What We Do
DESIGN
Our design ethos is born from hot-rodding in the 1920s, where bootleg runners would lighten their cars and boost the engines to outrun the feds, and of the cafe racer scene, where bikers would remove any superfluous parts from their bikes so they could win the sprint win the race to the next cafe.
What these two have in common is the practice of removing parts from the original vehicle, not adding them. We take this ethos and apply it to our own builds, remove as much as possible, whatever isn’t necessary, to uncover and shine a light on the heart of the object in question.
Simplicity is key, getting down to the pure functionality and championing the raw naked beauty.
We look at things the way a sculptor would look at a block of marble, and think “what do we need to remove to get to the core of this, to get to the underlying feeling”. Simple is hard!. Simple has nowhere to hide! There’s no pomp and fanfare to disguise what is underneath. The goal is to make it look like nothing has been hidden or altered, it was always meant to be this way, its true nature has been revealed.
SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainability plays a big part, as little as possible goes in the bin.
The new parts on many builds can be counted on one hand, the rest is elbow grease and spray paint. By keeping the original parts, we keep the original feel, parts that were designed to look good together stay together. The original feel remains, and something that was forgotten is given a new lease of life. Everyone and everything deserves another chance (and another, and another) so why dig more raw materials out of the ground and waste energy in factories, where love and imagination can bring about something new and unique from what already exists.
FEELING
We’re not scared of showing the scars of adventure, of a life lived - we all have them. In fact, all of our builds are built to last and built to age. Like a fine leather sofa they will bed in, become more comfortable and become even more unique.
More than anything, we try to capture a feeling, an emotion. The longboard takes its cues from the surfboards of the 60s, with its bright colour and central pinstripe. The ‘76 Honda CB200 drew comments about how it looks like a great bike to rip along a beach on. You know what? That’s exactly the emotion it was designed to invoke, hence the name “Surf Sprinter”. The BMW R100 “el Kommandante” is an adventure bike, something that will go everywhere (I’ve tried, it does) and do it all with an air of being completely un-fuck-with-able. Just like “Commandante” Che Guevara. And my guitar? Well, She’s a Whole Lotta Bass, She’s a Whole Lotta Rosie…
We take vintage motorbikes and other unique objects and customise them to give them a new lease of life and individuality.
We sell:
Reworked motorbikes and pieces that we conceive from our imagination
Custom motorbike rebuilds or item customisation upon request (go on challenge us to build you something as unique as you are)
Customise old motorbikes and refit them with environmentally friendly engines (because we care deeply about not adding more rubbish onto our earth). It’s our dream to go electric with classic styling!