorite detail on the whole bike.

Wicked Coatings painted the bodywork in company colors against a tight Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride deadline. Afterward, company representative Andy rode it to the annual Airheads gathering at Sammy Miller’s Motorcycle Museum, where it took Best Custom.

Source: Pipeburn

Inside Purpose Built Moto’s 1967 Honda CB77 Super Hawk Revival

Some customs begin with a clean sketch and a detailed brief. This 1967 Honda CB77 Super Hawk began as dusty storage tubs labeled simply “Honda” and a frame bolted to a square-tube engine stand.

Owner Richard bought the bike on a whim in 2004. It had spent years being hauled to race meetings around Australia, then sat in a garage for nearly two decades before arriving at Purpose Built Moto in pieces. Bikes with that kind of racing past keep landing on builders’ benches, and Ellaspede recently reimagined a Ducati Mike Hailwood Replica with similar reverence.

The track history gave the build its direction. Racing pedigree has fueled other standout vintage builds this year too, like Fuch’s Workshop’s championship-winning Yamaha TX500 flat tracker. After sorting and cleaning every salvageable part, the workshop assembled a rolling chassis, which let this Honda stand on its own wheels for the first time in 20 years.

1967 Honda CB77 Super Hawk custom racer revival in red and black by Purpose Built Moto — Photo: Purpose Built Moto, via Pipeburn.

From Boxes to Rolling Chassis

The forks had been lengthened and rechromed years earlier. The worn-out rear shocks were the hard part, since period-correct road-racing units proved scarce, so the team sourced off-road shocks and had Joe at Ride Dynamics rebuild and re-angle them.

Rebuilt wheels wear polished Borrani rims over brakes that were stripped, repaired, polished, then updated with hydraulic actuation and Kustom Tech master cylinders.

A Fresh 350cc Heart

The 350cc conversion needed only new rings and a light hone. The head received fresh valves, guides and springs, and the ignition was rebuilt around a new stator, rotor and starter motor.

Amal carburettors made way for Mikuni flatslides breathing through DNA pod filters wearing PBM’s delta motif. Up front, restored clip-ons, two-button switches and a 48mm speedometer pare back the cockpit around a 4.5-inch Flashpoint LED headlight.

Exactly one part escaped the rethink: the fibreglass racing tank, a defining piece of this bike’s history. The new tail traces its half-moon profile into a side-number-plate shape and a tidy ducktail.

Tipping the engine forward echoed the original racer’s stance and opened room for a true 2-into-2 exhaust, with sand-bent stainless headers running into welded torpedo mufflers built to sing as the revs climb. That soundtrack is the detail I would queue for.

Paint stayed deliberate: luminous red on the tank and tail, black pinstriping, and a blacked-out nose, laid down by Sam at Colour Fuel in Sydney.

Before the Super Hawk, Honda was best known for pressed-steel commuters, and the 305cc original brought a tubular frame, telescopic forks and a dependable overhead-cam twin good for 100 mph. That machine is often called Honda’s first genuine sportbike.

Purpose Built Moto has history with the brand, from its earlier custom Honda XL500 scrambler through to this Super Hawk revival. After almost two decades in pieces, the bike is back on the road and ready to rev.

Source: Pipeburn

How Ellaspede Reimagined a 1981 Ducati Mike Hailwood Replica

A 1981 Ducati Mike Hailwood Replica is a piece of racing history, and most owners would restore one to factory spec. Owner Glenn took his MHR to Ellaspede in Brisbane instead, with a brief to honor its past while reworking the stance, performance and details.

Ducati introduced the MHR in 1979 to mark Mike Hailwood’s Formula One TT win at the Isle of Man, earned on his return to racing after more than a decade away. Brisbane’s Ellaspede has history with odd briefs, including a custom Honda Zoomer. Builders elsewhere keep finding fresh angles on Italian classics too, and Reset Cycles’ custom Moto Guzzi V1000 is a recent standout.

The Unplanned Road Trip: Why Your Best Rides Aren’t the Ones You Schedule

Everyone plans their motorcycle road trips down to the mile. But what if the best adventure is the one you didn’t map out? Here’s why letting go of the itinerary might be the best decision you make all year.

I used to plan everything. Road trips were military operations. I had routes mapped, gas stops calculated, hotels booked three months out. Every ride had to be efficient. Productive. Maximized.

Then I did one with basically no plan at all, and it ruined me for every other trip I’d ever take.

Custom 1979 Moto Guzzi V1000 by Reset Cycles

Charles Poelmans spent twenty years building custom cars and restoring vintage Maseratis before turning his attention to motorcycles. His workshop, Reset Cycles, sits in the south of the Netherlands and combines his fabrication skills with a love of Italian engineering.

The donor bike is a 1979 Moto Guzzi V1000 G5, a big touring machine from Mandello del Lario, where the marque recently unveiled its 105th anniversary editions. Charles stripped it to its core elements: frame, engine, wheels, and bodywork.

Fuch’s Workshop Transforms 1972 Yamaha TX500 Into a Flat Tracker

Yamaha introduced the TX500 in 1972 as their first middleweight four-stroke twin. The 500cc vertical twin featured dual overhead camshafts, four valves per cylinder, and an Omni-phase balancer to manage vibration.

The bike was innovative for its era but suffered from excessive heat, warped valve seats, and cracked cylinder heads. Yamaha dropped the TX name after the TX750 failed, and the model later became the XS500.

MV Agusta Confirms Restructuring and Seeks New Investor

MV Agusta has issued an official statement confirming it is undergoing financial restructuring and searching for outside investors to secure its future.

The Italian brand entered the Composizione Negoziata della Crisi (CNC), a legal framework that allows companies in temporary financial difficulty to negotiate with creditors under the supervision of an independent expert. It is not insolvency or liquidation, but it does require concrete prospects for recovery to gain access.