A good 20 years ago when I penned stories for the now-defunct custom harley magazine IronWorks, the late editor Dennis Stemp amassed an impressive collection of motorbikes. Mostly British classics, American V-twins and the like, he also had a taste for custom cafe racers. I recovered this advertisement for a long-gone North Carolina aftermarket firm…

s Ah, it all seems so quaint just 15 years on, but I recently found a batch of photos from the early Aughts of myself test-riding a collection of fat-tire extreme sportbikes. The wild, over-the-top machines were quite the rage in the early years of the 21st Century, back before the global recession of 2008…

Few images we’ve seen have driven home the devastation of the Woolsey wildfire like this one, sent by a reader from the roadside overlook atop Mulholland Highway. The Rock Store motorcycle hangout is just a mile or so below this scorched mountainside, and has miraculously escaped the fire’s wrath. Visit their website www.rock-store.com and check…

The image above illustrates just what can be accomplished with a very functional and comprehensive kit available from England’s Cafe Racer Kits. The firm has cornered a market for made-to-order custom parts designed for both Honda’s CX500 and Triumph’s early 1990s, 900cc triples. Regular readers will know that we’ve a 1995 Speed Triple in our…

Great news surfaced early today when we managed to reach Rock Store owner Rich Savko who confirmed that the beloved So Cal motorcycle meeting place had not, in fact burned down. Savko was surprised to find the restaurant, located on Mulholland Highway in the tiny hamlet of Cornell, California, had just escaped the ferocious Woolsey…

Ah, fall riding season. A time of brisk mornings, warm afternoon roads and watching every treeline for hormone-crazed deer. This is also the time of year when the world’s motorcycle manufacturers let us writers loose on their early-release new bikes, which is akin to Christmas and your birthday all rolled into a single crazy season….

We received an invite recently from our friends at Buffalo, New York’s City Limit Moto, to host an evening of movies and chat. It’s been a few good turns of the old spokes since we met with our fellow cafe racer enthusiasts so we’re looking quite forward to the occasion. Come Saturday, December 7, I’ll…

Say goodbye to this sort of cheap knock-off sportbike bodywork from overseas. To date, I believe myself to be one of the few remaining Americans who choose to receive his daily news in print form. No big fan of electronic media and having worked as a newspaper columnist for 20 years, print newspapers still –…

The custom motorcycle market is indeed a fickle mistress. Bikes that were under-loved cast-offs a few years back now command wallet-flattening prices while some makes and models that were recently considered the pinnacle of perfection, become also-rans. In the wake of such a topsy-turvy marketplace, the specials builders have to ride each of these unpredictable…