There’s a particular kind of magic inside Sabotage Motorcycles, an energy that comes from breathing new life into machines old enough to have seen multiple generations come and go. For the past eight years, under the steady hand of founder Andy Dorr, the workshop has specialised in vintage and custom motorcycles, not just as mechanical objects, but as rolling pieces of emotive movement. Museum-grade restorations, meticulous mechanical rebuilds, and handmade fabrication are standard fare at Sabotage, where every motorcycle is treated as a story worth preserving, not merely a build to push out the door, like this concourse ready 1956 AJS.

So when a local rider named Andrew walked into the shop holding a stack of fading photographs and a 1956 AJS 16MS 350 that once belonged to his grandfather, the team immediately understood the weight of the project. The bike had spent most of its life in Beacon Hill, Surrey, passed through a family of dedicated riders who used, repaired and cherished it long after most examples had disappeared. Andrew wanted one thing: to bring his grandfather’s bike back to life. Not modernised. Not reimagined. Reborn, exactly as it should be.

In the pantheon of adventure motorcycles, few names command as much reverence as BMW’s R80 G/S. It wasn’t just another dual-sport, it was the blueprint. And in this ultra-rare 1986 “Touareg Blue” edition, the model reached the end of its glorious first chapter. Less than 200 examples ever left the factory in this distinctive hue, and this particular machine, now offered for sale at Moto Borgotaro, represents one of the finest restorations on the planet.

That’s not hyperbole. This isn’t a quick tidy-up or a sympathetic recommission. This R80 G/S has been painstakingly rebuilt by Gary Burton of BaMW, a name that will be familiar to anyone in the vintage BMW community. Burton, now retired, has earned a reputation for concours-standard restorations that blend mechanical precision with soulful authenticity. His bikes are as good beneath the paint as they are on the surface.

Tucked away in the vibrant streets of Lisbon, Unik Motorcycles isn’t just another shop bolting shiny bits onto tired bikes; they’re the real deal, the kind of crew that bleeds petrol and welds soul into steel. Founders Tiago and Luis have built a reputation for turning everyday rides into rolling works of art, handling everything from tune-ups to full-tilt customs with the same level of obsession. And when it came time to tame Honda’s six-cylinder heavyweight, the legendary CBX 1000, they knew this wasn’t just another project. it was a chance to let a mechanical symphony loose. The result? “Tatsumaki,” a 1982 CBX that howls like a hurricane and looks every bit as sharp.

The last six-banger we featured from the boys at Unik was so good, it lit a fire under the internets' worn feet, and caused the sort of excitement that saw the bike take out the top spot in our 2023 Bike of the Year Awards. Tiago and Luis know it's not every day you get to spin the spanners on a big six, and when it comes time to give one a full-on custom make-over, then it is essential to highlight its thunderous beating heart. In recent years, the guys have been getting the recognition they deserve, working with MotoGP star Miguel Oliveira, appearing on the popular TV show 'Ride With Norman Reedus', and seeing their business boom.

There are rare motorcycles, and then there are machines so scarce they blur the line between artefact and mythology. This 1916 Harley-Davidson 8-Valve Board Track Racer is one of those bikes. Just six were ever built by Harley-Davidson, and only for factory-backed racers. Today, this is believed to be the only complete original example still in existence, making it not just rare but arguably one of the most historically important motorcycles on the planet. All of which makes it easy to understand why, when the hammer fell at its most recent auction sale, this Fred Lange Restorations beauty fetched in the six-figure range.

The legend of the 8-Valve was forged on the board tracks of America, where motorcycles thundered around steeply banked wooden ovals at speeds that were outright terrifying for the time. With no brakes, no suspension, and no clutch, board track racing was as pure and as dangerous as it gets. In 1916, this very model won the Dodge City 300-mile race, setting a record time of 3 hours, 45 minutes, and 36 seconds. It was the fastest motorcycle on earth, and Harley’s answer to Indian’s dominance on the track. Irving Janke was the rider, and a hundred years ago, his average speed was 130km/h!

There’s something sacred about BMW’s original R80G/S Paris Dakar. It’s the bike that planted the flag for every adventure bike that followed and proved once and for all that long-distance endurance didn’t need four wheels. But what if you took that legacy, polished it until it gleamed, and then injected just the right dose of 21st-century performance? That’s exactly what Robert Sabel of Roughchild Motorcycles has done with this jaw-dropping restomod, a 1983 BMW R80G/S that respects the past while blowing clean past it.

The starting point wasn’t a battered old G/S from a Dakar survivor’s shed, but rather a clean BMW R80ST sourced from North Carolina. With the ST sharing the same mainframe as the original G/S, it made for the perfect foundation. Stripped to the bone, the chassis was reworked with a 50mm extension to the swingarm and driveshaft, giving it both extra poise and a little more room to breathe. Everything has been refinished in lustrous Avus Black Glasurit paint, a deliberate choice that shifts the finish from the factory’s semi-gloss to a richer, glossier coat. 

Over the past decade, the price of vintage and classic motorcycles has skyrocketed. So it’s no surprise that whenever a group of bike-loving mates gets together, the conversation inevitably turns to tales of “what if”. What if they’d held onto that old classic they let go for a few hundred bucks, the one now worth tens of thousands. But who could’ve predicted such wild price hikes? As it turns out, one very wise Australian not only picked the perfect bike to buy back in the ’70s, but also had the discipline to never ride it, preserving it in factory-fresh condition to this very day. This rare gem recently surfaced thanks to Moto Borgotaro: a stunning 1976 Ducati 900SS, a genuine Non Omologato example, with just 4 kilometres on the odometer.

