Thirty years ago, a young James Hilton went out for a bike ride with his uncle. The experience was unforgettable, and so was the caution from his father that quickly followed: ?Motorcycles are death machines, son.?
It?s our duty to report that James hasn?t just ignored his father?s advice. He?s turned it on its head, and launched Death Machines Of London. This drop-dead gorgeous Moto Guzzi Le Mans is DMOL?s first build.

It?s a remarkable success for a first effort, but the clue lies in Hilton?s background: he co-founded AKQA, a multi-disciplinary agency that works on the Mortal Kombat video game one minute and Rolls-Royce?s website the next.
Even setting aside our brazen love for old Moto Guzzis, DMOL have worked magic on this 1981 Le Mans Mark 2. The classy paint scheme and curious tail section caught our eye first, but the team’s gone a lot deeper than that.
Death Machine co-conspirators Ray Petty and Max Vanoni kicked off with a complete nuts-n-bolts teardown. Every part of the engine, gearbox and frame was vapor blasted, before being subjected to what James calls a ?forensic inspection.?
The motor was punched out to 950cc, complete with a polished, lightened and balanced crankshaft, gas flowed heads (done in-house) and all new valves.

DMOL threw in a pair of 40mm Dell’Orto carbs with accelerator pumps, and a lightweight R.A.M. clutch and flywheel. The exhaust system is completely custom, and uses Moto Guzzi 1100 down pipes.

To bring the Le Mans&#...