Flat-Tracker, Street-Scrambler, Custom-Bobber. Why Retro is the future (for adventure biking).

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Freeloadeur
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Flat-Tracker, Street-Scrambler, Custom-Bobber. Why Retro is the future (for adventure biking).

Post by Freeloadeur »

Bear with me on this one.

The last few years have seen a boom in adventure bikes, since some actor and his mate went round and down on big beemers it's been the one growth market in motorcycling. All the major players have at least one model that they call an adventure bike. Specialists have sprung up, shops have been set up even magazines have been published to cater for the Adventure Bikerin Shoreditch pull in thousands of people off all interests

But bubbling along below the surface, in backstreet lock-ups and old industrial sites there's been a movement growing. The customs are coming back. Not the over-blinged, stretched to the limits TV show bikes of OCC but simpler motorcycles which hark back to an age before plastic failings and silicon chips. The flat-tracker, street-scrambler and café-racer are all there in all shapes and sizes. And the movement is growing, with blogs, books and events all bursting up as if from nowhere, custom builders surfacing left, right and centre.

Some like Deus Ex Machina have become brands, offering a range of off-the-peg bikes that the customer can tweak if they wish while wearing the T-shirt and drinking the coffee pays for with cash out of the branded leather wallet. Some are smaller like Muff Customs tailoring each build to the customer's wants. What they all have in common is a back-tip-basics style building bikes like they used to be when we were kids and Steve McQueen was still alive to be cool. (And t-shirts, they all have them. In fact it seems the first step to becoming a custom bike builder is tip launch a t-shirt range).

And the big players are just beginning to notice. Some have got it right, Yamaha with the (re) launch of the SR400. Some are on the way there like Triumph with their ever increasing accessories list for the Bonneville, Scrambler and Thruxton. Some like BMW seem to have jumped for the bandwagon but to my mind fallen short with the R nine-T.

So why is all this looking back to the past good for the future, and the future of adventure biking?

Firstly because the bikes are simple. Recent threads on here have included questions on how you're going to fix your BMW's CANBUS system when it fries in the Sudan or your CCM's suspension, collapsed on the steppes of Siberia. The neo-customs are based on older bikes, pre-computer when things could be fixed with a hammer and a Haynes manual (this is why the R nine-T doesn't count).

[center][video width=425 height=344 type=youtube]xm0_UOiSqKA[/video]

Long Live The Kings[/center]

Secondly the bikes are lighter. Ok so an old airhead scrambler is never going to be lightweight and Triumph's Bonneville is a bloated beast but the philosophy tends to be that less is better. Colin Chapman's mantra of adding lighness applies.

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Auto-Fabrica T3 Yamaha SR250
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Thirdly the engines are all shapes and sizes. There's not the "bigger, better, faster, more..." attitude. A lot of the bikes are in the 400-650cc range but there's a growing trend for 125-250cc. When the bike is lighter it doesn't need all that power and anyway when the bike is lighter who needs all those cylinders anyway?

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Dauyphone-Lamarck CG125[/center]

Fourthly anyone can do it. Ok so anyone can set off round the world too but you have to admit adventure biking tends to be a rich man's game. The bikes are expensive, the farkles moreso and the Goretex lined silk knickers are massively over priced. Sure there's expensive gear to be had in the custom scene too with Belstaff, Barbour and Davida all clamouring for your cash but you can just as easily find an old CG125 on Gumtree, a tank and bits and bobs to bolt on on eBay and have fun tinkering in your backyard for practically pennies.

[center][video width=425 height=344 type=youtube]3YsJB3-2OAE[/video]

Scram Africa 2013[/center]

Finally it's very open. The adventure biking scene has become a bit of a bubble, we're in it but the vast majority of people have no idea and no desire to know who Austin Vince is or why the watercooling on the new GS is so great or which traction control settings to use. But they do like a nice hand built bike. Sure it can all be a bit trendy café in Hackney but events like the Bikeshed show pull in thousands of people of all shapes and sizes from all walks of bikingand none. The food's good, the atmosphere welcoming and the bikes are all hand-built, individualistic. Bikes built to ride any and everywhere. Bikes you just throw a bag on the back of and your leg over and go.

[center][attachment=0]JackPine006.jpg[/attachment]

Hammarhead Jack Pine Scrambler
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So whilst adventure biking becomes ever more specialized, complicated and expensive, the nu-custom scene offers simplicity, choice and cheapness to anyone. In an age where biking is becoming the hobby of the comfortably off middle-aged man, retro is opening doors to people of all ages and pay scales.

And the bike's got soul.
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Happiness has 125cc ...
Tonibe63
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Re: Flat-Tracker, Street-Scrambler, Custom-Bobber. Why Retro is the future (for adventure biking).

Post by Tonibe63 »

T'is the future and BMW know it hence the overpriced NineT thingy.
Got a project on the go and an eye on another (both 80's/90's Yams)

Great little scrambler type http://www.bikeexif.com/honda-cl400
Open your eyes and you see what is in front of you, open your mind and you see a bigger picture but open your heart and you see a whole new World.
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Re: Flat-Tracker, Street-Scrambler, Custom-Bobber. Why Retro is the future (for adventure biking).

