Long live the kings - Blitz Motorcycles

Documentary shot on super 16mm relating the hopes and desires of those who go for a motorcycle road trip.

-Film by Clement Beauvais and Arthur de Kersauson
-Motorcycles by Blitz Motorcycles

Matt Machine

This short movie by Matthew Harrington, owner of Matt Machine is just simply amazing. If you want to know more about this Australian bike builder, you can read an interview here.

HONDA CB450 CAFE RACER

Eric Meglasson lives in Bend, Oregon, and his motorcycling journey has had its fair share of twists and turns. “Over the years, my bikes kept getting faster and faster,” says Eric. “But I started longing for a slower, more fun, naked bike to ride on the street at more reasonable speeds.” Although Eric owned a Monster, he’d been collecting images of café racers for years. “I loved the pure, shiny café racers, but also loved the fat tired, matte-finish bikes. I didn’t even know the term Brat existed at that point.” 

While recovering from knee surgery after a supermoto race accident, Eric sold a dirt bike to free up some dollars—and started researching his next purchase. “I probably looked at every motorcycle on Bike EXIF. After several weeks of Craigslist and eBay shopping, I stumbled upon ‘Rusty’. I was blown away. The second I saw this Honda cafe racer, I knew it was exactly what I wanted.” The CB450 was built by Jared Johnson of Holiday Customs, a one-man builder in Portland, Oregon, who shares a shop space with two other builders. The engine has been revitalized with an overbore kit from Superior Sleeve & Machine in Milwaukie, OR. The airbox has been removed, and cone filters fitted. The custom straight pipes are raw steel (“requires lots of WD-40 to keep the rust at bay”) with custom baffle inserts “to keep my neighbors happy”. 

To accentuate the clean look, the flat bars have a sanded raw steel finish and house just levers and the throttle—no instruments at all. “The local coppers have looked at it, but don’t seem to mind, as long as I hand signal,” says Eric. The suspension has been lowered 1½” all around with shorter rear shocks and lowered triple clamps; the wheels are 18“ front and rear, shod with 18 x 4.5” Coker tires. 

The frame has been bobbed at the back, with tabs shaved off, and fitted with a custom seat pan. Aside from the paintwork, the finish on the Honda is mostly wire brush on the shinier metalwork, with matte black everywhere else. After buying his Honda cafe racer, Eric tidied the bike up still further with a complete re-wire, and now does all his own maintenance. And he’s been inspired to get his hands increasingly dirty. “I’ve started my own project bike, a 1982 Virago inspired by Classified Moto—and I’m also helping a couple of friends with their own builds.” Great to see another home builder in the making—especially one with such good taste. 

Images by Alan Brandt Photography.

Russell Mitchell

Bike builder Russell Mitchell, owner of Exile Cycles and known by most people from Discovery Channel's programme Biker Build-Off, shares his passion for bikes with the rest of the world. When I saw his first bike for the build-off, I was immediately sold . The minimalistic style with clean handlebars is something you won't see every day. If you want to get an Exile cycle or if you want to clean up your own bike by using one of the kits they sell, I suggest you visit their website.

Analog CB350

This elegant and deceptively simple Honda CB350 was built for Mike Hranica of The Devil Wears Prada He chose Tony Prust of Analog Motorcycles to deliver. “Mike wanted a build based on a smaller displacement Honda,” says Prust. “I had a CB350 in the donor bike storage bin; Mike had a fairly specific idea of the stance and overall appearance.”

Hranica wanted a low 70s-style moto to cruise around his home in Chicago, but Prust had reservations. “I frequent Chicago, and the potholes there make a low bike dangerous. So I decide to leave the front suspension height alone, and lower the rear just a little with Gazi shocks—to keep it from bottoming out and give it better dampening. Adding tall sidewall Firestones filled in the look well, and gives the CB350 a low appearance without the low ride.”

Jason Koschnitzke at Motto Moto rebuilt the engine to stock specs. It’s now fitted with Mikuni VM30 carbs and K&N pod filters; the exhaust headers are stock but hooked up to shorty mufflers. The sparks come from Dyna mini coils and an Earth X lithium iron phosphate battery.

The subframe has been modified to suit the new seat style, and the paint, although custom, could be straight from a 70s bike brochure. New bars and indicators complete the low-key but classy look.

I’m sold. If you are too, check out Analog Motorcycles via their website and Facebook page.

1938 DKW NZ350

This bike is from the Russian guy named Vasiliy Arkhipov and as you might have guessed from looking at this bike, he has some skills up his sleeve. After working in the automotive industry for over 7 years, Vasiliy who is only 30 years old, now works in the aerospace industry as an industrial designer, specializing in carbon fibre. So he decided to use all of his talents to create a bike that is out of this world. 

To fully appreciate the build and the bike, I have to give you a really quick history lesson on Russian motorcycle manufacturing. It might sound like something out of a Russian spy movie, but this bikes history started back in 1945 when drawings and equipment were taken back to the USSR from the German motorcycle manufacturing plant DKW. They made an almost exact copy of the legendary DKW NZ350 at the Russian plant called Izhevsk, and named it the IZH350, which became one of the first production motorcycle in Russia.  

Here's Vasiliy to tell us more about this unique project. "A good friend of mine got one German made 1938 DKW  in very poor condition and he also had some parts from the IZH. In Russia, the bike is valuable to collectors so we decided to reincarnate it. We had a spare engine from Yamaha Diversion, which we decided to use. Wheels and brakes were taken from a Yamaha R6. Then we had to redesign the frame, making the motor fit inside it. After that we redrew the tank, making the diffusers for carbs that hides the filters. Rear wing, graying and bracket for registration number all made of carbon fiber. The electrical system and battery are located in a leather box under the seat."

This ambitious project took Vasiliy around 10 months to complete. "At the end, I've got a very comfortable bike for every day use" he says. But it's a lot more than that. Vasiliy has built a stunning bike that is part vintage, part modern, part historic, part futuristic, part innovative and part genius. 

The story behind cafe racers (The Downshift Ep. 19)