Written by Martin Hodgson | Photography by Niall Porter

When you reside within the custom motorcycle world and new people wish to join the fray, they always have one of two questions. What bike should I buy as my first steed or which bike should I choose for my first build. The answer is to both is really the same; cheap, light, basic and reliable. Lucky for all of us David Ewen ignored the advice I would have offered and chose to take up the challenge by building a killer custom for his first ever ride! From the barely breathing remains of a huge 1985 BMW K100 comes his street scrambler, that goes by the name ‘Revive’. 

David passed his test back in February 2017, and now with license in hand he was looking for the fabled first bike. But one movie meant he knew the style long before the make or model, ?I was inspired by the scene in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button where Benjamin (Brad Pitt) rides the red Indian 101 Scout one handed down the road, helmet-less and wearing aviators, I knew the classic look was for me,? he tells us.
So the search began and with a small 3×3 shed at the bottom of the garden, he wasn’t opposed to picking up a bike that needed a little work. For a first bike and build, a running but junky looking Yamaha SR or Honda CB would be perfect; but willing to go against the grain he found a BMW K. And just to make things even harder this particular barn find hadn’t run for six years, had been through ten previou...