Custom bike: Moto Guzzi Le Mans

The large majority of custom bikes we feature are fettled in Europe, Asia or the Americas, so it comes as a pleasant surprise to stumble across this lovingly modified Moto Guzzi Le Mans.

Though motorcycle tweaker Machine may not be as recognised as Deus Ex Machina, the niche bike builder located in the New South Welsh Southern Tablelands has been cranking out a number of custom bikes that have been attracting more and more attention.

This latest piece is from the 1970s, a Moto Guzzi Le Mans powered by a beefed-up 850T engine with a 950cc displacement.

Matt from Machine spoke to the BikeEXIF blog recently, explaining the bike's background: "I bought this Le Mans two years ago. It'd spent some time as a race bike, and was returned to road-going condition in the early 90s."

While the engine had already seen a lot of work, reliability wasn't ideal so local Guzzi engine guru Peter Roper was tasked with improving the gearbox, clutch and cylinder heads.

Already equipped with high performance Dell'Orto carbies and a sporty camshaft profile, the next stop was to give the Moto Guzzi Le Mans more visual appeal.

Machine's Matt explains that the bike "was already highly modified and really only the frame, motor and drivetrain were original mark 1 Le Mans... in other words, it was a complete bitsa. Restoring it was not an option and so starting from scratch and doing my own take on a classic '70s Italian hotrod was the logical choice."

As such, the hand-made bodywork was crafted to give the bike a new visual direction, and the front cowling, front fender, tank, and tail have all been redone.

The result is very effective and some of the smaller features, like the zipper on the trailing edge of the single seat, show impressive attention to detail.

Check out the Machine Shed blog for other bikes in the custom shop's repertoire.

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