Motorbikes
EB022 – 1968 Honda CB450 K1
Price On Request In 1968 Elvis Presley stared in what became known as the '68 Comeback Special. It resurrected what was a flagging career and led into Elvis' Vegas era.In the TV special Elvis wore his famous black leather suit and his trademark blue-black hair doo.Our latest customer Andrew B drew some inspiration from this and named his black 1968 Honda CB450 K1, Elvis.With a view to restoring the old Honda, 'comeback' similarities can be drawn... and comeback from its sound but shabby former condition it certainly has.The brief was basically a restoration with subtle mods where we thought appropriate. Based on our other work Andrew seemed happy to leave the details up to us.Whilst the original CB450 is a classic, the look is somewhat reserved and safe. We proposed shortening the guards, slimming the seat, lowering the handlebars and headlight, widening the wheels and tyres as a starting point to give it a slightly tougher appeal.The frame was slightly adjusted to take the new slimmer seat, cleaned and then sent out with many other parts for satin black powder-coating.Lower handlebars were in order and used with (as per original) internal wiring and Posh grips. The original switch blocks were repaired cleaned, polished and reassembled. The original mirrors were cleaned and polished.To lower the headlight the original mount was ground apart, re-welded and finished as above. The seat uses the original steel pan modified with new shaped seat rubber and vinyl upholstery in a similar style to the original. The "ELVIS" tag was at Andrew's request and is in the original honda font. Front and rear mud guards are custom shaped stainless items. (It would have be a shame to cut up the originals as they were in good condition)The tank and side covers were finished in 2-pak black... badges...
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EB016 – Harley Davidson Sportster 48
Price On Request When Warwick Lyon started work on this Sportster "Forty Eight" he wanted to build a modern interpretation of a cafe racer with elements of a hard-boiled street-fighter.Warwick is a Brisbane based motorcycle builder who operates under the name of Rampant Motorcycles from his home workshop. When he realised that he needed specialist design assistance with this build,...
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EB019 – 2011 Triumph Bonneville
Price On Request Triumph claim the Bonneville to be "the most famous name in motorcycling" and apparently they (along with some of their brethren) are "the way bikes should look, run and sound".Bold claims, but they're probably correct... well perhaps for being the most famous at least.As to whether they are the way motorcycles _should_ look is a debatable point...
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EB053 – Moto Guzzi V50
Price On Request After seeing the ebay bought bike our client Nick C asked us to collect a few months back we thought he'd bought himself a few headaches.The bike was a 1982 Moto Guzzi V50-3 and looked like it had been used previously as a farm bike complete with cow manure. As the build progressed however, it became apparent...
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EB035 – Yamaha XJR400
Price On Request Our latest client Matthew D has been a visitor to Ellaspede for sometime now and happened to be in one day last year asking our opinion of potential LAMS donor bikes for a custom build. This happened to be during the build of EB014 (a Yamaha XJR400 we built for Jordan V). He'd been searching for a...
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EB043 – 2007 Triumph Bonneville
Price On Request People drop in to Ellaspede for varying reasons, one of the main ones being (not surprisingly) to talk bikes. Our latest client, Steve S was one of those folk. He was interested in discussing which motorcycle to use as a base for a mild custom build. After some chat, research and box ticking he'd narrowed the possible...
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EB080 – 1987 BMW R65
Price On Request Perception is a funny thing.It can be the difference between a positive or negative outcome, between liking or not liking something and often the cause of missed opportunities.To change perception usually takes a change of mindset or to be shown there may be more to something than meets the eye.Take the humble GS500 Suzuki for example. Generally...
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EB058 – Kawasaki ZR550 Zephyr
Price On Request When opportunity beckons what do you do?... Let it pass you by or seize it?Our latest client Henry chose the latter when perusing through Ellaspede a while back. Whilst it wasn't completely smooth sailing, the potential result that this opportunity promised was well worth the gamble.Henry was after a clean, unique and crisp bike to run down...
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EB082 – Honda GB250
Price On Request Decisions are made for various reasons. Generally the pros and cons are considered and hopefully an informed decision follows. But sometimes you don't get that choice, sometimes things just evolve and you're simply along for the ride.In the case of our latest client Brendan, it was a mix of all the above.Brendan was interested in getting into...
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EB099 – 1963 Piaggio Vespa VBB
Price On Request One of our latest clients Rick, contacted us with a view to tidying up his 1963 VBB Piaggio Vespa.The bike had been gathering dust in Rick's garage waiting for its former owner to return from abroad however, a change of plans saw caretaker Rick as the new owner of the little two-stroke Italian. With a dust-off Rick...
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EB118 – 1971 Honda CB450
Price On Request To the casual observer it seems almost all modified bikes fall into the category of either a Chopper or a Cafe Racer.Whilst there's much debate about what constitutes certain bike styles and genres, those with a deeper interest and understanding know there are many bike styles and cultural influences that inform those styles.Take our latest project for...
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EB079 – Harley Davidson Sportster 48
Price On Request What constitutes a custom bike?
Is it any change made to a standard bike?
Does it include purchased bolt-on parts as well as specially machined parts?
Perhaps a custom requires hand-fabricated parts, to be called so?
Or if we're being serious, is a true custom bike one that was hand made from the ground-up with a minimum...
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EB172 – 2010 CF Moto V5
Price On Request When you look at the many custom bikes featured on various forums, online blogs and printed media, we imagine there are plenty of times you've asked the question "why would you". Whether you're referring to the bastardisation of rare or classic models, seemingly poor quality work or just bad taste, we're sure you've asked the question.We're also...
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