Mac Motorcycles unveils plans for range of custom motorcycles

We all love custom motorcycles here at ZigWheels. It's even better when some custom bike builder strays away from the standard formula of custom choppers and looks to some other genre of bikes for inspiration. And when that inspiration comes from cafe racers, flat-trackers and scramblers, it really gives a welcome jolt to the bike lover inside us, followed by what can only be described as a warm fuzzy feeling.

So we come to this range of custom motorcycles that spawn from a collaboration between Xenophya Design, renowned as one of the UK's leading motorcycle design studios, and a fellow called Ellis Pitt, who is a business advisor and product designer with a background in furniture manufacturing. As strange an upbringing as it may sound, one look at the motorcycles designed by him in conjunction with the team at Xenophya is enough to make anyone a believer. The resulting marque, called 'Mac Motorcycles', operates with the philosophy that the riding experience and the stories that go with motorcycle journeys should be the highlight, rather than the motorcycle world's current obsession with technology and plastics.

Over the last nine months, Ellis and the designers at Xenophya have made unusual connections between genres of motorcycles such as choppers, Italian singles from the 1950s, flat-trackers and competition specials, and come up with four unique bikes that are based on the 492cc air-cooled single-cylinder Buell 'Blast' engine placed in a tubular backbone frame. The push-rod operated 'thumper' motor uses a carbureted fuel deliver system and pumps out 34 horses along with 41 Nm of torque.

The first of the bikes is the 'Spud' which takes its inspiration from the custom Bobber bikes from the 50s that were based on classic bikes stripped down for going fast in a straight line. The 'Ruby' is supposed to be the girl-next-door - a sort of all-round bike ideal for everyday riding. The 'Pea Shooter' is based on stereotypical Brit Cafe Racer designs, a bike that looks like a classic British road bike that has been stripped and modified for great speed and handling. Completing the line-up is the 'Roarer', by far our favourite as it looks like it has come straight from racing at the Isle of Man in the pre-war glory days.

Based in the small English town of Upton-Upon-Severn in Worcestershire, Mac Motorcycles plans to market this unique range of motorcycles throughout the world and the bikes will be made in small batches for markets in the UK, North America and Japan, with customers in France and Australia in-mind as well. Based on the specification and tuning option, the bikes are slated to cost anywhere between 8,000 - 10,000 British Pounds (Rs 6.2 - 7.7 lakh).