In the early glow of a summer morning in mid June, 12 people met at a filling station in Berlin. After filling our tanks and our bellies, we set out towards Kassel, final destination: the 12th edition of Wheels & Waves in Biarritz, France. The crew astride their iron steeds, including three Ducati’s, BMW’s, Triumphs, Honda’s, Royal Enfield, Moto Guzzi, and two sponsored Moto Morini’s (read our first ride review of the Seiemmezzo SCR).

Photo: Cäthe Pfläging

The unifying factor for this random collection of bikes: Craftwerk Berlin. Craftwerk is a community garage where members can store their motorcycles, do regular (supervised) maintenance, build their custom bikes, and enjoy a range of motorcycle related events, including ride-outs, workshops, and motoGP and documentary screenings. It includes an event space that can be rented and doubles as a museum, as well as a cafe that is also open to the public. If you find yourself in Berlin, this place comes highly recommended. One of the founders and one member put their heads together and planned this trip to Biarritz and dubbed it “Transpirenaica”. Why? Because we would make tracks across the southern, Spanish Pyrenees from the Mediterranean coast to the Atlantic coast and back along the northern, French side. 

Photo: Janna Strauss

The first leg, Berlin-Kassel, was uneventful, except for a rogue exhaust baffle that was McGyvered back into the exhaust with a paperclip. The route took us via the Bauhaus Museum in Dessau for a cultural coffee stop and through the Harz Mountains National Park to balance out the Autobahn kilometers. In Kassel, Rudi and his bus were waiting for us. A strategically timed bus to expedite the transport of the 12 and their motorcycles to Perpignan. Two more people arrived by train, they would be driving the support vehicle. While loading the motorcycles, the group enjoyed a lavish filling station dinner on the pavement, before the 14 embarked on the bus and tried to get some shuteye. 18h later, we disembarked in the south of France and gave our bikes and luggage a once-over. One of the oldies required its tappet clearances proofed and head studs retorqued, making it the second “repair” within 500km. Here, another Triumph plus rider from Vienna joined us.

Photo: Patricia Sevilla Ciordia http://pscfoto.net

From Perpignan we set out via the country roads into the hills to have lunch at le Donjon de Pyrepertuse in Duilhac-sous-Peyrepertuse. After refueling the humans, the curvy roads of the Pyrenees took us through de Gorges de Galamus, with its steep cliffs cut by the rivers deep down below and a road hacked into the canyon walls with dramatic overhangs, riding this narrow road send the heart racing while dropping your jaw in awe. The contrast when going over Col d’Ares, across the border into Spain, was stark. Whereas the canyon is enclosed and narrow, the views from the mountains are wide and far. We overnighted at the campsite Vall de Camprodon. Here, we were united with an additional 3 riders who made their own way south with the support van, loaded with a Yamaha, Rieju, and a BMW. Having a support van would soon prove to be the smartest decision of the entire trip. Earlier, we got separated from the Guzzi that had ignition issues, but made its way to the campsite with a hand drawn paper map. It sure helps when you speak Spanish fluently. 

Photo: Cäthe Pfläging

The next morning we left for Montardit de Baix, via Castellar de n’Hug and Cadí-Moixeró Natural Park. We had divided the group into two smaller groups based on riding skills, which eased the riding, yet complicated the logistics. Windy roads, up and down mountains were a welcome change from the straight roads we usually ride around Berlin.

Photo: Cäthe Pfläging

Next morning, after a breakfast of toasted sandwiches, croissants, coffees, and orange juice, we set out for some more mountain passes. Unfortunately, the Moto Guzzi stayed behind, again. Though this time something had gone missing… the ignition key. Searching every pocket, trousers and jacket, twice, and after unloading and repacking the van, twice, and searching through all the camping gear, the decision was made to load the Guzzi into the van and catch up with the rest of the group. Meanwhile, atop a mountain, one of the other riders was rather surprised to find an unfamiliar key in a jacket pocket… Black leather jacket surely do look alike when the sun has gone down.

Photo: Patricia Sevilla Ciordia http://pscfoto.net

The third night we stayed in Boltaña. We caught a little bit of rain that day, and we moped about Spanish summer weather. Little did we know what tomorrow would have in store for us. 

After a peaceful sleep, the skies had cleared up a bit, and we happily got on our bikes for more windy roads. We tracked through beautiful gorges and over mountain passes with stunning views. The weather, however, was not on our side that day. We barely saw the sun, and the clouds grew a deeper grey. The groups got further split up, and I was in a group of four tracking north through the valleys towards camping Asolaze in Isaba. As the rain got more intense, we missed a turnoff and rode all the way to the end of the valley in what had become a torrential downpour. On the side of the pavement, small rivers of murky yellowish brown water had started to flow. More than once we saw the front wheel dip into a puddle up to the axle. At the end of the road we spotted an inn, we made it!
Except, the inn was not Asolaze, it was the Linza Inn, one valley east of where we needed to be, separated by a 1500m tall mountain. So we had to track back half an hour, ride over the mountain pass, and north again in the next valley. The 20km that normally takes less than half an hour, now took 45 min. The rain persisted and the insoles of my boots were drenched, water had gotten in everywhere. Rain gear is only water proof until it is not. Luckily we all made it to Asolaze without any incidents or accidents, and warm tapas awaited us. Another sponsored bike, a BMW R18 ridden by the mind behind North of Berlin motorcycle gear, joined us here. 

