The Yamaha 500 singles are some of our favorite air-cooled thumpers ever built. The street-oriented SR500, introduced in 1978, was available in the US until 1981 and Europe until 1983, though it remained available in […]
Tag: Desert Sleds
Rickman Metisse Desert Sled by Chelsea Borchert
A street-legal Rickman Metisse desert sled influenced by Steve McQueen… In the early 1960s, the deserts of Southern California were alive with the sound of Triumph twins, BSA singles, and other British-built machines streaking toward […]
Cool It: BMW R80RT Desert Sled by Dust Motorcycles
“Cool It” — a Desert Sled inspired by the King of Cool… In the final chase scene of The Great Escape (1963), Steve McQueen’s character jumps a stolen German motorcycle over a fence into Switzerland. […]
BMW R80 Desert Sled by Dust Motorcycles
“Bounty” — a BMW boxer built for the deserts of Dubai… The desert sled may have its roots in the cross-country races of 1960s America, where heroes such as Steve McQueen, Bud Ekins, and Malcolm […]
Moto Guzzi V65 TT Desert Sled
A Moto Guzzi built to ride 2500 km through the Moroccan desert! The Scram Africa is a 10-day, 2500-kilometer ride across the deserts and mountains of Morocco, from Tangier to the very southern end of […]
“Womp Rat” Kawasaki KZ400 Desert Sled
A scrambler built for the deserts of Tatooine! “Rescue, Rebuild, Recycle.” This is the motto of Tempe, Arizona’s AspiRe Cycle. Founder Chris Elliot certainly put those words into action with this 1978 Kawasaki KZ400, which […]
Triumph T100 “Street Sled” by Modulus Moto
A street-legal Triumph built for trophy truck territory… Dave Guerrant of San Francisco’s Modulus Moto has one of our favorite mission statements in the industry: “We are pushing boundaries. Maybe even farther than they should […]
Yamaha XT600 Desert Sled by Pancake Customs
“All purpose stealth scrambler…even James Bond would be stoked to ride.” Boy Janssen of Pancake Customs is a full-time, self-taught builder who builds original, high-quality customs out of his small shop in Rheden, in the […]
Kawasaki W650 Custom by Pancake Customs
A Dutch-built Kawasaki W650, designed for a veteran BMX rider… We first ran across this amazing Kawasaki W650 custom when our friends Rusty Gold Motorshop of Amsterdam snapped a shot of the bike sitting outside […]
Honda CL360 Scrambler by Offset Motorcycles
A $1000 Dirtbag Chopper gets turned into a Big Sur banger… Jason Lisica of San Francisco’s Offset Motorcycles has been involved with the city’s Dirtbag Challenge. The challenge, which has been the subject of two […]