People come across bikes in the most unusual ways. We see barn finds, family hand-me-downs, and even the occasional generous gift from a stranger.
But this weirdly appealing 1970 Dnepr rat bike has one of the strangest tales of all. It now belongs to Belgian Nick Heij, who lives in Antwerp?some 2,000 kilometers away from the factory in Kiev where the Dnepr was built.

Nick takes up the tale: ?A Russian guy who was hanging around my local bar asked if I could help restore his bike. He always saw me arriving on some kind of old motorcycle, and that had motivated him to buy a bike as well!?
Nick agreed, parked the Dnepr in his garage, and helped the Russian work on the bike. But eventually the visits from the Russian slowed down, and stopped.
Almost a year later, the bar owner told Nick that the Russian had been offered a job in London, and was leaving Belgium soon. ?So I gave him a ring and said, ?What about your bike"??
The Russian offered the bike to Nick for the same price he?d paid for it. ?But it?d been standing at my place for a year and I?d worked on it, so I gave him a ?take or leave it? offer,? says Nick.

The Russian accepted, and the Dnepr became Nick?s new side project. It?s not the kind of build we normally feature on these pages, but we love the 1970s style and rat bike patina. (And the handy reverse gear, to make maneuvering sidecars easier.)
?Taking on a Russian bike was new for me?my preference is for old English bikes,? says Nick, who operates...