Italian Custom Motorcycles

 

 

 

Aktueller Review aus Motorrad News 07/2013

 

MOTORRAD NEWS issue July/2013

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Italian Custom Motorcycles by by Uli Cloesen

 

The latest in the run of excellent hardback books from Veloce Publishing written by Uli Cloesen turns its attention to Custom bikes that use Italian bikes as the base or donor machine. You have to admire both parties for their desire to bring books to the market which are outside the mainstream motorcycle book market.

 

As the publishers quite rightly say this is the first book focused exclusively on the Italian motorcycle-based chopper, bobber, trike, and quad custom bike scene. As you look through the excellent photography, backed up by concise text you begin to see why.

Cloesen has done a marvellous job in sourcing the material for this one as Italian bikes are not high on most peoples shopping list when looking at creating custom machines. Some of the bikes featured may well have Italian purists getting hot under the collar because of what the bikes creator has done to the original.

 

Personally I have to say that as you work your way through the 130 pages it is hard to see with a few exceptions why anybody would want to use an Italian machine as the base for a custom, they do not sit well in the genre at all. In my humble opinion the best bikes featured are all British with the stunning creation by Roger Allmond powered by a Ducati engine, stealing the whole book!

 

Some may well feel though that the amazing Ducati V8 engine grafted into a standard 900 frame takes the technical merit award of maybe it’s the Ducati factory custom the Diavel that is also featured that steals the show though, especially if you have ridden one!

But, as usual in an effort to broaden minds, the book is just packed with examples of Italian motorcycles built between 1959 – 2010 and converted into custom motorcycles. Split into chapters based on the manufacturers there are bikes from Aprilia, Ducati, Fantic, Gilera, Laverda, Moto Morini and Moto Guzzi.

 

Like all the others in the series it is well written, well laid out and well -illustrated and well worth having on the bookshelf to remind yourself that the greatest thing about motorcycling is the diversity that exists within, something that clearly the author and publisher recognise.

 

A great book for Italian bike fans and fans of the custom bike scene in general and a useful addition to series that continues to grow with more to come from the author and publisher. Sensibly priced at £25.00. ISBN 978 1 845843 94 6

 

Available from all good bookshops or direct from the publishers Veloce at www.veloce.co.uk

 

Review by Ian Kerr  - July 2013

 

Buchvorstellung - Italian Custom Motorcycles

 

Italienische Motorräder werden gerne umgebaut, das dürfte wohl jedem Motalia-Leser bekannt sein. Nur wenige Italo-Bikes befinden sich nach zwei Jahren noch im absoluten Originalzustand. Und wenn es sich nur um etwas poliertes Aluminium oder Carbonabdeckungen handelt ... der Hang zur Individualisierung ist weit verbreitet. Besonders beliebt sind Zubehörauspuffanlagen, kleiner Blinker und ähnliches.

 

Komplettumbauten gehen oft in die Richtung Sportbike oder Café Racer. Custom-Umbauten à la Chopper, Cruiser oder Trike sind dagegen in der Italo-Szene nicht so sehr verbreitet, aber es gibt sie auch. Und genau mit diesen Maschinen befaßt sich das Buch „Italian Custom Motorcycles“ von Uli Cloesen.

Auf knapp 130 Seiten hat der Auto Bilder von den unterschiedlichsten Umbauten weltweit zusammengetragen. Oft handelt es sich um Schnappschüsse, welche von den unterschiedlichsten Fotografen zur Verfügung gestellt wurden.

 

Gezeigt wird die breite Spanne von Prototypen, Designstudien, Serienmodellen wie Aprilia Red Rose oder Ducati Indiana über gemäßigte Umbauten bis zu fast kompletten Eigenkonstruktionen. Egal ob Chopper, Cruiser, Bopper, Quadt, Dragster, Flat Tracker oder Trike, hier gibt es die skurrilsten Umbauten zu sehen. Eine Ducati Monster mit drei Rädern - klar gibt es das, entweder mit zwei Rädern vorne oder zwei Rädern hinten. Aber auch ein Monster-Quadt mit vier Rädern ist in dem Buch zu finden.

