Rome isn’t exactly short on history, but for one weekend each year, the past and future of motorcycling collide beneath the sinuous steel and glass curves of Massimiliano Fuksas’ “La Nuvola.” Now in its ninth edition, the Eternal City Motorcycle Show has cemented itself as one of Europe’s essential two-wheeled gatherings, and to their credit, the organisers clearly understand just how vital custom creations have become to the motorcycle world. This year, they dedicated an entire level of the venue to that culture: a space where Italian craftsmanship, international innovation, and pure mechanical art all share the same stage.

The show is a mega event, with every major manufacturer worth their salt in attendance, eighteen of whom offer free demo rides of their latest machinery. In total, there are 300 different models you can ride, adding a proper try-before-you-buy experience. There are also the usual displays, great food and drink, live music and talks. And for those in the game, the business-to-business day allows small shops the chance to rub shoulders with the big brass of leading aftermarket suppliers, a vital networking opportunity to help the entire industry thrive.

Some builds start with a sketch. Others begin with a parts list, a slab of beer, and a questionable life decision. For Gold Coast’s own Matty McFerran, this one started with a relentless stream of DMs from a mate, Mark, who 'just wanted a tidy vintage tracker.' But Matty's one hell of a busy guy, with three kids under five, three businesses, including the epic Gold Coast Studio, two half-finished bikes in the shed, and precisely zero hours of spare time. The sensible thing would’ve been to send Mark a few classified links. Instead, Matty blurted out, “How about I just build you one?” Five months later, this 50-year-old Yamaha DT125 was born, and what a bloody little beauty she is!

If the name Matty McFerran rings a bell, that’s probably because you’ve seen him high in the air, upside down, hanging off the bars, with his feet casually dangling off the pegs. The former Nitro Circus freestyle motocross rider has, however, traded aerial antics for camera angles, becoming a highly sought-after photographer in the sports and automotive scenes. It turns out, years spent defying gravity translate pretty well into knowing what looks good and how to brilliantly capture it on film.

For the past decade, when it comes time to select our Top Ten bikes of the year, the creations of Virginia’s Sean Skinner are either right there on the list or narrowly miss the cut — the man simply doesn’t know how to build a bad bike. Once dubbed a “silent achiever,” the MotoRelic mastermind has since made serious waves in the custom scene, thanks to his love for powerful, screaming two-strokes that are impossible to ignore. That’s exactly how his latest client discovered him: after spotting a previous build, he knew he wanted something special of his own. What he delivered to Sean was a battered wreck — but with an open chequebook and total creative freedom, the outcome was bound to be spectacular. Enter the MotoRelic 1973 Yamaha RD350: pure two-stroke perfection that’ll have you hanging on for dear life when it comes on the pipe.

The price of any classic bike is absolutely crazy these days, so it's hard to turn down a bargain when you come across one. But can something be too cheap? “John reached out to talk about letting me create a street tracker out of a barn find RD that he picked up for $350. Normally, getting a bike for $1 a CC is a great deal but when he sent the photos, I feel he overpaid,” Sean laughs. “It was the crustiest, most forgotten bike I'd ever seen. We had a laugh and I told him, if it's not locked up then it will be great since his idea for the build will only require me to keep the frame and engine. Everything else will go to the dumpster. John was prepared to spare no expense on this build, which makes my job way more fun!”

When you've completed the mandatory period on your learner's license and it's time to get your first big bike, you're absolutely spoilt for choice these days. But there was a period when, for most, there really were only three names: Fazer, Bandit, Hornet! The most popular spec in each used a detuned supersport 600cc engine, hand-me-down parts, and naked styling. But you could pick them up at a bargain price, they were reliable as hell and compared to that old learner lightweight, they felt bloody fast. Nostalgia runs deep for these machines, and for the owner of this stunning 2001 Yamaha FZS600 Fazer, it's the second one he's had turned into a custom in just over a year. To make his dreams a reality, he relies on Marcel Galuszka of Blackout Custom Design, and the Czech builder made sure to deal him a winning hand.

