Table of contents for RCBE#23 WINTER 2016 in Retrobike

“THIS YEAR SOME 90 BIKES TOOK PART, SPLIT ROUGHLY BETWEEN LATE MODELS AND EARLY GIRLS” THIS was my third trip to Lake Gairdner, the enormous 160km-long dry salt lake in the South Australian outback, for Speed Week; five days of flat-chat land speed racing in one of the most isolated and spectacular places on Earth. My first experience was in 2003 when, as editor of Street Machine, I was invited to race Norm Hardinge’s 1934 Ford. I managed to get in my 125mph qualifying pass before Norm’s co-driver Wayne Belot blew it up at just over 190mph to bring my salt-racing career to an early close. I’d never even sat in a hot rod before so it was an unforgettable experience. I went back in 2006 to support my mate…

“WITH ACCESS TO A FULL RACE WORKSHOP, THERE WAS NO BETTER TIME TO FLEX MY CREATIVE SKILLS” BILLY MacKenzie is the most famous British motocross racer of the modern era, national champion in 2007 and 2008 and winner of many international FIM Grand Prix. The flying Scot moved to Australia in 2010, where he contested the Australian MX Nationals for five years, finishing runner-up that year and third in 2011, 2013 and 2014. During this time, he started dabbling in custom bike building at his home in Byron Bay, NSW. He then returned to the UK in 2015 to race some selected events and support his mate and former TT legend Keith Amor in his return to national road racing, with Keith’s brother Guy on the tools. “I had already…

“IT WAS THE FIRST TIME DUCATI HAD WON ANYTHING BIG SINCE THE 125 GPS IN THE LATE 1950S” AFTER winning 14 World Superbike titles in 26 years, and now once again competitive in MotoGP, Ducati’s standing in top-level motorcycle racing is something we take for granted. But before 1972, the Bologna factory, then owned by the Italian government, had zero big-bike credibility, known instead as a producer of small-capacity singles. Paul Smart’s Imola 200 race victory on April 23, 1972 — on a desmo-equipped version of the just-released GT750 roadbike — changed all that. By winning the first major Formula 750 200-miler held outside the USA, the British rider not only put Ducati on the map, he also kick-started a benchmark of 90-degree desmo V-twins that has never been broken,…

“58 years later, I’m still sitting on motorcycles and still dribbling over them” LAST week I celebrated my 58th birthday. Bloody hell!! Where has the time gone? So many years and so many memories and time just seems to be getting shorter. Actually, at the moment I want the years to go very fast. Now that sounds wrong, doesn’t it? But there is an ulterior motive for me. In 2013 I was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, or AML. It put me in hospital for eight months straight and I had to have multiple rounds of the nastiest bloody chemotherapy that you could imagine. 24 hours a day for seven days the shit was pumped into me. Then I had to try and recover, get back to some sort of…

“IT EVENTUATED INTO A BEHEMOTH OF A BUILD THAT TOOK ALMOST A YEAR TO COMPLETE” THIS is the third BMW R nineT we’ve featured in just seven issues of the relaunched Retrobike, not what you’d expect for a model that didn’t exist before 2014. It’s as if BMW purpose-built a brand new bike as a platform for customising in the modern retro style, which is of course exactly what they did. The R nineT was loosely based on the Concept Ninety show bike, Roland Sands’ 2013 reinterpretation of the iconic 1973 BMW R 90 S, so it was always off to a good start. The bolt-on seat sub-frame, independent of the main chassis, is easily replaceable with a custom unit fabricated in a more aggressive style. The electrics were thoughtfully…

BENJIE Flipperboi has been building custom bikes for 10 years from his premises in Corona, California, better known worldwide as the home of Fender guitars. His business, BCR Designs (for Benjie’s Cafe Racer), was an early adopter of the scrambler and tracker styles but soon everyone was doing it and donor bikes were getting hard to find. It was time to play a different tune. “We love working on Hondas and Yamahas from the 1970s but an increase in demand has caused the price of these bikes to rise greatly since we started the business,” Benjie says. “And scramblers and trackers have gained popularity to the extent that even big-time manufacturers have cashed in on the hype with factory models in these styles.” For much less money than an old…

“IT’S NOT OFTEN PEOPLE LIKE US HAVE THE CHANCE TO GET UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH A LEGEND LIKE FREDDIE SPENCER” IT’S BEEN 31 years since Freddie Spencer won both the 250cc and 500cc World Championships in the same season, riding for Honda. The two classes were as different then as MotoGP and Moto2 today, requiring very different styles but equally demanding, and there was little time between races. It took a consummate professional to pull off something like that and nothing has changed. Special guest of the Post Classic Racing Association of NSW at their premiere annual event, the Barry Sheene Festival of Speed at Sydney Motor Sport Park, Fast Freddie spent most of the weekend in the pits, wearing his race leathers and posing for photos alongside…

