There are three brands I always associate with the glory days of motorcycling in the 1970s: Honda, Triumph and Moto Guzzi. Four decades on, their bikes still have an enduring appeal for custom builders.

Honda may have lost its way in the charisma stakes of late, but Moto Guzzi still has a hotline to its past in the shape of the new V7 and California models. Adding fuel to the fire is a steady stream of high-profile customs: there’s Officine Rossopuro and Venier in Italy, Revival Cycles from the USA and Kaffeemaschine in Gerrmany.

This is Kaffeemaschine #9, based on a 1978 Moto Guzzi 1000 SP. Hamburg-based Axel Budde has stripped the bike back to the essentials and rebuilt everything to standards probably better than the factory could manage 35 years ago. The overhaul includes new cylinders and pistons, a lightweight single-disc clutch, and wider air intakes for the hungry 36mm Dell’Orto carbs.

Axel has also shortened the frame and modified it to carry a new seat pan, topped with an angular new seat unit that perfectly captures the style of the era. The tank is from a Le Mans Mk 2, and the wheels—complete with stainless spokes—are from XS Performance. The exhaust system is also stainless, and handmade.

“I wanted to build a relaxed bike with a ‘moderate’ seating position,” says Axel, “and decided to leave the 1000 SP’s integrated brake system intact. The foot pedal acts on one of the front discs as well as the rear disc—very cool!” The suspension is heavily upgraded though, with adjustable Wilbers shocks at the back and Yamaha YZF-R6 forks up front, which Axel modified to maintain the classic look.

The electrics are now packed neatly underneath the tank, leaving the space under the seat empty. So AxeI has filled the gap within the frame with a “glove box” (above)—a useful zipped bag nestling behind the side covers. It was designed by upholstery specialist Alex Rothe of WeitgehendGar—who also made the beautiful seat, and creates bespoke luggage for cafe racers and classic bikes.

Timeless style, modern reliability and even a touch of practicality too. What more could you want?

This Moto Guzzi 1000 SP is for sale. Contact Axel Budde via the Kaffeemaschine website for more details.

© Bike EXIF 2013. The world authority on custom motorcycles, brought to you by Icon 1000.

A bike has to be pretty special to stand out at the annual Wheels & Waves festival in Biarritz: it’s the motorcycling equivalent of a beach full of French supermodels. But this lovely 1979 BMW R65 with a surfboard rack stopped passers-by in their tracks with its understated elegance.

It’s the work of Xabi Ithurralde, and it took him ten months to build. The slightly ungainly looks of the stock R65 are gone, replaced by the more athletic build of a scrambler: Xabi’s goal was to create “a narrow and light motorcycle to drive off road.” He chose a BMW R65 rather than a larger bike because the short-stroke boxer engine revs eagerly, and the weight—at just over 200 kg wet—is very manageable. A major consideration if you’re going to strap on a surfboard …

Everything has been slimmed down, from the headlight to the tank to the beautifully finished seat, which Xabi describes as une place et demi—a seat and a half, “for the best proportions.” The renowned tannery Rémy Carriat, which supplies Louis Vuitton and Hermès, provided the leather for Xabi to make the seat.

The bars are now high and wide for a comfortable riding position and maximum leverage, and the brake master has been relocated to underneath the tank. (It’s a BMW K1200LT unit for extra stopping power.)

If you’re a laidback kind of guy who likes to ride the waves as well as the roads, what could be better?

Head over to Xabi Ithurralde’s Atelier 11 website for more images.

© Bike EXIF 2013. The world authority on custom motorcycles, brought to you by Icon 1000.

A few examples from an article posted here briefly providing an overview of several criminally manufactured and modified firearms seized in Ukraine.

“A poorly thought-out design of a sub-machine gun. It literally falls into pieces when handled (used?). The designer was clearly limited to the materials at hand, and would not know the technology. Shop too much: It needs a very strong spring, but then the last cartridge is guaranteed to jam.”

