Written by Martin Hodgson | Photography by Jimmy Ban
In addition to young motorcyclists and custom builders who’ve found a love for bikes of a different era, part of the success of the retro revival is fuelled by those going back to the bikes of their youth. But never before have we featured a builder who’s been building bikes and winning races since the end of the Second World War. Enter Bill VanTichelt, founder and patriarch of the Vantech family; who together combined to build a bike that was always for Bill the one that got away. A stunning cafe racer powered by a Ducati Monza engine, in a frame he designed to great success more than 50 years ago.

Bill won his first AMA Trials race in 1949 at Lakeland Park, California and ever since two wheels have been a staple of his life. With his father Bill Snr he founded VanTech in 1960 producing specialised parts for the missile industry. But having tasted racing success and graduated from Cal Poly in mechanical engineering along the way, he found himself producing big power kart engines, parts for NASA and his own motorcycle helmets.
Early into the companies history they combined their new range of brilliantly engineered motorcycle frames with kart engines and become 2nd only to Harley Davidson in bike production in Nth America. But it was their VanTech frames produced for the first time in 1964 that allowed racers to bolt in just about any engine they liked, for all kinds of racing, that solidified the legend of ...