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The title for this recipe is a little long, but the use case is straightforward: I want to capture the visual appearance of a movieclip, encode it as a jpg, and then upload it to my server without any user interaction I came to this problem while writing AsUnit tests for my Flash Actionscript 3 application. I wanted to test a

BMW Motorrad has a gap in its product range large enough to drive a Bundeswehr Unimog through: it doesn’t have a retro roadster to compete with the hugely popular Triumph Bonneville or the expanding Moto Guzzi V7 fleet. Which is strange, given the remarkable popularity of the classic R-series with custom builders.

Here’s the latest vintage Beemer to catch our eye. It’s an R80/7 built by Luka Cimolini in his garage in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Luka’s original plan was to customize a Dnepr, but documentation issues put paid to that. So he snapped up a 1977 R80 in the UK and shipped it to eastern Europe.

It took Luka two years to build this machine, his first custom. But he’s hit the ball out of the park at the first attempt. Slammed low and with a kicked-up seat, he’s given the high-riding R80 a low and sporty stance.

The mods are extensive, with the most obvious being front forks dropped almost two inches and 11-inch shocks fitted at the back. The rebuilt engine is hooked up to universal Megaton reverse cone mufflers, and Luka modified the subframe to take the custom seat unit. The fenders are bobbed BMW originals, and BMW /5 headlight brackets cradle a customized Dnepr lamp. The brake and clutch levers are Triumph, the steering damper knob is from a BMW R26, and the tacho is from an R69S. The grips are Lambretta.

It’s a wide-ranging mix of parts, but they hang together remarkably well. The bike can hold its own against airheads from established builders such as Cafe Racer Dreams and El Solitario.

BMW, it would seem, is taking note of the trend. One of the biggest news stories from this week’s EICMA motorcycle show in Milan is the announcement of a retro roadster from BMW, to be revealed next year. A development of the LoRider concept, it’s likely to be powered by the current air/oil-cooled, 1170cc boxer motor and feature inverted forks. Can’t wait.

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I’ve always liked the Yamaha XJR1300. It’s an uncomplicated bruiser of a bike, an unassuming retro-style naked powered by a air-cooled motor with a lineage over a quarter of a century long.

Yamaha knows that if it ain’t broke, you don’t fix it. But the XJR1300 is also ripe for a makeover, so the Japanese factory called in the Wrenchmonkees. The result is MonkeeFist, the first in a series of “Yard Built Specials” commissioned by Yamaha from leading custom builders.

A year ago, the Wrenchmonkees watched Yamaha’s “Hyper Modified” custom VMAX project with interest. “Generally we work on older bikes and have modified Yamaha SR500s and XS650s,” says Per Nielsen. “Working on a new bike raises its own unique set of challenges: The number of sensors, wires and emission controlling devices makes customizing very tricky. And when you take off a panel you need to relocate things such as cables and electrical items—it is very complicated.”

With the XJR1300, the Wrenchmonkees decided to aim for a cafe racer style. “We really wanted to push the boat out and make something inspirational for XJR fans.”

“Our first decision was how many parts to change. We wanted to keep the identity of the bike and make it easily recognisable as an XJR, so we left the tank, engine and major parts of the frame unmodified. We then looked at the bike and said ‘OK, what can we do around this base?’”

The first job was to change the front end. On went a set of YZF-R1 forks and custom-built spoked wheels. The front is a 19” and the rear an 18” for an old school look that contrasts with the R1 forks and six-piston radial calipers. Custom-fabricated rearsets increase the ground clearance and the Wrenchmonkees replaced the flat handlebars with clip-ons.

The exhaust is a hand-built stainless steel system that harks back to the twin muffler megaphone look of the older XJRs, but brought up to date in a modern MotoGP style.

To accentuate the cafe racer feel, the Wrenchmonkees built a completely new seat unit that sits on the existing sub-frame. They removed the XJR’s battery box and moved the wiring into the custom-built tail unit. A small lithium battery now nestles in the space behind the engine.