“Chechen “dogs” – a simple but effective weapon. Made, as far as I know, at the cannery. Judging by the serial numbers several thousand have been manufactured. The barrel is of poor quality, it is often jammed with a bullet, thus can be unscrewed and replaced. In Ukraine, such submachine guns are seized most in the Odessa, Donetsk and Chernivtsi regions, where Chechen criminal gangs are active.”

“A creative rethinking of a Mosin Nagant rifle. Homemade wire butt, pistol grip and front sight. The classic criminal weapon for concealed carry – with shortened barrel.”

“A rough imitation of a Makarov pistol. Visually the copy looks very good: in the dark or from a distance it could easily be mistaken for the original.”

See more.

Ludovic Lazareth has made a name for himself in France with extreme car and motorcycle customs. How about a Mini pickup powered by a 3.5-liter Range Rover engine? A trike with a Ferrari V8 under the hood? Or a custom Yamaha FZR1000 with Tron-style bodywork and a supercharger bolted on? Monsieur Lazareth has a wild imagination—and the engineering skills to match.

This BMW R1200R custom is the latest vehicle to roll out of the Annecy-le-Vieux workshop. And although it may look pretty wild to us, by Lazareth’s standards, it’s a very low-key build.

It was commissioned by a French client who wanted a ‘neo-retro scrambler.’ And the result is more than some high pipes and a new set of knobblies: According to Jean-Thomas Mayer, one of Lazareth’s young designers, “We kept only the engine and the Paralever suspension at the rear.” The tubular chassis is new, and the stock Telelever front suspension has been replaced by Yamaha YZF-R6 sportbike forks—widened to accommodate the chunky Continental Twinduro tires.

Lazareth’s aim was to mix the classic BMW cafe racer style—personified by the BMW Concept 90—with a touch of modernity and aggression. “Not horizontal like a café racer, but more dynamic,” says Mayer. So the visual dynamic of this R1200R has been shifted forward, helped by a truncated seat/tail unit. The 110hp boxer powerplant is now hooked up to an Ixil exhaust, with two mufflers sculpted from aluminum. And the cockpit has been reduced to the bare minimum, with just a simple digital speedometer and bar-end mirrors.

Head over to the Lazareth website for more images of this build. And while you’re there, check out his crazy half-car, half-motorcycle Wazuma.

Images by Charly Rosset.

Credits Ludovic LAZARETH—The factory boss / Designer manager & Mechanic | Franck PALENI—Workshop Manager & Painter | Cédric COLLAO—Mechanic | Loic GODEFROY—Engineer | Sylvain PIOTTE—Engineer Assistant | Jean-Thomas MAYER and Julien FESQUET—Transportation Designers

PS: There’s still a couple of days left to win a new jacket or helmet from the Icon 1000 range. Head over to the Icon 1000 Facebook page to get your free entry in!

© Bike EXIF 2013. The world authority on custom motorcycles, brought to you by Icon 1000.

The paint is still wet on the walls of Deus’ new Italian workshop, but the Italian boys have been dropped in the deep end already. They were commissioned by Yamaha Europe to revamp an XJR1300 as part of the ‘Yard Built Specials’ project—which you may remember from our coverage of the Wrenchmonkees build a few months ago.

This is the result, which has just been revealed on the Yamaha website. And pretty good it looks, too. “The Yamaha XJR1300 was an intriguing machine to work with,” says Deus Italy’s Alessandro Rossi. “We drew inspiration from the legendary endurance racing machines of the late 1970s and 1980s, with their lean looks crafted for a single purpose—to win races.”

Deus concentrated on stripping the XJR1300 back to basics, reducing weight and shifting the visual focus on to the 1251cc air-cooled engine. “When we started to remove the XJR1300’s bodywork and road ancillaries, we noticed that it had a very aggressive stance—like a bulldog with big shoulders,” says Alessandro.

Deus emphasized that stance by fitting wider bars and hand-fabricated aluminum bodywork. The tank, side covers and cowl were reshaped to create a svelte new physique, and then finished with a distinctive paint treatment. “We call it ‘transparent dark,’ because it’s not black and it’s not brown.” The finish even appears amber from certain angles, when its transparent qualities allow the aluminum to show through.

