Motorcycle Modification

Clay Rathburn is one of those annoying ‘renaissance’ types who seem to be good at whatever they turn their hands to. First was a string of traditional Triumph hardtails—including the irresistible Velvet Underground. Then we had the RVA Overland vintage dirt bike, and a Harley Sportster 1200 that was straight out of the 70s. So it must be time for something completely different. The latest Atom Bomb bike is a classic Triumph street tracker named "Trackmaster", finished in the usual immaculate Atom Bomb style. “The client bought me a rolling Trackmaster frame with a bent up swingarm and clapped-out Betor forks,” says Rathburn. “And, as we discovered later, a hell of a motor in it …” The ’67 motor is sporting a big-bore Sonny Routt 750 kit, big Kenny Harmon cams, steel H-beam rods, a lightened and balanced crank, and a five-speed conversion. “It was a full-tilt race motor. But the valve guides were loose in the head, the seats were cracked, and half ...

TRIUMPH DRIFT MOTORCYCLE How many motorcycle videos get more than ten million views on youtube? Not many, if any. But the first two  Motorcycle vs. Car Drift Battle  films from Icon Motosports got an incredible 13 million and 16 million views. The third in the series has just been released. So we thought we’d take a closer look at the bikes that will star in it, and the stories behind the builds. The guys doing the stunts on-screen are Ernie ‘E-Dub’ Vigil and Nick ‘Apex’ Brocha, and they’re heavily involved in the mods. After all, their careers and even their lives depend on being able to keep a  drift motorcycle  at the limit of control. Ernie traces the inspiration for the Drift series to Aruba, a small island in in the southern Caribbean Sea just off the coast of Venezuela. “Entering into this whole  Motorcycle vs. Car  concept, we didn’t know what to expect. We’d done a show in Aruba and w...