Quaint BUT PRACTICAL

Combining functional utility with chic design isn’t ever very easy, especially when leavened with retro cool.

But British-based custom bike builder Benny Thomas has certainly succeeded in achieving this in creating the Sterling Autocycle for Italian businessman Fabio Cardoni’s Black Douglas Motorcycle Co, based half an hour north of Milan en route to the nearby Moto Guzzi factory.

There, Cardoni’s team of workers are engaged in replicating the quaint but surprisingly practical personal transportation device concocted by Thomas in his Boneshaker Choppers workshop on the outskirts of Birmingham, just a long stone’s throw from what used to be the heartland of the British motorcycle industry as was, once home to BSA, Norton, Ariel and so many others.

Read more in December’s edition of CBG