The dynamics of the XJR1300 have been boosted too, with a complete Öhlins suspension transplant, front and back. Other components include Brembo radial brake and clutch lever systems, a Leo Vince titanium exhaust and Marvic Streamline magnesium wheels.

The traditional colors of the Öhlins parts have been toned down, though—Deus anodized the forks and powder coated the shocks’ springs black to make them less visible. “Our bike is an aggressive street fighter that likes to hide in the shadows, not stand in full view,” says Alessandro.

The seat unit is new, covered in a mixture of leather on the side and suede on top—just like a race bike. And the speedometer has gone, leaving the rider with just a rev counter to focus on.

It looks like XJR1300 owners will soon be able to emulate this look. At the Italian EICMA motorcycle show in November, Deus will launch a ‘kit’ version of their modifications.

But if you want to see the XJR1300 in the metal before it appears at EICMA, head over to the Deus Venice outpost in L.A. It’s on display there right now. But if you can’t make it to California, the next best thing is the full image gallery on our Google+ page.

© Bike EXIF 2013. The world authority on custom motorcycles, brought to you by Icon 1000.

Jim Carducci is an engineer with a passion for dual sport motorcycles and the Harley Sportster motor. So he’s put the two together and created the Carducci Dual Sport SC3 Adventure.

It’s not quite as improbable as it sounds, and the amount of engineering on the finished product is quite remarkable. But the question remains: why? “I had a vision of how I could somehow transform a Sportster into a viable dual sport motorcycle,” says Jim. “Others have built variations of the idea, but none suited my eye. And few were truly capable off-road dual sport bikes.”

To set the benchmark, Jim rode BMW GSs, KTM 950s and other big dual sport bikes. After almost 10 years of thinking about it and talking about it, he started developing the SC3 prototype. “The Sportster motor was the key,” he says. “It produces tractable low-end power and is loaded with torque. Both of which are ideal for dual sporting. Plus, I just love the sound, feel, and look of its V-Twin motor—it has lots of soul!”

Jim bought a 2003 100th Anniversary Sportster “donor” bike—one of the last ‘hard mount’ Sportsters, with a lighter motor than the newer 2004+ model rubber-mounted motors. He then created 2D AutoCAD layouts to lock down the geometry of the frame, motor, suspension, wheels and rider position.

The goal was to get the optimum rake and trail, plus 8+ inches of rear wheel travel and 10+ inches of front wheel travel. The instantaneous force center is now well below the combined CG of the bike + rider—needed for the rear suspension and the traction to work well under acceleration.

With the basics sorted, Jim began a 3D solid-model detailed design. He built a full-scale 3D Styrofoam model of the aluminum 6-gallon gas tank (which was hand formed by Evan Wilcox). He also created a billet aluminum swing arm, triple clamps designed to integrate a Scotts steering damper, and vibration-isolation bar risers. Next came a GPS mount, foot controls, a rear fender sub-frame and rack, a crash bar, a fly screen and a skid plate. And last but not least, a kickstand. Corbin made a seat to Jim’s specs.

The Sportster motor was upgraded with an NRHS 1250cc kit and Andrews N4 cams. The rest of the components are high-spec too: Öhlins forks and rear shocks, configured to handle the Harley’s weight, plus 18” and 21” wheels from Buchanan’s, with Sun rims and a Talon front hub. The exhaust system is from Supertrapp, Biltwell supplied the 1” diameter handlebars, and the foot pegs are from Joker Machine.

Two and a half years later, the bike is more than ready to ride, but Jim isn’t quite finished yet. “I’m currently designing a new exhaust, to make standing up for long periods easier on the rider. I’m also formulating an idea for panniers.” San Jose Harley-Davidson has approached Jim to build bikes for customers, and he’s teaming up with the dealership to get more SC3 Adventures out onto trails and roads around the world.

Top marks to Jim Carducci for going where few others have dared. The Carducci Dual Sport might not be an ‘official’ bike, but there’s nothing amateur about this build.

For more on the SC3 Adventure, head over to the Carducci Dual Sport website. Images by Neil Hanshaw.

© Bike EXIF 2013. The world authority on custom motorcycles, brought to you by Icon 1000.

