Retrobike

WORDS GEOFF SEDDON PHOTOGRAPHY MOTOR RAUSCH COULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED FOUR OR FIVE YEARS AGO. THERE WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN ENOUGH INTEREST” FLAT track racing was born in the USA, where it is still big news, but it’s also flourishing in Europe. This is espec

WORDS RALPH FISCHER & GEOFF SEDDON PHOTOGRAPHY MAURICE VOLMEYER HERE is an interesting bike. At first glance it looks like a lightly modified early Ducati V-twin with a cool metal-finished tank and seat. Look closer and spot some serious brakes up fr

WITH JAMIE McILWRAITH LET’S see if you can spot the pattern here, people. Here is my motorcycle ownership history, in chronological order, by cylinder count: 1; 2; 2; 2; 1; 2; 1; 1; 2; 2. What’s yours? Now, this doesn’t mean that I have never ridden

WORDS ALAN CATHCART PHOTOGRAPHY STEPHEN PIPER DOUG Fraser is a toolmaker. His Emu Engineering workshop on the road to Phillip Island is packed with lathes, grinders, milling machines and related equipment, all the gear you need to build your own moto

WORDS & PHOTOS GEOFF SEDDON AT almost 2.6 metres long, 1.7 metres wide and weighing 335kg dry, the Ural Sahara is as imposing and impressive as any test bike that has ever graced my shed. Resplendent in custom khaki paint and optioned with jerrycan,

WORDS & PHOTOS RUSS MURRAY BACK in the heyday of snail mail, the Honda CT110 was the biggest-selling motorcycle in Australia, year after year, decade after decade, despite there being only one customer in the country for most of that time. The clutch

WITH GEOFF SEDDON I LOVE this photo of clubman racer Phil Canning giving his Period 3 Vincent Black Lightning the berries at the track. No, it’s not one of the original 30 Black Lightnings built in the Stevenage factory just after WWII, but a replica

WORDS GEOFF SEDDON PHOTOGRAPHY ALASTAIR RITCHIE LIKE most hobby builders, Nick O’Kane doesn’t build the same custom motorcycle twice. But exceptions are what make the rule. After building a cafe racer from a Suzuki TL1000R a few years ago that ended

WORDS GEOFF SEDDON PHOTOS HALF LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY & BEN GALLI WHAT a charming little bike. I’ve been hanging for a ride on the relaunched V7 Guzzi for years but the planets never aligned, so I was especially chuffed to have one for a fortnight to get

WORDS PAUL BAILEY PHOTOGRAPHY THOMAS WIELECKI “THE RACE BIKE WAS STRIPPED OF ITS BODYWORK AND SET A NEW WORLD RECORD OF 136MPH” IN 1936, Harley-Davidson debuted an iconic game-changer to the world. The 61-cubic-inch (1000cc) E and EL solos were the f

WORDS GEOFF SEDDON PHOTOS LUKE WOOD & BENNY SELBOSKAR “TRAFFIC is getting worse, public transport is a joke, yet we also boast some of the best riding roads in the country, if not the world,” Benny Selboskar from Smoked Garage in Fortitude Valley, Qu

WORDS GEOFF SEDDON PHOTOS RUSSELL NEUENDORF RUSSELL Neuendorf was having not much luck searching for an R-series BMW restoration project when he placed a wanted ad on Gumtree mid last year. It elicited a response from Peter Butler, who was about to l

WORDS GEOFF SEDDON PHOTOGRAPHY LUKAS MAGERI “IT WAS BUILT TO COMPLY WITH GERMANY’S MODIFIED VEHICLE GUIDELINES AND IS 100 PER CENT STREET LEGAL” IN just four years, Diamond Atelier has earned a worldwide reputation for innovative custom bikes. Althou

WORDS & PHOTOS PETE CAGNACCI/THROTTLE ROLL “THERE MIGHT BE RULES, IT’S HARD TO SAY. IF THERE WERE, THEY WERE DISREGARDED” LITTLE bikes and big noise. The pristine lands of gentle New Zealand were about to be torn asunder as the Quake City Rumblers ho

WORDS & PHOTOS GEOFF SEDDON STEVE Doherty is a longtime car and motorcycle tragic from Orange in the NSW central west. Previously best known for his show-quality Toranas, he switched his focus back to bikes after being introduced to the modern custom