The Royal Enfield FT450 slides onto our screens in style this week, followed by a spicy BMW K100RS scrambler from Australia. Lastly, the special edition Vespa Officina 8 offers up oodles of Italian flavor.
Royal Enfield FT450 Hosted by professional flat track racer Gary Birtwistle at his UK-based training facility, Dirt Craft, the Royal Enfield Slide School is a way for riders to level up their skills and boost their confidence. No prior flat track experience is necessary, so it doesn’t matter if you’re a seasoned veteran or a total noob.
For 2025, Royal Enfield has come to the party with a new bike designed exclusively for Slide School. Built from the bones of the Guerrilla 450, this is the Royal Enfield FT450. (Yes, ‘FT’ stands for ‘flat track’.)
The Dirt Craft garage is already home to a fleet of Enfield-based flat track bikes, using the Scram 411 as a platform. With the release of the new liquid-cooled 450 cc Sherpa engine (as found in the Guerrilla and Himalayan 450), Royal Enfield and Dirt Craft figured it was time to upgrade the arsenal.
To get a stock Guerrilla ready to sling dirt, the Royal Enfield team started with the most basic of flat track necessities—a set of 19-inch wheels. Custom-made hubs are strung to black rims with stainless steel spokes.
The headlight has been replaced with a flat track number plate, and the handlebars have been swapped out for an appropriately wide set. The front brake system has been removed, leaving the bars blissfully unadorned. The Guerrilla tank has been paired with a specialized flat track body kit for enhanced maneuverability and stance on the dirt oval, and the bike wears a new racing livery.
With the new bodywork, stripped-back aesthetic, and flat track tires, the FT450 looks like a hoot. The Sherpa 450 mill has 40 ponies in its stable, which is more than enough to have fun with on track. To liven things up and to produce a more visceral experience, Royal Enfield has equipped the FT450 with a stainless steel racing exhaust and FuelX ignition and fuel controllers.
If you’d like to give the new Royal Enfield FT450 a try, the easiest (and only) way to do that is to sign up for Slide School (which is what we’d be doing if we lived in the UK). With any luck, Royal Enfield will build a production version of this down the line. [More]
BMW K100RS by Black Cycles When a return customer delivered a tired 1986 BMW K100RS to Black Cycles, shop boss Noel Muller took one look at it and knew he was in for a good time. The customer gave him free rein over the design and direction of the build, which is Noel’s preferred way to work. Landing on a scrambler style, he wheeled the Flying Brick into his Brisbane shop and got to work.
The BMW tank went under the knife in a big way. The scalloped side sections remain, but Noel cut the top off and rotated it 180 degrees, changing the fuel filler location but leaving enough room for the pump and filter. An inch of height was also taken out of the top.
Next, he added a steeply angled section at the rear of the tank, where it meets the custom leather seat (upholstered by Adam at Carman’s Auto Trimming). The side sections were filled in with a pair of ingeniously shaped crash bars, akin to something you’d find on the upper tank section of an adventure bike.
The back was also drastically reshaped. A custom subframe hosts the seat, along with a handmade aluminum tail section that borrows its lines from traditional motocross designs. The license plate bracket has a pair of Kellerman Atto LEDs fitted; three-in-one items that take care of the turn signal, taillight, and brake duties.
Up front is a set of overhauled forks that wear long gaiters and an enduro-style front headlight setup. The headlight itself is from a Husqvarna, which Noel has surrounded with a one-piece aluminum fairing and front fender.
A pair of Kellerman Atto indicators peek out from the side of the headlight, sitting in front of a set of Renthal bars and a digital speedometer. The bars are dressed with switchgear from the Canadian company NWT Cycletronic, who also supplied their X3.P control hub (the bike’s brain), wireless remote key system, starter solenoid, and horn.
The factory BMW wheels were stripped and painted gold, perfectly matching the stunning John Player Special tribute livery, laid down by Justin at Pop Bang Classics. The rear suspension was upgraded with a horizontal shock setup with CNC-machined linkages. The scrambler tires are from Shinko.
The old exhaust was replaced by a new system with a custom collector and a reverse cone muffler. The final dirt-friendly mods were a set of wider, grippier footpegs, and a lightweight sodium-ion battery from Sodion, which is now securely clamped in place in front of the rear tire.
It’s another knock-out build from Noel Muller and Black Cycles, and it almost looks too good to get dirty. Almost. [Source]
New Vespa Officina 8 Special Editions Vespa’s latest limited edition special, the Vespa Officina 8, pays tribute to the experimental department at Piaggio’s Pontedera plant. At the end of World War II, Officina 8 was populated by former aircraft engineers, mechanics, and metalworkers, and it’s where all of Vespa’s greatest innovations were born. The talented people of Officina 8 were the ones behind the design and prototyping of the original Vespa itself, so they’re a group of people worth celebrating.
Officina 8 staff wore a blue and brass pin on the outside of their work overalls, and this coveted badge of honor is the inspiration behind the new Blu Officina 8 color scheme. The Vespa Primavera Officina 8 and Vespa GTV Officina 8 are both imbued with the exclusive Blu Officina 8 color, along with a few other choice finishes. The blue paint is coated with a special matte metallic finish to invoke the feeling and look of the hardy denim overalls worn in the factory.
The narrow-body Vespa Primavera (available in 50, 125, and 150 cc variants) gets the special paint, gold five-spoke wheels, and black bar-end mirrors [above]. The Vespa logo matches the gold wheels, and there isn’t a lick of chrome on the whole bike, which gives it a touch of industrial modernity.
The brushed aluminum accents on the body and headlight surround are particularly nice. The seat is upholstered with a heat-sealed, double-contrast stitch, and there are polished brass rivets around the bottom edge.
The special edition color is also available on the Vespa GTV 310 [above]. The range-topping wide-body Vespa gets the GTV’s typical exposed handlebars and front fender-mounted headlight, but the Officina 8 designation adds a color-matched handlebar fairing, a smart-looking rear seat cover, and different wheels. Like its smaller stablemate, all the chrome has been replaced by brushed aluminum or matte black finishes.
Every Vespa Officina 8 is accompanied by an elegant welcome kit, which includes a tin container (in matching colors) that contains the owner’s manual and copies of the original archive documents. There’s also a range of Offinica 8 accessories available to pair with the special edition, including a top box, matching helmets, and gloves.
Just like the pin worn by those special factory workers, the finishing touch is the Vespa Officina 8 badge, finished in blue and bronze. Officina 8 identified the technicians who worked within the most secret and envied department within the factory, and it’s great for Piaggio to honor their legacy with this beautiful special edition. [More]