Three Wise Men

The story of the three wise men got me wondering: What if you did walk towards a star at a fixed speed?  What path would you trace on the Earth? Does it converge to a fixed cycle?

—N. Murdoch

If the wise men leave Jerusalem and walk toward the star Sirius, day and night, even when it’s below the horizon, this is the path they follow over the surface:

If we allow a little theological confusion and assume the wise men can walk on water, they’ll eventually wind up going in an endless circle, 30 kilometers in diameter, around the South Pole.

But let’s be a little more realistic; the wise men are hardly going to walk toward the star while it’s behind the Earth. Let’s assume that they only walk toward the star when it’s in the sky and the Sun has set.

In that case, their path actually takes them through Bethlehem:

If they don’t stop there, after a few years, they wind up orbiting Botswana:

These paths are calculated using, among other things, PyEphem, which provides tools for determining the historical positions of astronomical objects.

It’s tricky to figure out exactly what the wise men would have been following. There aren’t very many good astronomical candidates for the Star of Bethlehem (Chinese records don’t show a supernova at the right time, and none of the other obvious candidates check out) and, furthermore, there’s a lot of historical and theological debate over Jesus’s date of birth (“4 BC” seems to be the closest thing to a historical consensus date). These charts are all calculated for a somewhat arbitrary departure date from Jerusalem of December 25th, 1 AD; different departure days would lead to different paths, but the overall picture would be the same.

What if the wise men followed a planet?

Planets move against the background of stars, so the paths they produce are more complex. Here’s where the Wise Men would’ve gone if they followed Venus:

And here’s their path for Mars:

If the three wise men had a hovercar that could move at highway speed over land and water (it’s in the gnostic gospels somewhere) and decided to follow Venus, they’d take a particularly weird path:

At one point, they wind up near the North Pole in October. There, the Sun and Venus spend months near the horizon, rising and setting, nudging the Magi into a month-long spiral around the pole, a chaotic strange Magi attractor around the North Pole which some argue provides the theological foundation for the story of Santa Claus^{[citation needed]}.

Sadly, the three wise men probably weren’t following Venus. It’s one of the most familiar objects in the night sky, and as the late Sir Patrick Moore observed, if the wise men mistook it for a new star, they couldn’t have been very wise.

But maybe they’re wiser than Sir Patrick gives them credit for. After all, if you pick a random star in the sky, point at the horizon, and predict that there’s a baby about to be born in that direction, statistics—and birth rates—are on your side.

Click here for our Best Jazz of 2011 Channel.

The best jazz album of 2011, according to the 122 people who participated in this year's Rhapsody Jazz Critics' Poll (formerly the Village Voice Jazz Critics' Poll), was made by an artist who first came to prominence in the 1950s. Road Shows, Vol. 2, by Sonny Rollins, won in a landslide. Rollins also received recognition from much higher powers than jazz critics, receiving the Kennedy Center honors from the president. Interestingly, the Rhapsody poll's No. 2 spot belongs to one of the youngest musicians on the list, 29-year-old trumpet phenom Ambrose Akinmusire. Akinmusire's exhilarating Blue Note Records debut, When the Heart Emerges Glistening, seemed to appeal to more traditional- and progressive-minded voters alike.

The rest of the list is typically diverse, ranging from quintessential New York free improvisation (David S. Ware's Planetary Unknown) to R&B-inflected modern jazz (Terri Lyne Carrington's Mosaic Project) and many well-conceived experiments in fusing jazz with ethnic musics from around the globe (Amir ElSaffar's Inana Suite, Vijay Iyer's Tirtha and Miguel Zenon's Alma Adentro). There are also an eye-opening six-and-a-half solo piano discs (the half being one disc of Matthew Shipp's double-disc Art of the Improviser).

To bring you, the listener, the best of what jazz had to offer in 2011, we're continuing in our annual tradition of creating a channel based on this definitive crtitics' list. Just click here to start listening. Our channel is playing 42 out of the 60 albums on the list, with programming weighed more heavily towards the highest-ranking albums. Therefore, you'll hear more Sonny and Ambrose than Starlicker (a great Chicago trio that came in 58th place).

