For Kawasaki Motorcycle & Engine Company, the dream of achieving success in the ever-competitive arena of motorcycles started with wings and not wheels. Prior to 1962, Kawasaki was more known for making aircraft than making motorcycles but after requiring struggling company Meguro Motorcycle Company in 1963, Kawasaki was well on its way to producing some iconic motorcycles. Well, sort of.
We recently did a little bike run through Indiana out to a rural property with a group of fun loving riders from all different states and Matthew Nebel came down from Cleveland with a great group to get away for a bit. We noticed right away he wasnt riding your average XS650 and after a few pits stops and close inspection we realized that he had something pretty unique that needed some light shed on it so more people could come to dig this ever evolving patina proud Yamaha chopper. We shot some photos and talked with him a bit about why he chose this for his daily rider.
Michael prides himself on his budget builds. One of the ways he’s able to keep costs down is by capitalizing on his talent for utilizing found items in his his builds. For example, that’s a mini Heineken keg under the seat that houses the battery and electronics.
I recently got a chance to meet up with Paul Riccioli, Jr. at his shop, RPM Resto and Custom, in Hillsborough, NJ to see his 1976 Honda CB750K. We were lucky enough to be able to roll the bike out of the shop on a very unusually warm January day to shoot some photos and ask him a few questions about himself and his bike.
For many of us we all have a certain bike we owned that got away, but imagine if you built a bike in the pinnacle of the seventies chopper revolution and it never got away. Imagine if you kept it preserved for over 45 years and continued riding it all that time. That's what Keith Schupp did ever since the day he got his motor back from the now famous Russ Collins of RC Engineering.
