Classified Moto, a Richmond (US) based brewer made an awesome looking custom (the type is not really specified as café racer, bratstyle or scrambler, just “classified”) based on a ’82 Yamaha XV920 Virago, they’ve called the “Shreveport Slammer”. Some mods: 2010 Yamaha R6 front end Benelli Mojave gas tank Custom stainless […]

A Yamaha Virago has an ankward standard lining, so turning it into a cafe racer takes some courage. Bike brewer Greg Hageman did an outstanding job on this XV750. Front fork is from a 2008 Yamaha R1. Öhlin shocks on the rear, and as you can see, the big v-twin caches […]

Hi My Name is Lars Schau, I’m 46 years old and I live in Bramming, Denmark. My earlier project, (a Honda Goldwing Cafe Racer), was a huge success, and it won first price, at a Allingåbro Motor Festival, back in may 2015. http://www.motorcykelgalleri.dk/galleri/70622-honda_goldwing_gl_1100_cafe_racer_edition_solgt In September 2015, I began my project with […]

It was a first for the BikeBrewers team. As a concerted effort four members tested a great variety of Rusty Stitches gear and gave our honest and unadulterated opinion. Pictures paint a 1000 words and video does the rest. We decided to go Full Monty on this one with ‘both unboxing and review videos. Don’t watch those, we're awful at video's!

The big one Well no, it’s not a coincidence that this bike has been photographed in Rotterdam (the Netherlands). And maybe yes, it might be a cliche. As the bike is a cross between modern and classic, we thought it would be cool to match the background, so here it is. […]

  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 […]

‘Crazy for building MAD stuff’ The city of Roosendaal in the south of the Netherlands harbours a small outfit run by a big (1.96m) guy. I got to know Daan Borsje a couple of years ago when we were both sitting in a jury for a build off competition. Daan is […]

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 […]

Three weeks ago we’ve featured this cool Honda CL350 Brat build by John Thompson, owner of Retro Rebuilds. He’s specialized in (re)building vintage Honda motorcycles. He built up a pretty firm list of custom bikes and today he presented us his latest machine based on a 1982 Honda CX500. And as […]

Yes! You’re right! Better late than never! This is the list of the 21 best custom motorcycles of 2017! Last year we did a voting based on the stats of popular bikes that year but this time we kept things much simpler. So no hard data, voting system, social statistics, or fancy […]

Industrial Moto showed us a real nice lineup with custom bikes with out of the box creations like this CB750, this XV. Mark Long, the photographer, and copywriter of Industrial Moto was a bit in doubt about this project: “I know that you have featured a couple of Industrial Moto customs […]

From mild-mannered cruiser to hard-edged café racer, change is a beautiful thing. Check out this Top 10 Yamaha Virago Cafe Racers and see if you agree. The Yamaha Virago was a significant milestone in the Japanese Cruiser family tree, but before we get there, here’s a quick cruiser history lesson. Not surprisingly […]

Under the label “if it ain’t Dutch, it ain’t much”, Yamaha Motor The Netherlands and watch brand TW Steel, work together to create a line of unique custom motorcycles that are linked to each other. One year ago this unique collaboration started with this cool custom XV950R, built by the guys […]