Photo: Patricia Sevilla Ciordia http://pscfoto.net

No rides were planned for the next day, so everybody was free to decide whether they would ride somewhere, or relax and dry their clothes. A few made tracks into the mountains to the Canfranc hotel in the Aragon valley. The former train station, built in 1928 on the border of France and Spain, stood abandoned from 1970 until in early 2023, when it welcomed its first guests as a hotel. A great stop for photos or a coffee.
Half of the group tracked back to the gorge south of Ansó to shoot photo and video for the various motorcycle, gear, and helmet sponsors. Shooting video while riding the two Moto Morini and the two BMWs was fun! Contrary to the day before, it was a right scorcher! Over 30 degrees Celsius is comfortable at the beach or manageable while riding, but standing in the bright sun in a full North of Berlin suit or Rusty Stitches denim and leather gear is another story.

Photo: Patricia Sevilla Ciordia http://pscfoto.net

Photo: Patricia Sevilla Ciordia http://pscfoto.net

Photo: Patricia Sevilla Ciordia http://pscfoto.net

At the end of the day, everybody rode to the top of the pass for a sunset and picnic dinner. The road conditions were excellent, the curves exciting, yet fog obscured the view and dinner was postponed. The last rider joined the group here, atop a stunning Ducati 999S, now totalling 18 people.

Photo: Cäthe Pfläging

Photo: Casper van der Ven

The next morning we set out for our destination: Biarritz! Due to the recurring ignition difficulties with the Guzzi, and a worn rear tyre on a Ducati, a small subgroup set out to San Sebastián to find a motorcycle shop. While the shop changed the tyre, the boys got their tools out and had a go at adjusting the Guzzi’s points and timing. They were rewarded with a sunset on the beach, a couple of beers, and the local specialty plates of food to share, pintxos, or Basque tapas. Think deep fried potatoes (Krokettas), battered meatballs (Bolas de Carne), and omelets (pintxos de tortilla). Ádamo is famous for theirs. Since it was the night before the summer solstice, or San Juan Eguna, local artists performed on a stage on the Padre Claret square next to Zurriola beach and the entire town danced the traditional folk dances into the night around a huge fire. The atmosphere was simultaneously ecstatic and relaxed, without having that all too familiar tacky tourist vibe. The Guzzi remained in San Sebastián. This time not due to technical difficulties, but because the rider gifted this motorcycle to his father, who resides here and has been considering getting back in the saddle. What a wonderful gesture!

Our base in Biarritz was at Camping Erreka, a central point to enjoy the festivities around Wheels & Waves. We went to the flat track races in San Sebastián, the concerts and vendor show at the Cité de l’Océan in Biarritz, and spent a day on the beach to rest our bodies after a week of riding all day, every day. Unfortunately, the swell was taking a rest too, and surfing was out of the question. We made up for it by cutting ourselves a large slice of Gâteau Basque, a buttery, crumby textured, tender cake, the local specialty. 

Photo: Patricia Sevilla Ciordia http://pscfoto.net

Photo: Patricia Sevilla Ciordia http://pscfoto.net

Photo: Patricia Sevilla Ciordia http://pscfoto.net

Photo: Janna Strauss

Photo: Cäthe Pfläging

After two nights at the festival, enjoying the concerts, the motorcycles on display, the shows, the vendor stalls, and meeting like minded people, we set out back towards Berlin. Via various mountain passes, including Col de Cloze and Col du Tourmalet, we made our way to Camping d’Esplantats in Sarrancolin. Riding in this part of France provides routes to everyone’s liking. What a wonderful part of the world! The local bakery provided us with croissants, coffee, and even flan, the caramel pudding, before setting out the next morning. Parts of the group had split off to make their own tracks back, due to different schedules and obligations. 

Photo: Cäthe Pfläging

After a long day in the saddle, over hills and through beautiful forests, we arrived at Camping Domain LaCanal, run by a Dutch couple. Though they weren’t quite open for the season, they put us up for the night and even cooked up an enormous breakfast the next morning. A lovely campsite on a hillside, with a fantastic view down the valley. Unfortunately, I had to retire the R80 and send it home with the van due to a blown seal and insufficient time to obtain parts, repair it, and make it to Italy in time for a wedding. Similarly, the Ducati 999 had to retire as well. It had tried spreading its wings the previous day, when someone took it for a top speed test on the local highway. It overtook me with a roar unique to a desmodromic twin with an open exhaust system. Shortly after I spotted a bright red panel on the asphalt, as well as two black tyre tracks, waving and crossing each other from the left lane, into the middle lane, across the right lane, and I feared to see motorcycle and rider separated on the side of the road. Due to skill and a huge dose of luck, both rider and bike were standing upright at the next exit, though the Ducati looked a little naked. The Italian Stallion had actually succeeded in shedding its wings. The wind had caught underneath the fairing and ripped both left and right panels off, almost throwing the rider off in the process. Shaken and flabbergasted, we all took a minute to count our blessings.