Based in the small Czech city of Karvina, Blackout Custom Design has been Marcel's full-time gig since 2018. And he's one hell of a prolific bike builder, turning out endless cool customs for his loyal customer base. Most of the bikes he works with tend to be around the twenty-year-old age mark, so there is as much need for giving these bikes a refurbishment as there is for custom treatment. The Fazer has actually proven a very popular model amongst his customers, and proving he's been around the traps, he's also built custom Bandits and Hornets too.

The Yamaha MT series of motorcycles have been a huge seller for the Iwata-based company, and have almost single-handedly kept the factory going during some dark times. Offering everything from learner legal machines to powerful twins, screaming triples and big fours, if you look back to the '70s you'll find Yamaha only had to look in the mirror for the inspiration for such a successful line-up. The XS range, the 650 with its British-styled twin might be the favourite today, but the triple threat of the XS750 finally gave Yamaha the machine they needed to take on their rivals at Honda and Kawasaki. Sadly it's a bike that doesn't get a lot of love these days, but in the hands of a world-class builder, they come up a treat. And from our friends at Germany's Kaspeed Custom Motorcycles, comes this barnstorming 1976 Yamaha XS750, that breathes new life into a forgotten legend.

Now, to really understand what a breakthrough the XS750 was for Yamaha and appreciate the impact it had on the motorcycle scene, you only need to look back at one poll. The Motorcycle News 'Machine of the Year' award has been crowning the best new bikes to come to market for generations. In the late '60s the Norton Commando dominated the prize before the all-conquering Kawasaki Z1 took out the title four years in a row. But in 1977, the big Z was knocked off its perch, when journalists, test riders and the public vote crowned the XS750 triple as the new king of the road.

It's ever present in the world of motorcycles, often only the very next corner away, but we tend to avoid the subject like the plague; crashing! It's going to happen to all of us, and when you're lying prone on the ground and realise all of your limbs are intact, you quickly spin around, praying your beloved motorcycle is still in one piece. Sadly for Portugal's Francisco Menezes, his recently completed full rally raid Yamaha Ténéré had more than a minor scar following a spill and some of his most elaborate work had been instantly destroyed. But rather than sulk in his beer, he completed the weekend's competition and then used the crashed bike as the basis for an all-new project. The result is a 10-piece kit from Holy Moly Motorcycles, available in five cool colour schemes, which instantly transforms your new Yamaha T7 into a retro Dakar-inspired delight.

Based smack bang in the centre of Lisbon, Holy Moly has been around for over a decade and they have more than 50 full custom builds under their belt. But the truth is, even before it was an official business, Francisco has been messing around with bikes his entire life. He's always favoured the classic Japanese products and has recently fallen for all of the modern-retro machines that have become such a big part of our scene. This Yamaha Ténéré came to the shop as an almost brand new bike to be sold on to a new home, but Francisco decided to ride it as the workshop bike. Doing everything from the daily run to the shop, as well as light off-road and some major highway runs.

Chef and legendary traveller Anthony Bourdain left the world having passed on many lessons for life, and perhaps his most profound was simply to explore 'Parts Unknown'. And it was with this sense of adventure and discovery that Loek Janssen ventured to Japan and headed for the nighttime back streets of Tokyo, to explore the way the locals live. He then ventured to a small village to experience the quiet life that is also on offer in the land of the rising sun and came away with a new appreciation for the country that birthed his 2017 Yamaha XSR700. Returning home to Portugal, he wanted to combine his love for simple motorcycle technology with all that he'd learned on his travels, and teaming up with UNIK Motorcycles, they've built this neo-punk street Scrambler known as Nikkō.

