1936 Art Deco Motorcycle

I can't be the only person to have connected these two designs, but I haven't seen any other website or bike magazine comment on this yet. What we have here is an Art Deco concept Henderson motorcycle built in 1936 by O. Ray Courtney. It has an inline 4 cylinder engine longitudinally mounted in the frame, which must make the rear cylinders extremely hot with all that bodywork covering it. The more modern motorcycle is the Yamaha Gen-Ryu hybrid concept of 2005 which seems to borrow most of its styling elements from the Henderson. Notice the vertical grill has been turned into a vertical headlight array of LEDs. I love the way they modernized the design while keeping the retro theme. I wonder if James Parker had anything to do with this design as I see his front suspension ( Yamaha GTS ) on the front of this bike.

The Harley Davidson Sportster is going through a resurgence of sorts in regards to its popularity.
A number of custom bike builders are taking a new look at an old classic and seeing lots of new opportunities. Currently the hipster crowd are into vintage looking customs of the cafe, bobber, or scrambler style and that leaves two bikes at the top of the heap for that market. Triumph is seeing major sales from its T100/ Bonneville line and the Harley Sportster is as well. No longer just for girls getting into the Harley fold, the Sportster is now becoming a cult classic in its own right. Witness this video of Roland Sands Designs' new line of products to help turn your "chicks bike" into a cool manly custom cafe racer. Note the MotoGP under-braced swingarm to deal with all the extra power.

The electric motorcycle seems to have been around a lot longer than I thought. This Harley Davidson electric seems to be from the early 1970's as evidenced by the ill-fated boat tail rear fender and drum front brakes. What I find interesting is the chain sprocket is underneath the motor hinting at a transmission which is just now being implemented on electric bikes by Brammo. The cafe styling is a nice touch, but makes me wonder how fast this thing was expected to go and what kind of electronics were hidden underneath the faux gas tank. I can't imagine it would be very fast with those heavy lead-acid batteries. This is the only one I have ever seen, so I believe it is just a prototype. That is assuming it was actually built by Harley and not some home built special with Harley logos on the tank.

I'm sure very few people ever knew this existed. This video shows just what kind of rare motorcycles will show up at Pebble Beach. Also an interesting history of the Opel brand which I thought only made cars.Jay Leno may not be my favorite late night host, but he is definitely my favorite motorsports educator.

Bill Phelps

      Brooklyn based Bill Phelps is a renowned photographer and bike collector with an eye for classic beauty. Most of his images are in black and white, which seems to give his photographs a timeless appeal just as his subjects do. Around the Harley Davidson corporate offices his images are known as "the Holy Grail" because they remind the executives why they ride and what it's all about. He also owns a cafe in Brooklyn called Moto which is a haven for classic bike enthusiasts in the area. Check out his website at:billphelps.com

Motorcycles as Art

Yamaha XS650

     From cafe racers to brat-style bobbers and dirt trackers, Yamaha's iconic XS650 is fast becoming the ideal japanese platform for customization and performance upgrades. It even has it's own cottage aftermarket industry ready to supply an array of products that covers everything from frames to electronic ignitions and re-phased engines. Originally designed by Hosk in 1955 as a 500cc powerplant, the design was enlarged to 650cc to compete head on with the British 650 twins of the time. Considering when it was designed, the engine was surprisingly advanced using unit construction and horizontally split cases to prevent oil leakage. Single overhead camshafts were also considered fairly new and this technology truly established Yamaha as a major motorcycle manufacurer of larger bikes, rather than the smaller 2-stroke motorcycles for which they had previously been known for. If it had not been for the Honda CB750, this motorcycle could have sold millions instead of the 250,000 it did sell during it's 15 year lifespan. It now stands as a cult classic and is finding new life in the customizing scene as evidenced in this video by Deus Ex Machina. A couple of subtle modifications has changed this bike from UJM to cool cafe racer with loads of character.
Photo source: Bike Exif