“Our universe does not involve bright, shiny colours so the paint is a matte dark olive green with a slight twist of metallic flake,” says Nielsen. “The XJR’s swingarm and engine have a similar black finish, but we wanted to make the frame stand out. So we sandblasted the paint off and then set fire to it, to create a raw-steel burnt effect.”

Treating this machine as a prototype, the Wrenchmonkees are now looking at creating aftermarket kits for the XJR1300. “The kits will not require any cutting of the frame or swingarm: they’ll be parts that will dramatically transform the look of the machine by simply bolting on or replacing the standard components.”

Top marks to Yamaha for dipping a toe into the murky waters of the alt-custom scene. And the XJR1300 just shifted up a few places on my list of desirable bikes.

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Equestrians have a term for the ideal proportions of a horse: conformation. The conformation of a draft horse is obviously different to that of a Kentucky Derby winner, but there is an ideal for both. And so it is with motorcycles.

It’s what we all subconsciously look for when we see a bike. There are builders who have an instinctive feel for it—like the Wrenchmonkees, Falcon Motorcycles, Rough Crafts, and Classified Moto. And at any given time, there’s a mainstream manufacturer who hits the sweet spot. In Italy in the late 1970s, it was Moto Guzzi with the original Le Mans 850.

This Le Mans resto-mod comes from the Brooklyn-based workshop Moto Borgotaro, and they’ve done a fine job in accentuating the charm of the original.

They’ve also updated the bike considerably, and subtly improved the already impressive lines. The engine is from a 1995 1100 Sport; fettled with Carrillo internals, it’s now hooked up to a lightweight flywheel and close-ratio ‘box. Gases exit via Lafranconi competizione mufflers.

Other Moto Borgotaro upgrades include a Brembo brake system, Motogadget switchgear and Tommaselli grips. The gorgeous paint comes from Cycle Garden and the seat is from a 750 S3, mated to V7 Sport rear fender.

And it looks just perfect doesn’t it? As an equestrian might say, this Le Mans has immaculate conformation. Head over to the classy Moto Borgotaro website to see more of their incredible work on vintage European thoroughbreds.

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The Buell Blast tends to polarize opinions; Erik Buell himself symbolically crushed one at the end of the production run in 2010. And even some owners have mixed feelings, like Ben McKee of Oxnard, California. “The stock Blast did have some issues—namely the frame, wheels, rear suspension, hand and foot controls, exhaust and intake systems, tank and bodywork, riding position, lighting and some of the electrical system,” he says. “Other than that, the Blast was an amazing bike.”

Ben decided to remove those troublesome items. Finding himself left with just the 492cc motor and not much else, he searched around for a vintage machine with a similar configuration for inspiration. And happened upon the 1911 Excelsior, which had a 500cc de Dion single cylinder engine and also sported a belt final drive.

“The early board track motorcycles were the inspiration for my build,” says Ben. “Archaic suspension and braking, temperamental engines … these bikes had character, and that’s the one thing the Blast lacked. It was more boring than a gallon of white paint.”

Ben started by building a new frame, and like Buell, used a section as an oil reservoir. He recycled parts of the original neck and front end, and fabricated a new rear section out of thick wall tubing—making the mounts and brackets from leftover metal.

A Harley-Davidson 21” front rim was adapted to fit the stock rear pulley, and the front 21” wheel was sourced from a wrecked CR125. Because the hardtail frame and the tall, narrow stance didn’t feel dangerous enough, Ben added a hand shifter and suicide clutch. Footpegs were sourced from an old Schwinn bicycle, but Ben made the tank and electrical box himself from raw steel.

The OEM battery was ditched for an 8-cell lithium unit, but the stock Buell speedo was kept. The gauge has an old-school look to it despite the plastic housing, so Ben popped it into a modified Honda CB housing.

The seat sits on a custom fiberglass pan, with foam from an old Ninja 250 seat and artificially aged vinyl. The headlight is the spotlight from a Crown Victoria police interceptor, and the tail light is a halogen outdoor spotlight machined to fit an old trailer lens.

Is the vintage board track version any better than the original Blast, though? “It’s an absolute terror to ride,” Ben confides. “The first few test drives were more almost-crashing than driving. But the bugs are now worked out, and the bike runs great.”

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