Once upon a time, customizing a sportbike meant ripping its fairings off, swapping out its handlebars, and calling it a streetfighter. But things have changed for the better. Nowadays, custom builders are taking 80s and 90s sportbikes, and amplifying their retro radness with well-judged mods and upgrades.
Craftsmen like Marc Bell are leading the charge. Marc’s specialty is high-end metal fabrication for designers, architects, artists, and the like. But he’s also a track racer and retro sportbike nut—so you’ll find him building machines of that ilk under the name HAXCH Moto.
His latest project is a tastefully modified 1988 Suzuki GSX-R1100 J—commonly known as a ‘slabside’ in Gixxer circles, for the plastic slabs that flank the rear half of the bike.…