As for my personal favorites, you can listen to my Staff Picks channel to hear my top 30 albums. I'll be posting a blog soon about the selections.

What were your favorite albums released in 2011? Do you agree with the critics? Do you think important albums got snubbed? Leave your opinions in the comments, or talk to me on Twitter.

Again, click here to start listening to the Best of 2011 Channel.

H&K has never made a true G36 rifle available to civilians in the USA mostly due to import regulations and what I assume would be a lack of demand (lets face it, your average consumer is happy with one of the many AR variants that have taken over the semi-automatic 5.56 rifle market). However in the 90′s to comply with the 1989 import ban on foreign “assault weapons” and the now expired 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, H&K came up with an idea to market a new sporting rifle known as the SL8 that was a cousin of the G36. The rifle functioned via the same operating system but looked a whole lot less scary and a whole lot more like an old IBM computer keyboard:

While H&K did finally offer the gun in black, the fact remained that even though the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban expired, the ’89 ban persists to this day. The now discontinued SL8 was never a big seller due in part to its high price tag and the fact that it is a neutered version of a neat rifle, but the HK community (an especially crafty bunch) found a way to turn this horse designed by committee into what they wanted: a G36 rifle.

Now I bought an SL8 on September 17th, 2011 for the price of $1600 new in the box from my favorite local gun shop. I knew immediately that the rifle would be converted, so I never even shot the gun in stock SL8 form. Here she is the day I got her laid out across my garage floor:

The conversion is among the most complex gunsmithing projects I had ever undertaken, as it requires a significant amount of plastic welding (a skill I lack both the know-how and tools to perform) and so the hardest part is converting to take double stack magazines and welding on a g36 rear receiver stub. The SL8 has a section of the receiver indented so as to prevent the insertion of the double stacks. Also, the sl8 bolt head has a slanted lug so that it will not feed from double stacks, so you need a g36 bolt.

To start the process I ordered:
G36 Bolt Head- US HDPS Manufacture
G36 30 Round Mags
HK G36 High Capacity Mag Well- Black
Stock Block For HK SL8 Conversions (to shoot it before I did the rear of the receiver)
G36 Rear Stock Axle Pin For SL8 To G36 Stock Conversion
G36 FBI (0,1,) Lower HK German New
G36 Recoil assembly
G36 & HK SL8 Sight Rail With Front & Rear Sights
HK G36, G36K Full Size Folding Stock

These parts ran me $1,284.59.

Also, I will need a number of 922r compliance parts, which will include-
US made Sear
US made Trigger
US made Floor plates for magazines
US made Piston
US made Op Rod
US made Bolt Head
US made Flash Hider

Yes, 922r sucks and this bundle of parts cost me $424.64.

But wait, there is more you have to spend if you want that authentic look!

I just had to have the Hensoldt dual optic!

Which after shipping ran me another $709.99.

Once you have your gun and the parts you can start converting to the best of your ability. The first step is to swap your SL8 trigger group over to your G36 lower using your 922r parts. You can do this at home with your hands and a drill press (you need to drill a hole to accommodate the SL8 FCG).

This took me and my friend CJ about 2 hours in my garage, as the SL8′s FCG has parts that neither of us had ever seen before. You can see a breakdown of the trigger group here:

http://alpinetek.netfirms.com/guns/SL8/breakdown/

Basically strip your SL8 lower of its FCG, drill a hole on your new lower, and swap the parts over. This sounds simple, but I swear that a lot of profanity was involved and 3 or four hands were needed constantly. Not to mention those lovely 922r parts got to be put in.

That day I also milled out the magazine well to accept double-stack magazines. This is not my photo, but it is more of less how you do it:

I then put the HDPS stock block to use by aligning a g36 stock and punching in an axle pin, and I threw it together for a quick look see. At this point here is how she looked:

This was about as far as I could take it myself, so I had to outsource the next few steps to a professional. TPM Outfitters located in Carrolton, Texas are a business by me that specialize in H&K products. I did not know that they existed before I had started on this project, but I conscripted them to turn my barrel down, thread it, and get the plastic welding done (something they outsourced to a gentleman they know).

