Wondering how to build a custom motorcycle? Our expert guides are full of practical advice to take you through the difficult bits—from buying the right bike to choosing the best books and manuals to steer you through the hard parts.
Learn how to plan the project, select the correct tools and improve your abilities—whether it’s using a grinder, firing up a welder, or wielding a spray gun.
We weekend warriors set lofty goals for ourselves to show what we’re made of. We ditch the rattle cans for fancy coatings, put projects on hold until we can afford the best parts and push the MIG back in the corner to painstakingly lay TIG like dimes. But when I think back on the projects…
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They say you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet, and if you tuned in for Part 1 of our Diesel Mini Bike Build, you saw us hack a vintage mini bike in two, take a file to a spinning crankshaft and run up a wicked cart on Amazon.com. All in a…
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Spring Fever. I’m not sure how it hits in less desolate parts of the world, but around here it gets our brains churning with ideas. After six months of snow and rain, the itch sets in for all the ill-advised marketplace transactions, wild pet projects and trips we’d like to take. With summer and hope…
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I know, I know. I promised you wiring in this installment, and it’s been so long since you’ve seen anything about our Honda CB550 street tracker project that you forgot where we even left off. I could make some excuses, tell you I’ve been busy, but how about we skip all that and get to…
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You can spit and polish all you want, but certain finishes on your motorcycle will eventually need to be restored, and exhaust…
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“How are we doing on the CB project?” The question weighed heavy on my brain as I considered the plateaued progress of…
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Unless you start with a pile of tubing, all-new parts and a beautiful mind, your average garage-built motorcycle comes together one piece…
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Whether it’s from decades of neglect or a dutiful service interval of soaking up potholes, the day will come when your suspension…
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I’ll be honest, rebuilding the wheels on our 1975 Honda CB550F was a job I was hoping to put off a lot…
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Any clown with an adjustable wrench can take a bike apart (the term basketcase exists for a reason), and if you go…
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They say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and we’ve certainly dragged our fair share of trashed motorcycles home. Wherever we…
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Like most things in life, building a custom motorcycle is certainly a process. It starts with a vision, and (hopefully) ends with…
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Mikuni round-slide carburetors are some of the most common and reliable carburetors found on classic motorcycles and powersports equipment, and rebuilding one…
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Ready to tackle your first motorcycle paint project? In Part One of this guide, we outlined the first three steps: theory, planning…
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Whether you’re trying to save a few bucks, or you just like the challenge of doing everything yourself, at some point you’ll…
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