Photo: Casper van der Ven

The blown seal ended the trip a little early for yours truly, but thanks to the French and Italian public transport system, I actually made it to the wedding in Italy three days later. The rest of the crew tracked back to Berlin via the French and Swiss Alps. Keen to see more? Check out this video on Nils Homann’s channel (photo & video credit: Cäthe Pfläging, Patricia Strauss, Felix Schmidt)

Photo: Cäthe Pfläging
Photo: Cäthe Pfläging

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The Monkey and the Ape

By now you should have a pretty good idea about who Rusty Stitches are and what they are all about. They are the David to the motorcycle riding gear industry’s Goliath. And they’ve been growing recently…fast! Although their mascot is a big hairy ape, the Rusty Stitches management team thought it would be a good idea if the giant ape had its own ride. And what better bike to start with than a Honda Monkey!

If you want to get technical about the difference between a monkey and an ape; a monkey has a tail and is relatively small by size, and an ape has no tail and can grow much larger than a monkey. This is the story of the ape and the monkey!

The Honda Monkey was first introduced to the public in 1961, after increasing popularity as a children’s ride at a Japanese amusements park. Originally it was a 100cc minibike called the Z100 but quickly gained popularity amongst people in its 50cc trim as the Z50 a.k.a. “the Monkey”. Not a bad name considering it is one of Honda’s longest produced models in the company’s history. We’re not going to bore you with performance specs. What we can say is that people who owned them, loved them! It was an ideal vehicle to take on a trailer or on a camper. It’s lightweight, small, frugal with fuel, and easy to work on.

Cult status

The Honda Monkey has gained something of a cult status. In 2018 the late Beatles singer John Lennon’s old Honda Monkey Z50 was auction for a whopping $80,000! Not bad for a bike that initially cost about $250. What also increased the popularity of the Monkey is the availability of aftermarket parts. You can turn a standard 50cc Monkey into a fire-breathing, tire smoking, little ripper, capable of serious speeds.

Moto Adonis

This is where part 2 of the story begins. Enter: Moto Adonis. The Dutch based team consisting of Arthur Renkema and Job Leussink have been dabbling in the world of customization for some time now. As far as Rusty Stitches were concerned, Moto Adonis the go-to guys to get their custom Honda Monkey built. It was clear from the beginning which direction they wanted to go with this little bike. It had to look a lot meaner than the original Monkey, and they knew exactly how they were going to do that.

The little Honda got stripped of all its parts and received a complete rebuild from the ground up. One thing that wasn’t changed was the engine displacement. The reason for this was that the Honda will serve a promotional purpose only, travelling around to various Rusty Stitches dealerships and motorcycle shows. Besides, increasing the displacement would also mean going through a series of mandatory tests and complete re-registration; quite pointless for what is intended. What the engine did receive was a dry-ice vapor blast treatment, and a complete respray in black and white. Other than that, very little was kept of the original Monkey.

The original wheels were removed and saved for later. Instead, a pair of 12” oversized wheels were added with Maxxis NSR knobbly tires. To accommodate for the wheels, the front shocks were replaced as well as the triple clamps for wider units. Both front and rear shocks now have an increased travel. A round LED headlight was mounted using a unique set of custom brackets. Using an LED light was made possible by upgrading the original 6 Volts system to a more modern 12V power supply. A black aluminium handlebar is now in place, coupled with a beautiful set of white Biltwell grips to stay with the black & white theme. The front brake has been beefed up with a 2-piston caliper and bigger disk brake.

More than just a few parts…

Moving to the rear we can see an extended and widened aluminium swing arm. The little drum brake from the rear has also been replaced with a 2-piston disk brake conversion kit. The final drive was changed to a bigger rear sprocket. The subframe has been custom built and houses a café racer style hump seat. The seat has been custom made by Miller Kustom Upholstery. Look closely and you will notice the white stitching and lettering. We love such craftsmanship! It is worth mentioning that the entire rear seat was built from scratch.

There are 2 other real eye-catchers on this little Monkey: the tank and the exhaust. Let’s start with the tank. It is the original Honda tank but it received a fresh coat of black paint. What makes it special though, is the pin-striping that was applied by hand; an art form we don’t see much anymore. It was done by Huid & Staal’s very own Frank Bouwmeester. The other eye-catcher is the exhaust system, which was built from the ground up by MAD Exhausts. We have heard this Monkey in real life, and it sounds more like a Gorilla than a Monkey!

