BUILT NOT BOUGHT

Why buy something that’ll merely do when you can build something bespoke? This is the Honda MB-5 built by my good friend Nathan Simpkin when we were teenagers. That’s the engine from a H100 bolted to the teeny moped (it shared crankcases with the feeble 49cc original unit). Nathan flowed the inlet and exhaust ports, opened up the reed block, and had exhaust cones rolled by Harry Barlow at Pro Porting in Leicester which we brazed into shape on the bike (with a cut-down Micron can). The clip-ons ’bars and rearsets were home-made, the shocks repurposed (possibly also H100), and the rear light raised into the body. A filed-down seat and Azure blue paint finished the job, all funded by his early-morning milk round. It was hilarious. With maybe five times the standard bike’s power, the shrieking MB wheelied in lower gears and was just the ticket for upsetting 125 riders. We clocked it at 92mph in my Mk1 Vauxhall Astra (1.3 LS, beige, sunroof, tape deck).

Though many of us tinkered, fettled and frequently had scored barrels re-bored during our formative years, the urge can evaporate as the years accumulate. Maybe the array of staggeringly capable and varied modern bikes removes the need, too. But thankfully there are still people with the desire, skill and foresight to build a bike rather than simply buy. Like reader Paul Twigger, who’s invented a KTM 1290 Super Enduro. We ride it on page 56. And like serial builder of amazing machinery Allen Millyard, creator of 55 (yes, fifty-five) epic DIY bikes; we have an exclusive natter and reveal what they’re like to ride on p50. There’s a Suzuki RGV with bored-and-stroked, twin-cylinder BSA power as well (p65), plus a blisteringly quick Hayabusa drag bike powered by, erm… a forklift truck motor. Really. It’s on p62.

All of these bikes are brilliant not just for their wild engineering and left-field approach, but because they work. They’re a celebration of the guile, vision and capabilities of their hands-on owners.

I’m heading to the shed to see if a TZ750 engine will fit in my Yamaha TDR250 (oh, if only). Enjoy the issue.