Written by Andrew Jones
I’ve got a theory that the Northern Hemisphere is sometimes better than the Southern for custom bikes due to the long, harsh winters. Without wanting to sound too ?hemispherist?, here in the south you can ride 365 days a year – as long as you don’t mind a bit of sweaty leather stink. But what to do when you’re forced to hunker down for 4 months of winter" Why, you build customs and dream of what you’ll be doing come the thaw. Customs like this simple yet classic Suzuki from Quebec?s Mecano Motorshop.

Mecano Motorshop?s owner is Olivier Laroche. After working as a dealer?s mechanic for several years, Olivier decided in 2010 to start his own shop. ?We repair any marque of motorcycle from 1900 to 2018. But summer is short in Quebec, so we also repair ATVs, snowmobiles and boats, too. Recently, we began to customise motorcycles as small side projects. But now we are proud to show the world our first complete custom bike, which we also revealed at the Montreal International Bike Show this year.?
As you can probably see, the bike is a mix between a Bratstyle and a Scrambler: the seat, hoop, frame and low exhaust say Brat, but then the handlebars and riding position do seem much more ?McQueen?. ?The bike is a Suzuki GS450T from ?83. We bought it from a woman who was moving from Montreal to the USA and decided to leave the bike behind. It was her first motorcycle and she was a little bit worried when I told her what I wa...