“IT IS ESSENTIALLY A CAFE RACING EVENT, ALBEIT WITH A BROAD INTERPRETATION OF WHAT THAT MEANS” GLEMSECK 101 is a weekend motorcycle festival held annually at the old Solitude racetrack adjacent to the city of Leonberg near Stuttgart, where the German Grand Prix was held up until the mid-1960s. Based around a custom bike show featuring Europe’s top builders, and wild heads-up 1/8th-mile drag racing on what was once the main straight, Glemseck 101 has blossomed in just 10 years from an informal competition hosted by the local pub into the continent’s biggest outdoor motorcycling festival, attracting over 40,000 spectators each autumn. It is essentially a cafe racing event, albeit with a broad interpretation of what that constitutes. So long as it is in the spirit, if you like, most…

“Talk about the most fun you can have kneeling down!” SITTING in the workshop, my mind drifts back to my motorcycle heritage. I’m a third-generation enthusiast. My grandfather rode a 1924 Douglas, my father rode AJS and Coventry-Eagle and my first bike was a 125cc James. My father also had a love for watching speedway bike racing. He did this with his mates in the 1930s, sheltering under their leather jackets for protection from rocks and dirt as the bikes drifted past. Dad took me to the Sydney Showground Speedway in the early 60s. What a thrill, and I distinctly remember that my lasting memory was that I wanted to be a sidecar passenger. As fate would have it, Old Racing Mate invited me to his club’s ‘Sidecar Come &…

“THE PLAN WAS TO MAKE IT LARGER OVERALL BUT STILL KEEP THE ORIGINAL PROPORTIONS” THIS little Honda came to me as an impulse buy from the Mudgeeraba Swap. After a bit of haggling, I handed over $350 and it was mine. It was reasonably stock other than the rattle-canned tank with bashed-in knee wells. The motor had been pulled out with the top end dismantled, but it was all there. I got it back to my shop (PopBang Classics on the Gold Coast), stuck it up on the mezzanine and forgot about it until a couple of big burly fellas came in wanting me to build a couple of bikes for them. They didn’t have licences yet nor bikes to start with, so they asked what I had. The answer…

“THE OLD BIKE'S BEEN HANDLED WITH CARE, REFLECTING THE OWNER'S PRIDE AND MECHANICAL ABILITY” A BOY stares longingly at his father’s Cushman Eagle scooter. Dad can be heard in the garage cutting a sturdy wooden square from half-inch plywood, which he then magically attaches to the rear of the scooter. The boy is soon plopped upon it and within moments they’re off! The boy’s arms cling to his father’s waist as the wind buffets their faces, unhindered by fairings, windshields or even helmets. “I can still feel the splinters from the edge of the plywood,” Tom Fritz says. The brief moment proved pivotal, not just as an initiation into motorcycles but also the inspiration that sparked Tom’s philosophy to his art. Born and raised in San Fernando, Tom Fritz’s vivid…

LAWRENCE Ryan is a 45-year-old professional motorcycle daredevil from Junee in the central west of NSW. He first appeared on my radar more than 15 years ago, as Lawrence Legend tunnelling fire, smashing into cars and jumping anything that wasn’t moving as part of the night-time entertainment at the Summernats Car Festival. My favourite stunt was in 2003 when, instead of jumping his bike over a bunch of buses, he jumped a double-decker bus over 18 bikes! “Twenty-two bikes were lined up but I landed on some,” he says. It was hilarious and terrifying all at the same time. He jumped 38 bikes the next year and 45 the year after that. For Lawrence, it’s all about the show. Evel Knievel is obviously his inspiration, especially now that he has…

“I could hear them saying, ‘Let him just test scooters from now on’” MY MATE described it as a ‘Flying W’, which I suppose is as good a description as any, but I wasn’t really in any position to tell if he was right or wrong, because I was the one doing the flying at the time. Now, what in the hell is a ‘Flying W’, you ask? Well, it’s what a person looks like (viewed from behind) when he is literally flying through the air, having just been launched off his motorcycle by its front wheel plunging into an almighty great pothole. It’s most spectacular if you’re also going too fast – arms flaying, legs splaying, body tumbling – but the ‘Flying W’ is never pretty to witness. Especially…

J.O HELMET THE Shoei J.O helmet combines style and safety, with an integrated visor adjustable to three positions to fit different profiles perfectly. Ultra-compact and super light, the J.O features a small, low, snug fit, fully removable interior liner and weighs in at less than a kilogram. Available in sizes XS to XXL. Solid colours $499; graphics $599 mcleodaccessories.com.au XSR ULTRASUEDE SEAT & SEAT COWL YAMAHA have plenty of bolt-on bits available for your new XSR. Start with the Ultrasuede Seat. Resistant to stains and discolouration, it feels as good as it looks. If you are looking to give your XSR some cafe racer styling then the Aluminium Seat Cowl is just what you need. Available in matt grey or blue and includes graphics. Seat $393.25; cowl $576.40…

FATHER & SON RESTORING a 1967 Triumph Tiger 90 has brought many pleasures, none more so than working on it with my son, who left home at 18. When I started the project I had energy and passion, but that only lasted so long and it was grinding to a halt. My son, now 30, realised this and now comes around every Wednesday night to share a beer, throw some steaks on the BBQ and get stuck into the bike. We have different ideas regarding old vs modern bikes and this is where your magazine comes into play. We both loved The Tempest last issue and it will probably be the foundation of our first ‘retro’ build. Love the mag, it’s a great read and a wealth of information. Glynn…