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 […]

Populair request We have written about the venerable Yamaha XV a number of times in our recent posts and we can’t get enough of them. Not just because of the cool aesthetics the Japanese V-twins have, or the high desirability factor they possess. No ladies and gentlemen, we love the Yamaha […]

No introduction needed The venerable Yamaha XT600 doesn’t need any introduction as far as we’re concerned. We’ve covered a number of builds the past couple of years that involved a Yamaha XT in one way or another. We can definitely see a trend going on here, and we like it! Meet […]

Polish Perfection Somewhere inside an industrial railway building in Warsaw, there’s a garage that turns dreams into reality. Christian Boosen, the man behind 86 Gear Motorcycles, is specialised in building café racers, street trackers, brats, scramblers, you name it. So when a customer walked in to ask for a period correct […]

  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 […]

V-Twin Back in 1981 Yamaha introduced their XV-range motorcycles, which were all based around an air-cooled V-twin engine. Their most notable model was the Virago cruiser; however, a bit more anonymous was the TR1. Sold in various displacement forms, ranging from 535cc to 1100cc, the XV-models were primarily aimed at buyers […]

No introduction needed. It is time again for a Top 10 list, and this time we’ve decided to split it up into 2 instalments. Ladies and gentlemen, we would like to present to you, the totally arbitrary, BikeBrewers Top 10 Cafe Racers Hall of Fame: Part 1! 1. BMW R nineT […]

BOOMING business We have seen a number of very cool custom build motorcycles from Poland. We said this before, and we’ll say it again: Poland is BOOMING! We would like to introduce to you Dawid. This young fella works at a motorcycle garage, so he knows his way around the workshop. […]

Unusual suspect The Yamaha XS400 is not a bike that is particularly popular or well-known with bikers. It was built and sold between 1978 and 1987, and was in fact preceded by the XS360. Severely overshadowed by its more successful siblings at that time, the XT500 and XS650, Yamaha did manage […]

UNIK Edition Motorcycles UNIK Edition Custom Motorcycles in Lisbon, Portugal is known for a wide range of interesting builds. As a matter of fact, they do more than just building custom bikes. With a full-blown workshop and an official dealership, they truly are a jack of all trades. One of their […]

Dakar Legend In the past 5 years we have only covered builds that were based on a Yamaha XT. Far too little if you ask us. It is one of Yamaha’s biggest success stories and an absolute Paris-Dakar legend. Yamaha introduced the first XT, the XT500, in 1976 with a 500cc […]

Long run Some of the happiest people on the planet live and work in Hamamatsu, Japan. Yamaha introduced the XJR 1200 in Europe in 1995 and has continued to sell the XJR in Europe until 2016, but not without a few changes throughout the years. Most notably, the XJR got a […]

Two weeks ago we’ve posted this cool little Suzuki by Toma Customs from Brussels (Belgium) and we already got a new submission from them. This time they took a Yamaha XT600 as a base bike for a cool scrambler. Words by Thomas Jeukens, owner of Toma Customs: When we start a […]

You may recall a similar looking bike built by Industrial Moto late last summer. We featured it in 2017. Someone liked it so much they wanted one for themselves and commissioned Industrial Moto to build another one. While this version is based on the original Project Scout concept, it incorporated a […]

I can’t help it, but we got a submission of another awesome Yamaha Virago. And just like Bal Deo’s Virago I’ve posted last week, it’s an XV750. It’s not on purpose, it’s just how they roll in. This bike is built by Oran, owner of Buriam Siammotor, a motorcycle dealer in Buriram. This mid-sized […]

Just like the Honda CB or BMW airheads, the Yamaha Virago is one of the most popular base bikes for custom projects. And yes, it has been done over and over again. Some good, some bad, some terrible. And when a bike design is being consolidated, it gets harder and harder […]