So frei nach dem Motto: „Es gibt nichts, was es nicht gibt“ wird offensichtlich weltweit an den Italo-Bikes geschraubt, und in diesem Buch sind einige der dabei entstandenen Motorräder zu bewundern.

Das Buch ist aufgeteilt in die Kapitel Aprilia, Ducati, Fantic, Gilera, Laverda, Moto Guzzi und Moto Morini, wobei die Marken Ducati und Moto Guzzi am meisten vertreten sind. Der Schwerpunkt liegt auf den etwa 250 Bildern, die vielleicht 200 Motorräder zeigen. Der Text ist in englischer Sprache verfaßt und fällt je nach Fahrzeug unterschiedlich umfangreich aus. Aber in den meisten Fällen sprechen die Fotos für sich. Und wer Anregungen für einen eigenen Umbau sucht, wird hier sicherlich fündig.

 

Das Buch ist zum Beispiel über Amazon erhältlich und kostet dort 28,90 Euro.

„Italian Custom Motorcycles“ von Uli Cloesen ist erschienen im Verlag Veloce Publishing, ISBN 978-1-845843-94-6, a 25x25cm, 128 Seiten, ca. 250 Fotos, englischer Text.

 

Motorradmagazin Motalia

Juni 2013

Thursday, 27 February 2014

 

BOOK: 'Italian Custom Motorcycles' by Uli Cloesen 

 

We were sent his book last year by the publishers Veloce, but only got round to looking at it properly in the last few weeks, and what a book it is. That's mainly because it's so refreshing to the first book regarding Italian motorcycles for many years that's not just a restorer's rivet-counting dream guide to putting your bike put back 'better' than when it came out of the factory (admittedly useful at times), or otherwise a tawdry marque history that can't already be read elsewhere.

We also like it because we've always tried to feature Italian motorcycles, and cars, in the magazine that have been modified, shed-built or from out of slightly left field, so the eclectic compilation that the author Uli Cloesen has put together is pleasing, different and well thought out. 

 

Like what every good coffee table book should be like, Cloesen's book is text light and picture heavy, but what text there is, descriptions of the bikes, who built them and so on, is accurate, succinct, well-researched and well-edited. The layout is clean, and the squareish format means that the photos, sourced from a mixture of professional and amateur/owner shots, is really to the fore.

 

Cloesen has taken the seven principal or best-known manufacturers, Aprilia, Ducati, Fantic Moto, Gilera, Laverda, Moto Guzzi and Moto Morini, and crammed each chapter with all types of bikes, choppers, customs, trikes and even quads that are powered by engines from these Italian factories. Though many of the bikes featured in the book come from established bike shops or builders that you might see on a regular basis on websites like Bike Exif and other blogs, most are from less-publicised sources, and there are some real treats.

 

Some of the bikes like Pablo Tecce's black Gilera 200 custom (picture above) are really subtle and skilful, making something classy out of not much. Peter Burton's Laverda Triple trike might make you spit your tea out (especially if you're passionate for the Breganze tractors), but it's an amazing conversion, and can apparently be put back to completely original. Paul Stabler's very clever Moto-Beam, mongrel cross between Moto Guzzi V50 motor and Sunbeam S7/S8 frame is another bike that we'd probably have never seen

 

Other bikes in the book are, depending on your taste, truly horrendous and or outrageous, and the cover Guzzi California 'Red Devil' special would probably have to come under both descriptions, with its lime-green and red sparkly paint and bright red fork gaiters. But you have to respect the fact that someone out there wanted to build it and do what the hell they wanted - and this book serves well to bring the good, the bad and the ugly of Italian motorcycles together.

 

A £25.00 cover price might seem a bit steep, but you get 128 pages and 260 colour photos, and a reasonable amount of glossy feel. If like us, you're fascinated by Italian motorcycles in all shapes, form and function, this is definitely a book to own, not least because you'll yourself surprise at its entertainment value by flicking through it, and seeing how many times you shout out 'awful', or 'incredible', or 'what the hell did he do that for?'

 

On sale from Veloce Publishing: www.veloce.co.uk