These days, it all seems so obvious. Ducati is at the top of the world, and every limited-edition model they release sells out immediately, with collectors falling over themselves for a piece of Italian exotica. But back in the ’70s, the company’s future was far from certain. While the 1972 win at Imola and the introduction of the Super Sport had things heading in the right direction, it still took a brave soul to bet that a Ducati motorcycle would one day become a sound long-term investment.

The greatest motorcycles of all time hold such a sway over us that even their simple silhouette makes them instantly recognisable. Major manufacturers leverage this imagery to form a strong connection with their brand, making it so iconic that it can be transferred onto a t-shirt and sold by the millions. And yet, despite the fact that there is nothing factory, let alone mainstream, about the machine before you, it retains that unique feature of looking like a legend, simply standing still. Built by Cédric Camiade, this Norley is more than a transatlantic amalgamation of two icons of the automotive world. It's one man's vision, dreamed up in a jewellery store in Sri Lanka, brought to life by a French artisan, and eliciting a timeless appeal, it is The Onyx.

Cédric has been around motorcycles his entire life, introduced to the wild world of two-wheels by his father, the addiction has never abated. As a young lad in France, he was tinkering with bikes as soon as he was old enough to spin a spanner, and he raced 50cc machines too. Then, for more than seven years, he ran a restoration and customisation business, until eventually he decided he'd simply build bikes for his own personal pleasure. But when motorcycles have you on the hook, you're done for, so even when visiting the beautiful fort city of Galle, Sri Lanka, he was looking at what machines were for sale back home. 

It's easy for the general public to look at a high-end custom motorcycle and just assume that it's a collection of parts, all slapped together. But, nothing could be further from the truth, because cashed-up, discerning buyers expect absolute perfection in both form and function when they write that big cheque. So, to ensure they never let a customer down, AC-Sanctuary periodically builds a bike to further develop their products and keep them at the top, as the kings of the resto-mod. This particular bike is the personal machine of company owner Hiroyuki Nakamura, built as if he were the highly selective customer who would accept only the very best. The result is RCM-644, a Suzuki Katana GSX1100S, which is simply a sensational street machine, packed with new tricks that future customers will be able to pick.

It tells you a lot about the entire team at Japan's AC-Sanctuary that even when they are considered the absolute leaders in their field, they're still pushing the envelope and seeking to improve on perfection. Nakamura-san has been in the game for decades now, he has over a thousand custom bikes to his name, 700 of them in the RCM range, as well as a host of lap record holding race bikes across various classes. But he's still pushing the limits hard and working with the biggest companies in the industry to make that possible. AC already works with the likes of Ohlins, Brembo and Sunstar, and Nakamura-san is currently in Italy, partnering with OZ Racing to bring their incredible wheel technology that is used in MotoGP and WSBK, to the streets of Japan.

It's the 1970s and the engine war is over, the British twins have been killed off and the motorcycle world is all about the multi-cylinder. Kawasaki was one of the manufacturers responsible for that gigantic shift and the Z1 was emblematic of this new and exciting era. So, what on earth was the big green company thinking, when in 1976 they introduced an all-new KZ750, with of all things, a parallel twin as the powerplant? Well, their reasoning was sound at the time, but victims of their own marketing, the bike failed to sell. But if Kawasaki had seen this modern interpretation and met the enthusiastic man behind it, things might have been very different. Meet American Victor Wilkens and his 1980 Kawasaki KZ750 Twin, a custom motorcycle that proves you get a hell of a result when you know exactly what you're working with.

Back in 1976, from Kawasaki's point of view, the production of a big twin with the styling of the famous Z series of motorcycles made a lot of sense. To the big Japanese manufacturer, they were offering to the public big bike looks, with solid performance, good reliability, easy maintenance and all at a cheaper price than some of their competitors' much smaller offerings. It wasn't the full-blown four-cylinder, but it was a damn good bike. But the public didn't buy it, they'd bought into the hype of multi-cylinder machines and although Kawasaki made a solid sales pitch, the 750twin just never sold in big numbers, ending its run in 1983.

The Ducati SportClassic was an instant smash hit when unveiled at the 2003 Tokyo Motor Show, quickly earning ‘modern classic’ status and rave reviews. But the bike world was still gripped by the Superbike craze, had Ducati launched them a decade later, amid the retro revival, they would’ve sold far more. On the Gold Coast, Purpose Built Moto has developed a deep appreciation for these prized rides, and the Ducatisti have clearly taken notice. So when Jeff, owner of this 2008 Ducati Sport Classic 1000S, wanted to revive his Italian steed, he knew exactly where to go. Teaming up with PBM’s top dog Tom Gilroy, they dreamed up one hell of a design and the result is a truly stunning custom machine, that honours the original while pushing it to new heights, turning heads and twisting necks everywhere it goes.

“Jeff had seen our previous Ducati custom builds and gotten to know Purpose Built Moto through our YouTube channel and build series. By the time he contacted us to revive his beloved 2008 Ducati Sport Classic 1000S, he already knew the run of our process. We spoke over a few emails, got an idea of the direction he wanted for his build, and understood what was important to him as the rider,” Tom explains. Jeff has owned the bike for a long time and has a serious collection, he's a man with a deep appreciation for all types of motorcycles and understands how a good one needs to be built. And this is exactly why he chose PBM, not only are they an incredibly talented team, they have the runs on the board with the modern-classic Ducati and they can innovate like few others in the field.