The Triumph Thruxton isn't a bike you see a lot of on the pages of Pipeburn. Mainly due to the fact that most riders who pay the premium for this factory café racer don't usually do that much to them after riding them out of the Triumph dealership. The reason for this is they look great as stock. You don't really need to do anything to them unless you want to increase the performance or need to stamp your individuality on it. This featured Thruxton is the handy work of the talented crew at The Speed Merchant in southern California who target those people that want something a little more unique - without having to fabricate it themselves. They specialize in manufacturing parts for Hinckley Triumphs and late model Sportsters. So most of the parts you see on this Thruxton are actually parts they make and sell. 

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Ahhh - the classics. They're hard to beat, yes? In architecture they have the Doric column, in music you have Beethoven and in philosophy there's Socrates. When it comes to cuisine you have Duck a l'Orange, In art we have Michelangelo, and with languages you have Latin. But what do we have in the world of custom bikes? As much as I'd like to think that Caesar would spend most Sundays causing trouble in the back streets of Rome on board a very, very early version of a bevel Ducati, I'm almost certain that it never actually happened. So where does that leave us? I'll tell you where. With the humble yet beautiful bobbed '60s Triumph hardtail. It's a Venus de Milo made from chrome, oil, and rubber I tell you. And right at this very moment, I can think of no more perfect example of this art form than this classic '68 example made by Danish artisan Daniel Peter Dyrberg. Enjoy.

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I figure it's best, in the interests of being fair and open, that I disclose a shocking and personal fact. I own a Virago. Oh yes, very funny. Laugh it up, ladies. Say what you will, but you know what? I'm an XV owner and proud. Now mine's not an 920 jobbie like you see here - she's a MY 1980 XV 750. But let's not spilt hairs here, a Virago's a Virago. Every piss weak, Harley Davidson copyin' inch of them. So just how does such a seemingly lame-ass no-hoper bike suddenly become the darling of the custom scene? Through a series of sow's ears into silk purses by Classified Moto, Doc Chops and Zero Cafe Racer - do some Google image searching if you are drawing a blank. And it might well be time to add another name to that list. Meet the Virago that Shed-built, um, built.

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Ok, let's not beat around the bush. There's an elephant in this custom bike room and we'll need to get it out in open right now. I haven't got the slightest idea what a "bolo shit" is. I've Googled. I've Bing'd, why I even tried an Alta Vista search by travelling back in time. Nada. Now according to the always amusing urban dictionary.com, a "bolo" is a itself a term for pooping, so that would make it's name "shit shit" which, while quite funny, doesn't make any sense at all. Then I saw the gun on the tank. Bingo. Another Google search of "bolo gun" tells me that bolo is a nickname for the Mauser C96, better known as "the gun that the Nazis always have in war films." Except that the gun on the tank looks nothing like C96. So where does that leave us? I'd suggest we just all don these here special glasses that make white elephants invisible to the human eye and click that "read more" link below.

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Twinline Motorcycles is a custom shop in Seattle Washington who have been building and restoring loads of beautiful cafe racers and vintage bikes. Last year Jeff (Tower) Pochodowicz took over the running of the shop and he hasn't looked back. He managed to put the wrench down and answer a few questions for us.

Can you tell us a little about yourself and Twinline?

My name is Jeff (aka. Tower). I took over the management and operations at Twinline Motorcycles in September 2011. I grew up spending most my days riding a bmx bike and at one point my dad bought a Suzuki 125 quad, I loved that machine. I rode the hell out of that bike, breaking tons of parts along the way. Eventually he sold it and my sights turned to skateboarding. On May 25th 2007, my 30th birthday, I bought a Gpz550 off my friend and really that's were my motorcycle career started, bang. I had no idea that buying that bike would change the course of my life and direct me to where I am today. I moved to Seattle in 2008 and was introduced to Ian and the guys at the shop. My buddy said "maybe these guys will help you get that piece of shit running right." For a half rack of PBR and 80 bucks i was rolling. I thought the place was cool so I hung around soaking up as much knowledge as I could. In January 2009 i was interning at the shop full time. We changed locations to a larger, better workspace and I worked hard on honing my skills in problem solving, motor builds, fabrication and customization. During the summer of 2011 Ian had the itch to move to California with his family so i decided that taking over the shop was the best way for me to continue doing what I love to do while keeping the shop as a creative hub for the motorcycle community.  

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The guys from Spanish shop Café Racer Dreams are truly making a name for themselves on a global scale. The garage was born out of a lack of vintage custom shops in Spain and founder Pedro Garcia hasn't looked back since opening its doors a few years ago. This is the first BMW to roll out of their small Madrid based garage and we love its stripped down simplicity. The bikes engine has been rebuilt with the expertise of Javier from Maxboxer who specialises in boxers. At this stage it's still a work in progress but we definitely like where they are going with this project. Pedro tells us it should be complete by the end of next month so we'll keep you posted. In the meantime there's a solid build thread worth checking out on the CRD blog.

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Some bikes are served to us on a silver platter, replete with back story, specifications, build photos, screen shots from the eBay ad, the builder's mothers maiden name, when she lost her virginity and some original polaroids of the aforementioned event (with handwritten notes), and a professionally shot selection of photos with notes from the lensman himself noting time of day, ambient temperature, and how many beers he'd had with his delicious lunchtime meat pie. Then there's this bike. You want information? We have just about as little as we possibly could without having nothing but a gaping black hole where our email inbox used to be. The real crime here? It's that something so arse-smackingly cool can be so damn anonymous - like finding out that the hottie across the room at the party who took your breath away is actually suffering from amnesia.

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