Trailer

That’s it then, right? Wrong. Remember the original wheels that were saved for later? They were repurposed to be used on a custom-made trailer. Built to resemble a giant banana box, the trailer was completely built from nothing to serve as a prop. That also means that the Monkey has a trailer hitch, and we think that it’s the cutest thing we have ever seen. The little engine that could…

Photo credits: Rob Willemsen

Builder details:
Moto Adonis
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Gentlemen, may we have your votes please?
In 2021 the BikeBrewers team got invited by the Café Racer Club Bulgaria to act as judges for the 2nd edition of the Caféracerfest in Kyustendil – Bulgaria. We didn’t know what to expect, since this was the first time we were asked to perform this serious duty, and all we had seen so far were (lovely) pictures of the first edition. Now, we may not know much about the Eurovision Song contest, however, we do know a thing or two about caféracers, so we grabbed our motorcycle gear and headed East.

Throwback 2021
As you may recall, we were blown away by the quality of the event, which we clearly communicated in our September 24th report. A major factor in the success of the first two editions is the undaunted organizer of the event, Ivan Mushev. That name may ring a bell, and it should; we’ve featured some of Ivan’s masterpieces under the name of his outfit Bull Moto custom. But that’s not what we are here for now.

We must have done something right as we have been invited to judge again at the 2022 edition of the Caféracerfest which is coming up on June 11th, and we couldn’t be more excited! Looking back at last year’s event did raise the question if this year’s contenders have any idea of the high level of last year’s participants? If we go by what we saw last year, we have some pretty high expectations.

…and the winner is..!
This story is about Borislav Aleksov and his dream to build the ultimate café racer. Before the Bulgarian builder got his hands on this 1992 Yamaha XV1100, he had already built a Honda CX500 café racer. Borislav was fascinated by the air-cooled Yamaha v-twin, so when one of his friends was selling his, Borislav knew that it was now or never. We’re glad he took that chance.

It’s safe to say that we have yet to see a boring Yamaha XV caféracer here at BikeBrewers. This one seems to be the latest addition to that list, keeping the standard yet again, very high. It’s hard to imagine that Borislav had a budget of a mere 7500 euro; that kind of money you’d expect a shed-built bike to cost, definitely not a show-winning unit like this.

Torches out
Borislav started with chopping the rear sub-frame, and building a new one from scratch. At the front a set of Suzuki GSX-R1000 forks were adopted, held firmly in place by a set of Aprilia RSV4 triple clamps. The forks allow for radial brake callipers to be mounted, which is exactly what the master craftsman did, courtesy of Tokico. At the rear, a Yamaha FZ6 mono-shock keeps the bike on track. The new forks brought a new dilemma; the ground clearance was now compromised. The solution: raising the engine up in the frame. That’s not an easy task, so countless hours were spent trying to get it right.

The engine didn’t go back in the frame before being completely overhauled and got covered with a fresh coat of paint. The carbs were cleaned and rebuild, so that took care of the intake side of things. On the exhaust side, a new custom-made exhaust system was build from the ground up. We really liked the lines and angles of the exhaust system, and it’s one of the key features that attracted us to this bike on the day of the event. When we asked Borislav what his intentions were when he built this bike, he said that, at first he wanted to build a classic looking café racer, but that he changed his mind half-way through the project after being inspired by some builds he saw on Facebook.

Wheels
A friend of Borislav took care of lacing the hubs to a new set of aluminium rims, which were also in black. Yes, black is the theme with this build, and we like it! Do you know what’s also black? The modified Benelli fuel tank, the epitome of café racer fuel tanks. Everything was painted in-house by Borislav himself. A custom leather seat keeps the rider firmly in place, and a Daytona Velona 80 gives all the necessary rider info whilst maintaining a contemporary look.

It is clear to see why this particular café racer took the 1st prize during the 2021 Caferacerfest.
This is what Borislav had to say about his build:
“I like the paint scheme and the general profile of the motorcycle that is the exact opposite of a chopper. The riding experience is unexplainable after 3 years of working on this project to be able to finally ride it is a dream come true. Thanks also for the Felix helmet that I received as a prize. It really enhances the look of the ride” he smiles.

Previous life
Below are some shots of the bike before Borislave opened his toolbox and the build in progress.

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“You dream it, we build it!” a strong slogan from Assen Zahariev’s garage in Sofia, Bulgaria. However, a bike this stunning out of a stock 80° longitudinal V-Twin we could not have dreamt up ourselves. Assen saw a golden opportunity in this rare motorcycle and let his inspiration flow freely.

