There has always been something special about the machines built inside the deBolex workshop, a few miles south of London, England. They are sleek and minimal, with factory levels of finish hiding some very smart engineering and technical decision-making.
Shop owner Calum Pryce-Tidd is one of Britain?s finest bike builders, and takes his inspiration from the racing cars of the 1950s and 60s. In those days, teams would often remove heavy steel bodies and replace them with lightweight aluminum versions.

?It?s an important part of our ethos not to tear up a great production bike to make something potentially harder or less practical to ride,? says Calum. (And amen to that.)
?We celebrate the efforts of the manufacturer by retaining the core of the bike, dressing it in a new set of clothes and upgrading components.? The result is invariably a usable and high quality one-off custom.
A Buell is not the easiest bike to modify, but it ticks a lot of boxes from an engineer?s point of view. The mass is centralized, the frame is extremely rigid, and weight is carried low. If there?s a weak point on the typical Buell, it?s usually the styling.
The XB9SX City X was regarded as an oddity when it came out, just over ten years ago. Part streetfighter and part urban scrambler, this particular variant on the Lightning theme was a machine before its time.

This XB9 is owned by Todd Kleparski, a London-based independent film producer. ?Todd bought the XB9 from new,? Calum tells us. ?Bu...