Autoblog

Click on the image to view three classic Arlen Ness customs

Arlen Ness, a legend to the custom bike community, started out by painting customer bikes on the weekends as he worked to deliver furniture during the week to pay the bills. Gradually, his skills and reputation transformed his small company into the parts-selling juggernaut that it is today. Along the way, Ness has created quite a few one-off creations, many of which are now considered to be classics. Some of them, like the '57 Chevy knock-off "Ness-talgia", twin-engined and twin-supercharged "Ferrari-bike" (above) and Bugatti-inspired "Smooth-Ness" recall iconic automotive designs of years past. According to Ness, those three bikes represent some of his personal favorites, and each of them, along with many others, will be on display at an upcoming exhibit at the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in Pickerington, Ohio called Awesome-Ness. Interested in attending? The event will run from July 24 through the end of June 2009.


[Source: Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum]

We've run across plenty of custom motorcycles in our time, and the goal of many of them is to combine the best features of both sportbikes and cruisers into one machine. The Suzuki Hayabusa is arguably the king of the sportbike, and there is no arguing that Harley-Davidson is the owner of both the custom and cruising crowns. We can imagine combining the two to make a laid-back, yet super-fast custom, but the thought of torturing yourself with the feet-back, forward-lean position forced by a sportbike with clip-ons, combined with the shaky, grunty lump of American V-Twin underneath had eluded us... that is, until we saw the Barley. We kind of like the name "Harley-Busa" better, but nobody asked us for our opinion. If they had, we might have questioned the wisdom of taking this particular route in the ongoing effort of making motorcycle bliss, but now that it's done, it's really not half bad. The original plans for this unholy union called for a turbo, and we think that its inclusion could only improve this machine.

If you want to replicate this offbeat creation, you can get the frame from Maximum Motorcycles, and soon, the body-work in carbon fiber from Tricky Air & Billet. If this doesn't strike you as a marriage worth consummating, though, might we suggest the alternate possibility of owning both a Hayabusa and a Harley? Just a thought.

[Source: Cyril Huze Blog]

We love Carroll Shelby. You love Carroll Shelby. We all love Carroll Shelby. Repeat. We also love the cars that have the Shelby logo on them. Except, maybe a few of the Dodge products in the 80's. An Omni probably should never be called a Shelby. Anybody disagree? (Yes. I owned one. -Ed.)

Now, Shelby is getting in on the motorcycle craze. I happen to be a rider myself, and I can appreciate most every motorcycle on the market for one reason or another. This one, however, we have to dismiss. Would you put a Shelby logo on a lowrider Cadillac Fleetwood, even if it had a really big engine? No. And neither should it be applied to this low-riding, ill handling custom bike. Just because it has a big, powerful V-Twin engine nestled tightly between it's downtubes doesn't mean it has performance credentials. Think back -- what did Shelby build his reputation on? Winning races, right? Would you take this bike to a track day and challenge the GSXR's and Ninja's in the corners? Neither would we, which is why this is not a real Shelby.

[Source: Gizmag]