We have previously featured many CX500 builds, but this is our first CX650 and we are rather excited to tell you all about it! The Honda CX650 with its 673cc is the big brother of the common CX500 models. Whereas the production numbers of the latter easily exceed 180,000, the CX650 in all its versions was limited to roughly 15,000 in total, worldwide. The CX models were loaded with innovative features. Electric-only starting, low-maintenance shaft drives were found on the occasional BMW motorcycle, as were the constant vacuum carburettors, but the liquid cooling and separated ignition system were rather unique. Even though the CX650 and the CX650E looked rather similar, this one looks nothing like it did when it rolled off the production line.

Specialising in BMW motorcycles, the Honda was a bit of a side step for Tossa R. When starting a new project, especially with a bike that is novel to us, most of us start with browsing the interweb and social media, scrolling through dozens of images of custom interpretations of a particular model for ideas and inspiration. Assen went the complete opposite direction and carefully steered clear of other people’s ideas influencing his build. He turned toward the bike and toward himself, and five months later, the result is an elegant yet sporty, urban cafe racer.

With the exception of the seat by Oldman Leathers and the paint by Picasso Motor, all the work was done in-house. Yamaha R6 triple clamps and forks were swapped in to improve the suspension and handling, as well as the stopping power provided by dual floating discs with radially mounted calipers. Combined with the centrally mounted rear shock with external reservoir the suspension is fully adjustable to the rider’s needs. Above the rear shock, tucked in neatly between the downtubes of the frame, are two high flow air filters, allowing the bike to breathe more freely, and together with the custom stainless steel exhaust they bring at least 65 horses out of the stable.

Shortening the exhaust and running it underneath the engine frees up the rear wheel, but removing the side covers and shortening the tail really shifts the visual weight forwards, giving it its sporty appearance. The moon discs in the rear wheel were added to keep the bike visually grounded and balanced. A newly fabricated bracket supports the seat and the custom tail and ensures a perfect optical line from the tail through the carburetors, cylinder heads, and exhaust headers to end in the front axle, emphasising that this bike is built to ride!

The lines of the bike are further accentuated by small bar-end mirrors, a low-profile gage, and clip-ons, streamlining its profile. Electronically, the bike is decked out with high end gauges and bar-end indicators by MotoGadget, and also the head and taillight have been replaced with LEDs to bring it into the 21st century and ensure visibility. This motorcycle does not need its lights to attract attention, though. We reckon parking it at a cafe in the city centre will draw ample attention from enthusiasts, passersby, and aspiring builders!

If this has tickled your fancy, reach out to Tossa R, these bikes are built to order, and there is room for only 8 more!

Photo Credits: Tossa R

Builder details:
Tossa R
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Regular guests
It may look as if UNIKAT have a subscription on our platform. Nothing of the sort, but the Polish team just keeps on churning out pure art that we simply cannot ingnore.
This time it is a 2001 Moto Guzzi California 1100, which was transformed from a nice bike to a ‘living room worthy’ object of desire.

Take apart and rebuild
The motorcycle has been completely restored and rebuilt, with nothing more than the wheels, the beautiful engine and part of the frame remaining from the original design. According to our Eastern European friends “such a dramatic rebuild requires a massive amount of time and UNIQUE skills”. We second that motion, after all ‘UNIKAT’ is Polish for unique and you have to live up to that promise.

Director’s chair
The owner, Pawel, was very much involved in the project. It is not very often that BikeBrewers get such elaborate insights from the clients themselves. Here’s what he has to say: “My adventure with motorcycles began when my grandfather gave me a light green mini motorbike. It was a life-turning moment for me and something that made me feel special. Already then, I was very much drawn to personalize this small moped, of course everything was done using whatever materials were available to me, so I applied stickers, wraps, painted lettering on the tires, trimmed the fenders.

In the following years the passion developed with more motorcycles, i.e., Simson, Yamaha and Honda the crowning moment of which being when I finally parked a Harley Davidson in my garage.

For a few years I’ve been watching how motorcycles are customized all over the world, and already then, I knew that I would like to build such a motorcycle, but the possibilities and number of available places in Poland were limited. I could not make up my mind, and I wanted this project to be unique, stunning design-wise but also in terms of technical solutions. I wanted it to be professionally executed by a team of professionals.

I once read that there is a place in Wrocław that is quickly gaining recognition because of the projects it puts out of its garage.
When I arrived at their doorstep, I met the team, Grzegorz, Michał and I knew that this is a place full of passion, professionalism — and this is how we’ll build a brilliant project.”

Teamwork
The modifications were done under the watchful eyes of Tomasz (mechanic) and Grzegorz (designer) with the bike’s charismatic owner Paweł in his Director’s Chair.

Grzegorz: “In order to achieve the perfect look and beautiful lines of the café racer, we completely changed the geometry and design of the original frame. This required us to shorten the front suspension and use new rear shocks from Bitubo, for which we made new mounts. To complete the look, two fairings (front and rear) were made from scratch by our mate Tomasz.”