What Loek loves about the Yamaha product is that it provides all of the reliability of a modern motorcycle, while retaining a raw analogue feel, not overloaded with endless tech and rider aids. “I wanted to pay respect to Japanese engineering and Japanese quality, and I wanted the bike to be related to my memories of my travels in Japan. Traveling alone I spent some rainy days in the darker streets of Tokyo sampling food and beer with the locals, which served as the main inspiration for the neo-punk Tokyo vibe that's embedded in the bike's ethos. After the Tokyo visit, I took a trip to Nikkō, a very lush and rainy offroad-heaven village north of Tokyo which is a big contrast to the narrow and dense streets of inner Tokyo.”

'Do what you love, help along the way'. It's not just a great ideal by which to live one's life, but also serves as the motto for the global humanitarian charity, Waves for Water. The group has dedicated itself to providing clean drinking water to those most in need and responding to natural disasters that compromise that vital elixir of life. Now for the second time, David Chang, founder of the immensely popular CROIG (Café Racers of Instagram) has pooled some incredible talent to create an amazing motorcycle. The idea is simple, build a killer custom creation and give it away to a Waves for Water donor. For this build, Yamaha has gotten heavily involved with their Yard Built program and given the project the name ‘Yard Built for Good’. The result is this beautiful Yamaha XSR900, inspired by the iconic Tech21 Yamaha FZR750 that King Kenny Roberts rode in the 1985 Suzuka 8 Hours, and destined to deliver water to the world.

One of the many amazing initiatives run by Waves for Water is their courier program, which supports travellers who roam the far corners of the earth, to deliver life-saving water filtration systems to communities in need. Just this program alone has seen vital water filters delivered in more than 90 countries, and it was while completing this incredible work that CROIG's David Chang was first inspired to make an even bigger difference. Back in 2019 after his travels to South East Asia, David decided to organise the build of a custom HD Sportster 48, with amazing input from the custom community coming from the likes of Sosa Metalworks, J Shia from Madhouse Motors, Jay Donovan, Joe Mielke, Andrew Blaschko, and Kristen Lassen

For most of the year, it's a stunning 5000-seat venue, with brilliant acoustics to showcase a nation's top talents, but in early December each year a symphony of a different kind rolls into Pacifico, Japan's National Convention Hall. And lined up outside the venue in the early morning was a record crowd, as the 32nd Yokohama Hot Rod Custom Show came roaring to life. Known to many as Mooneyes, for the company who organise the event, the custom car and chopper show is the most prestigious on the nation's calendar and is arguably one of the world's premier places for builders of brilliant bikes to show off their wares. All the big names from home and abroad were on hand and the quality of customs was once again out of this world.

Gates open at 8 am, but the organisers were greeted by a huge crowd, with people arriving before sunrise and the lines stretching around the block. But the wait was more than worth it for the 24,000 spectators once they made it inside and could finally feast their eyes on what they'd come to see. Each year at the show there is an early highlight, as a selected group of cars and bikes 'Ride-in' to the arena, with the fans lining up for the sights and sounds. To great applause, the legend Shinya Kimura stormed in on a stunning piece of old-school Americana, and it just helps to highlight that these show machines really do run.

The sound, the smell and the sight of the smoke coming out of the exhaust – it was all part of the unique and beloved feeling of owning and riding a two-stroke. Unless you operate in the dirt bike world, those days have been over for more than a generation, and it's been left to a faithful few to keep the ring-a-ding-ding alive and well out on the road. That nostalgia is even stronger when you lose a family member who was a smoky lover, and so, to pay tribute to his brother who had passed, one RD owner found just the right place to recreate the past glory. And being a friend of Roland Sands has meant this Yamaha RD400 has been given the full RSD overhaul; so get ready for a modern remix of the premix.

“We all love two strokes around the shop,” Roland says. “There’s something about the simplicity, the lightweight, the sound, and the smell that continues to captivate us. Growing up around two strokes, rebuilding the motors, and premixing gas is something that sticks with you. When you hear one, when you smell the premix burning at 32 to 1, it transports you back to a simpler time, a time before cellphones and the modern world swallowed up the kids. It takes you back to a day when having a ratio right, a five-gallon jug of gas, and enough oil to get you through the day was all that mattered. So here we are, going back in time with an RD400 build, and it feels damn good.”