Post by Redmurty »

I'll be going to "wheels and waves" in June to see what the bad boys are going down there. Lots of bike of the ilk you mention and the one in the photo is stunning. I have a DR 350 in the garage that keeps shouting at me to "tidy" it up.

cheers Spud ;)
Life... it's not a dress rehearsal



You don't waste time... you waste yourself
outrunner
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Re: Flat-Tracker, Street-Scrambler, Custom-Bobber. Why Retro is the future (for adventure biking).

Post by outrunner »

Nice bikes, reminds me that I really should make up my mind as to what way to go with my Honda XBR 500.............back to original, or street tracker? :unsure:


Andy.
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herman
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Re: Flat-Tracker, Street-Scrambler, Custom-Bobber. Why Retro is the future (for adventure biking).

Post by herman »

My mate Steve has been on it for a while but its nowt new we were doing it in the late 80s to Honda twins and Yam singles. http://www.redmaxspeedshop.com/flattrack.html I love em but dont feel the need nowadays as my bladder is shot already. :blush:
The secret of a long life is knowing when its time to go.
Sprockette
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Re: Flat-Tracker, Street-Scrambler, Custom-Bobber. Why Retro is the future (for adventure biking).

Post by Sprockette »

I must admit I do like a simple looking bike like the ones you've mentioned and also things like bobbers, cafe racers and so on. If you don't mind I will post up some pictures too.

I have a thing for the lovely Kawasaki W series of bikes, here is a lovely W650 set up as a flat tracker:

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I know the W800 is fuel injected but if you ask me, and I'm definitely totally biased, it doesn't count as trick as it's really only there for emissions regs (otherwise the W650 wouldn't have disappeared in the first place). So there. Here are some lovely W800 Gentlemen's Cup bikes, which are definitely working track bikes, although they do race on supermoto tracks rather than flat tracks. Same idiom though.

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I have many other pictures of other makes of bike but don't want to create a picture flood.
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Re: Flat-Tracker, Street-Scrambler, Custom-Bobber. Why Retro is the future (for adventure biking).

Post by Willandkate »

I'm right with you Freeloader. The bike industry seriously needs to get onto the 'passion of biking' thing. Keep it simple, keep it from the soul, keep the emotion. Sure, there are rev heads, techo heads, petrol heads etc who want traction gizmo whatever electronic stuff but if the bike industry is to stay alive it needs to get with the times and re inject the heart, not the head and/or wallet.

Look at brands like Superdry in clothing. They only sell shirts, jeans, jackets etc just like millions of other shops but they do it in a way that people 'want' to buy their products and are prepared to but premium for it. Bikes used to be a form of cheap transport (still are only that to some) but nowadays they are becoming more like 'big boys toys'. Retro bikes are a great way for 40 somethings to be able to finally buy the bike they had a poster of on their bedroom wall as a kid. Bike manufacturers need to catch up with this and fast to keep the passion alive.

I found the recent show at the NEC pretty dismal to be honest. It felt like it was stuck in the 80's. There was no 'celebration' of the bike or any passion. Just a big showroom with ill informed bored staff on boring trade stands and a bit of cellulite lycra tottie wandering around.

Where was anything that stirred the soul? All I stirred was an overpriced coffee to wash down a rank burger. Where was the emotion?

Don't you feel it when you look at these photos?
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Nowadays even with the assistance of photoshop and CGI, the best they can come up with is about as soul stirring as a luke warm cuppa soup
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Our biggest ride - Australia to England

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cozmo1589
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Flat-Tracker, Street-Scrambler, Custom-Bobber. Why Retro is the future (for a...

Post by cozmo1589 »

I really love my everyday do it all ultra reliable gadget laden Honda Crosstourer which is great for blasting from one end of the country to the other without blinking however I love more the older style bikes on which you can easily work, modify and custom. Also the social scene is absolutely second to none. With each of my other 3 bikes, there are numerous clubs, regular meets, ride outs, national and international events and shows all of which make the adventure bike thingy pail into insignificance. Don't get me wrong this is not me having a go I am just putting things into perspective and while I'll never be without a modern globe trotting bike that can do so many things, my 54 year old Lambretta, my 1500v twin cruiser and my cafe racer complete with a good ole fashioned kick start offer me infinitely much more FUN !
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2014 Honda VFR1200X Crosstourer DCT Highlander
Road2Manchester
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Re: Flat-Tracker, Street-Scrambler, Custom-Bobber. Why Retro is the future (for adventure biking).

Post by Road2Manchester »

XR1500RDirtWing.jpg
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OK I'm ready......
cam to gif



If you ride like the wind, expect to get blown away. One lifetime is all we get use it wisely this ain;t no practise.
Road2Manchester
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Re: Flat-Tracker, Street-Scrambler, Custom-Bobber. Why Retro is the future (for adventure biking).

Post by Road2Manchester »

nice

Nuff said
cam to gif



If you ride like the wind, expect to get blown away. One lifetime is all we get use it wisely this ain;t no practise.
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