Continuing: “The use of a new accessory fuel tank was also linked to the modification of the frame by making new mounts. Since this Moto Guzzi model features a fuel injection system, we had to use an external pressure regulator and redo the whole fuel system.”
As the team were using a custom pressure regulator as mentioned above, they were able to modify the intake and exhaust system. The factory air-box was ditched in favor of a pair of K&N performance cone fitters. Out went the original exhaust to make room for minimalist slash cut tail pipes, which combined with the Guzzi V-twin, produce a unique sound!

Café racer in true style
As befits a true flesh-and-blood café racer, clip-on handlebars were mounted. These new handlebars, along with the changed frame geometry forced the Polish outfit to relocate the rider’s footpegs. As the original ones were completely unusable, a decision was made to use a set from a sports bike with a racing pedigree.

All switches on the handlebars were replaced to go for a clean and minimalistic design. Buttons and turn signals in the handlebars are from Motogadget. A new Motoscope Tiny speedometer, a LED headlamp concealed in the fairing, and a full LED rear lamp dictated creating nearly a full new wiring harness, powered by a battery that currently sits under the swingarm in a box which was custom made for this purpose.

The engine, including the transmission, did not require a complete overhaul and tuning. A proper paint job to make it shine was enough.
Wheels are from the legendary Borrani company, completed with thicker stainless-steel spokes. With such magnificent objects you obviously need a new set of tires .

Most of the parts have been polished or mirror-finished, including the wheels, front and rear suspension, valve covers, exhaust system, handlebars, triple clamps and swingarm, as well as a number of other small components. All bolts were re-galvanized or were replaced with new ones.

The bodywork, front and rear fairing were perfectly painted by Marcin, creating a coherent whole with polished and chrome-plated elements.
The entire project was finished off with a warm touch of leather elements, such as the upholstery on the seat, the construction of which was made by us from scratch, and hand-wrapped handles.

The owners perspective
Being heavily involved with the project the BikeBrewers team was interested to hear his reaction to the end result.
Pawel: “We talked a lot about the technical possibilities, aspects of working with older motorcycles, what should be included in such a project and where it needs to be included to make it unique in every way possible.
We agreed that we want to choose a motorcycle that would be an excellent base and the potential to be unique, and here it is — the Moto Guzzi California 1100.

Was it worth it? For all intents and purposes, the design was great, but it was the execution that knocked me off my feet. Perfection and pure design in every element. The motorcycle impresses with its light, simple, yet detailed design, as well as with the technical solutions.

If we can call anyone artists in the custom scene it is undoubtedly the crew of Unikat Motorworks. I am incredibly happy with the end result and the roads in Poland have just gotten a bit more beautiful with this Moto Guzzi gracing them with its presence.”

The post UNIKAT”s Moto Guzzi California 1100 appeared first on BikeBrewers.com.

Lately we have been seeing a trend in the café racer scene. More and more builders are starting to look at the venerable Honda CB 750 to use as a base bike. We think that this could be the revival of the Honda café racers and we are digging it! Don’t get me wrong, we love seeing Triumphs, BMW’s and Moto Guzzi’s being chopped and rebuilt into tasty café racers and scramblers. But there is something about the shape and style of a JDM inline-four that catches our interest. After all, they did deliver super-bike performance for moped prices back in the day.

You may remember the name Jeremy Duchampt from some time ago. The Frenchman is responsible for two Ducati’s and a Yamaha TR-1 that we featured here on BikeBrewers not so long ago. When we received a message from the main man behind Jerem Motorcycles that he had built a Honda CB 750 Rothmans café racer, we got warm and fuzzy feelings in our bellies; we knew it had to be good! Oh boy were we in for a treat. This Honda is so elegant, the proportions are so well-balanced, it looks like the CB is doing 100 mph at stand still!

The foundation of this project is a Honda CB 750 F2, as it is officially called. A model which was produced by Honda from 1992 all the way up to 2007(!). Honda’s R&D department must have been very pleased with this, no doubt. On paper, the CB 750 produced around 75 hp and 65 Nm of torque, with a claimed weight of around 210 kg. No mind boggling specs, but there is more to it. The Seven Fifty stands out in it’s a simplicity, reliability, and overall reputation of being bulletproof.

What Jeremy did to this bike is extraordinary. The list of modifications is long, so here’s a brief summary.

• Custom front fender
• Modified subframe
• Custom café racer leather and Alcantara seat with stitching (Irina: Point saddler 34)
• Custom made cowl with integrated LED taillight (FFPro Design)
• LED bar-end indicators
• Bar-end mirrors
• LED vintage-style, round yellow headlight with custom brackets
• Keyless ignition (KAIROS RFID)
• Vintage speedo (FIVEACES)
• Laser-cut top triple clamp yoke (USVracing)
• Clip-ons with brown handlebar grips
• BREMBO brake master cylinder and levers
• Powder coated rims
• Modified rear shock absorber
• Air box removed to with DNA pod filters
• Blacked out engine, frame and swingarm
• Custom 4-in-1 exhaust
• Carb tuning
• Custom painting Rothmans Style (FFPro Design)

The way this café racer turned out is mesmerising. Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, cigarette companies often sponsored race teams, one of which was Honda. Who remembers the NSR250, NSR500 or RC30? This Rothmans inspired design brings back memories of those days, where small displacement, high revving engines dominated the tracks and the streets. It’s not a secret that we would love to get our hands on this Honda. For now, we have to do with the pictures.