The following is a series of photographs depicting how the plastic welding is done on these guns. First, the magwell cut is reinforced by the placement of a metal bar:

The bar is then covered and laser engraved with authentic g36 markings:

Now here is the scary part. The rear of the SL8 must be cut off and a g36 receiver stub must be put in its place:

The stub and the SL8 receiver are not simply plastic welded together either; a steel bar is put in-between the two for strength:

The two sections are then brought together and then welded:

After proper welding you are left with this:

And of course the markings that formerly said “SL8″ are refinished with g36 markings:

The next step is to mill this nub on your SL8 carrier off so that it will clear the new g36 receiver stub:

 

Alas after two years of working on this project on and off, I finally got to pick up the gun and assemble it. As I held the product in my hands for the first time It seemed like I had a whole new rifle. I ditched the stock block and the original sight rail I bought and bam, suddenly I felt like I had a real G36 rifle in my hands:

Also for giggles, I just had to get a suppressor adapter and throw my Gemtech G5 on it!

And there she is; A project two years in the making is finally completed and is perhaps the most unique gun in my collection. I have put maybe 500 rounds of both m193 ball and M855 ammunition through it without a stoppage and it turns some heads at every range it goes to. Most people ask “what is that thing?” while others ask “how the hell did you get that?”. I have yet to have anyone know it started life as an SL8 approach me and ask about the conversion.

So there you have it, a civilian G36 in the USA. It isn’t impossible, but it isn’t easy either. Now if this is something you have considered, let me tell you the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good:

• Shoots great! Very reliable and the trigger is very good
• The dual optic is very neat and has a built in range finder and a nice reticle
• Very low recoil impulse
• Fully ambidextrous
• Light for its size and barrel length
• Feels very solid for a plastic gun
• Turns heads and generates traffic
• Fine asset to any collection

The Bad:

• The eye relief and FOV on the dual optic are terrible!
• The battery for the red dot is proprietary
• The unique recoil impulse has two stages akin to a SCAR (odd to describe but very weird)
• Magazines are proprietary and can be expensive (albeit Magpul now makes g36 mags)
• It isn’t and will never be a real G36 rifle

The Ugly:

• The price tag. I have about $4500 into this gun
• Time to completion; This project has taken me two years to complete due to turnaround times and parts acquisition

So that is that. If you have any more questions please feel free to ask me and I will answer them to them to the best of my ability in the comments!

This raw and brutal BMW K100 was built, very aptly, by a master blacksmith and metalworker. Faced with a long German winter, Marc Robrock decided to enliven his evenings and weekends and build himself a bike. “After 25 years of riding bikes, I felt I was missing something,” he says. “And life is too short to have un-customized stuff.”

Robrock started to look for a ‘nice’ bike but soon switched direction. “Why take a nice bike and rebuild it? Why not take an ugly one? So I chose the ugliest bike I know: The BMW K100.”

Marc found a 1984 model and stripped it down, removing everything that was not necessary and cleaning what was left. But not too much—he was keen to retain the patina of three decades.

After weeks of grinding, cutting and welding, the BMW K100 took shape. Everything was done with an eye to TÜV approval: no sharp or open-ended parts, small aluminum fenders were added, and the original exhaust pipe retained.

Marc added a new aluminum subframe to support a custom-made seat unit, and mounted the Bosch ignition and tiny gel battery underneath. The rims, forks and a multitude of smaller pieces were sandblasted and powdercoated black. Then the bars were replaced with an aftermarket item, again resized to fit.

Marc calls the machine the BMW K-fé, and it took him five weeks to complete. TÜV certification took longer—six weeks. But the BMW is road-legal.

Now that Marc has all the paperwork sorted, he has just one job left to do—replace the exhaust system.

Images courtesy of Thomas Riese. Marc is at Robrock.de [German language only].

© Bike EXIF 2013. The world authority on custom motorcycles, brought to you by Icon 1000.

The appeal of 8-bit music, retro graphics and other art forms defined by their limits, beautifully explained by prolific musical artist and producer Brian Eno in his 1996 diary "A Year With Swollen Appendices."

Originally posted on volume xii, via Business Insider