Written by Ian Lee.
There is an idea in some motorcycle cultures, that having a bigger bike isn?t necessarily better. I can agree with this line of thought. I remember opening up the throttle in sixth gear on my Suzuki 250, leaning into a corner, feeling like a MotoGP racer and seeing that the bike was just nudging 95kmh. This culture of smaller is better is prevalent in South East Asia, where big capacity bikes are not an option, yet the desire to customise bikes is still strong. This part of the world is where our story begins, with Callum Blackmore discovering in Thailand exactly what he was looking for in a motorcycle. And so today we feature the fruit of his labour, his 1972 Honda Chaly Custom.

In 2014, Thailand was an interesting place to be. Callum Blackmore had been living in the country for a year, the military had taken control and Callum was forced to stay in the provinces while everything quietened down. It was during this time that he came across his first Chaly: ?An old lady had it sitting outside her house; flat tyres, weathered, looking like it could do with some love. I plucked up the courage in my poor Thai language and asked if it was hers" She said yeah, ‘if you can make it work you can ride it around.? And that is how it all began.
Moving back to New Zealand in 2015, Callum worked his way through a whole range of small capacity bikes, but it wasn?t until he had purchased another Chaly that he really felt like he was at home on a bike aga...