Builder details:
Jerem Motorcycles
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Being bitten by the motorcycle bug in Asia, our new reporter Koen Theeuwes became restless, paused his career and moved to the United States.
Currently residing in California, he has got plans to head South following the Pan American Highway.
We leave it up to him to introduce himself and his motivation for his trip.
Editorial team.

About Koen Theeuwes
Let me start with a short introduction about myself, before we get to the important topics.
My name is Koen, a typical Dutch name, (I guess my parents never meant for me to go abroad) but still, as it means ‘brave’ it is a name I wear with pride. I was born and raised in the Netherlands. I studied Business and Finance, which I still love, but around 10 years ago I discovered my greatest interest: people and their different cultures.

Only one thing allows you to experience people and their cultures to its fullest; travelling. So this is what I decided to do. Now you may think to yourself: ‘I’m on a bloody motorcycle blog, what do I care about this guy loving people, I want the smell of gasoline and roaring engines’. Good thought, keep it, we’ll get there in a sec.

How was this dream born?
During my studies in Rotterdam, I did an exchange in Istanbul and an internship in Nigeria.
That fueled my ‘wanderlust’ (terrible term, I agree) even more. So before starting work in the Consulting sector, I traveled South-East Asia for 6 months and lived the life. This is where my love for two wheels began. After renting all motorbikes in Thailand, Malaysia, The Philippines, Myanmar and Indonesia I made it to Vietnam.

My Asian bikes
For $ 250 I bought a Chinese rip-off version of a Honda Win. No less than 110 ccs of pure power and beauty (..). Who needs a licence, insurance or lessons? Not me!

I rode it from Ho Chi Minh down the Mekong Delta and back up all the way to Hanoi. After these 4000 km / 2500 miles I was hooked.
The motorbike was going to be my means of transport to explore the world.

Back in Holland
In hindsight riding Vietnam without any preparation of course was rather irresponsible (sorry mom, we’ll talk about this later). So coming back home I came to my senses and decided to actually get a licence. Of course I got a bike as well. My second love was a custom Kawasaki CSR 305. It wasn’t fast, but it looked amazing and sounded even better.

While riding in Vietnam I promised myself I would make a big trip on a motorbike, before I turned 30. When I learned about the Pan-American Highway I instantly knew this was going to be the next one up.

Finding the right moment
But as with most dreams, regular life kind of got in the way. My career was going well and I really enjoyed what I did (after Consulting I worked for Kraft Heinz, who doesn’t like to sell Ketchup?). However, the itch for an adventure trip kept creeping up.
But when is the right time? One thing I learned: there is never a good time. You just have to go for it. I luckily did manage to find a slot that was less ‘bad’ than others. The actual planning started in February (2021), I informed my employer in April I needed a year off and decided on leaving in September.

I was finally going to do it! Maybe not finish before turning 30, but starting it, for sure!

Preparations
In daily life I am very organized, but when traveling I like to go without a plan as much as possible.
There were a few things that required my attention:
1. COVID – needed to wait for vaccinations, hence my leave date in September. Otherwise I would have started in Alaska in July
2. Route – I wanted to make sure it was actually possible to ride my bike all the way. Turns out, it is not. But there’s solutions
3. Motorbike – was I able to legally ride a motorbike in all the countries on my route? With an American vehicle, yes. Any Latin / South American vehicle was probably going to raise questions of border officials at some point. This thus also concluded my starting country
4. Starting point – I have a good friend in Vancouver (Washington state, just North of Portland) who rides bikes as well. Figured it would be helpful to start somewhere where I had a ‘guide’
5. Other ‘trivialities’ – insurance, vaccinations, luggage, visas, other documents, etc. Will not go into the boring details here, but please find my contact details below if you have any questions.

In my next blog I will write about my arrival in the US and all the hoops I had to jump through to actually start riding. Sneak preview: it was a success, see my monster below. Stay tuned!

Contact
By popular demand.. :-) ..I started using Instagram.
Please feel free to follow @koentheeuwes
If you have any more specific questions you can reach out via email: koen.theeuwes@gmail.com. (Happy to answer or help!)

The post Pan American trip appeared first on BikeBrewers.com.

Back in 2020, BikeBrewers were invited to join the first edition of the Café Racer Fest in Kyustendil, Bulgaria. Unfortunately COVID had paralyzed the world and travel restrictions caused us to miss out on that event.

We followed the happening on social media while the enthusiasm of participants, visitors and bike builders vibrated through our screens. We knew we missed out on something special! We made a promise there and then, that we would do everything to make it to the 2021 edition. As we are always true to our word, there was no reason not to make the trip this time.

To team members Ron and Adnane it felt nearly as good as going on a road trip even though two flights, three cars but no bikes were involved in getting from Amsterdam to Kyustendil.

Arriving close to midnight, the organizer of the Café Racer Fest and spiritual father of the event, Ivan Mushev of Bull Moto Custom, had kindly arranged transportation from Sofia airport to the ski resort up in the mountains about half an hour up from town up a dark and twisty country road with al sort of wildlife crossing our headlights.

Early start
In order to make the most of the day breakfast was served early and we took off to the centre of town. The empty square would soon be the stage of an extraordinary event, attracting an sizable crowd of both participants and spectators. On the plaza of this nearly 40.000 inhabitant’s rich city, volunteers were busy setting the stage for things to come.

The Café Racer Fest harbours not only custom bikes but also offers a stage for vintage motorcycles and cars from all makes and years. There was quite a collection of incredibly beautiful Pre-Perestroika MZ’s, Jawa’s and Ural sidecars. Truly as if time stood still.

Talking about time, it is funny what the years do with your sense of beauty. Bikes that were considered hideous in the 60’s and 70’s Western Europeans are now considered attractive by the same crowd. Thanks to younger demographics, discovering the fun in riding, Eastern Bloc classic icons such as the 60’s MZ have now grown from being more hideous than the word itself to ultra-cool! We bet there will be quite some young urban riders who would not mind to be spotted on one of those former ‘monstrosities’, were it not that in most large European cities, those two-strokes will never be seen spewing their distinguishable blue exhaust plumes again.

Ride out
Prior to the start of the event, a number of bikers and bike builders met at the local gas station for a ride out to the venue. Little over 150 bikers, nearly of which were modified in one way or another, joined in this brotherly gathering. The atmosphere was incredible; there is something quite special about seeing cafe racers being used for they were built.

Choices, choices
There were three contemporary categories; Modern Classics, Scrambler & Brat, and Café Racers. BikeBrewers were given the task of selecting the Top 3 in the “Café Racer” category. We were given about twenty projects to choose from and had about an hour to finalize our task.

As we always do when judging bikes, we put together a matrix awarding points on a scale of 1-10 for elements such as the ‘Wow!’ factor, originality, quality of work & amp; paint, and craftsmanship and set out separately to do our first independent judging.

You’d expect this to be easy and give clear comparable results. No such thing! We had quite a hefty discussion and with the clock ticking away it required a final walk around to re-evaluate our choices. At the ‘strike of twelve’ we managed to come up with a Top 3 we could both fully subscribe to.

And the winner is…
A 1994 Yamaha XV1100 had scored high points on both our lists and was chosen ‘Best of show’ in this year’s Café Racer category. Its owner, Borislav Alexsov, has put quite a lot of hours in building this machine and is rightfully proud of the result. 2nd place went to Vencislav Angelov with his stunning 1984 Honda CBX 750, and 3rd place went to Kaloian Ivanchev Chekelev with his very cool BMW R75 which saw daylight in 1982.

All top 3 finalists were showered with gifts from local sponsors. To top it off BikeBrewers’ came bearing gifts from our partners Felix Auto Moto and SA1NT! adding a helmet and a sought after twill trucker cap to the basket of each of the category winners!

Come rain come shine
Bulgarians have been spoiled with loads of sunshine over the past couple of months. Unfortunately, rain was predicted during the hours of the event. The start of the award ceremony for the café racer category was launched with a clap of thunder followed by a slight drizzle. That made us feel like home instantly.

Luckily the audience was not scared away that easily, and there was quite a cheer from the several hundred people on the square. According to the organizers, the total attendance during this year’s edition the audience grew with 20% to around 2.500 visitors who meandered amongst all the beauty displayed on the town square this morning.

The next edition
Writing this post just before the party organized by the Cafe Racer Club Bulgaria, we are already spoiled by the kindness of the Bulgarians we met on the way, especially by the members of the café racer community.

As much as we love attending established events in Western European countries, we are always on the lookout for new, exciting and more grass roots experiences. This scene is way bigger and vibrant than you would ever dare to imagine. Everyone we met was proud of the results of their labour and insights are shared freely among this close-knit society.

We will be back for sure and hope the organizers can look forward to an even bigger crowd in 2022. Being the only international visitors this year, we share our experience with the knowledge that this is likely to be the last time we enjoyed this exclusivity.

Given the fact that there is a very lively local scene and magnificent twisty country roads and awesome virgin off road tracks to be travelled freely, it is likely many adventurous bikers from the West will be heading East next year.

Photos by:
Georgi Georgiev Photography
Kalina Kalcheva
BikeBrewers

The post REPORT: Café Racer Fest 2021 by Café Racer Club Bulgaria appeared first on BikeBrewers.com.