It has to be said right off the bat, and reiterated a few times in this article that anything with two wheels, a motor, and the ability to steer can then be classified as awesome. Having said that, it is also easy to look at motorcycle and decide whether or not it is classy or trashy. Some can even be a tiny bit trashy but still have appeal if they go fast.

The point of this article to break down what a good custom build is on a motorcycle, some things to avoid. Mixed into the fun are some overly ridiculous builds that really have no purpose other than for you to stare at in awe that someone had the ambition to do such a build. The world is filled with different people who have different ideas. That’s what makes it great. Some people like to have fun building funky looking toys that may not serve a purpose other than that they look kind of awesome. Others may not have enough money for the bike they actually want, so they mod it and make it look awesome anyway. And some just want to put a completely oversized motor onto a pocket rocket just to launch through the neighborhood at speeds that could take you up into the atmosphere!

23 Awesome: Pulsar Modded by 16 Year Old Boy

This chic little bike was modded by a young 16 year old boy, according to 350cc.com. The boy, whose name is Tarun Sharma, from Jodphur, Rajasthan, writes a beautiful story of his experiences in modding motorcycles.

The bike pictured is a 2001 Bajaj Pulsar model that Tarun decided to convert into more of a cafe racer.

Aspiring to be an architect, Sharma says "automobiles runs in my vein so I was not able to leave my passion." So he decided to set up a workshop and build bikes. Naming this one Fitoor, which means passion, it looks like this young boy really does some good mod work.

22 Awesome: Yamaha V Max

Who doesn’t love Yamaha VMAX? Shown here in super ridiculously clean condition, with only a few mods that put the right kind of touches on this blue beast. With a transparent crankcase cover, you can watch the oil fill in as the motorcycle starts, and it is a beautiful sight to see indeed. The bike has Rizoma mirrors, an R1 tail section, 12” extended swingarm, which makes for a perfectly extended racer bike that possesses perfect length for sufficient highway travel. The whole neighborhood watches as this gentleman starts up his banger and cruises away into the distance. Very cool!

21 Awesome: BMW R80

Pictured here is a most intricate photo of a prestigious German Motorrad, that is posted in a custom classifieds section where listed are a just a few very dapper and custom looking bikes, this site bikebound.com is a must view for any person who is passionate about custom bikes that make big statements.

The most classy looking BMW shown here was customized by an establishment by the name of Ironwood Custom Motorcycles.

The site properly helps you break down your wants and needs in an advantageous way for you to make the right decision when purchasing a custom bike.

20 Awesome: Hub Steering Yezdi

This most exotic and unique looking Yezdi was modified by some Indian engineering students to steer from the hub. The modification was to help eliminate dive during braking, and make the bike more stable. Definitely one of the most extreme mods that one could perform on a motorcycle, completely changing the way that it operates, and making it a now foreign object to a first time user. Yezdi made powerful two-stroke motorcycles in India from 1970s-90s. If you don’t know much about this wonder from India, it would definitely be a good idea to research more about them!

19 Awesome: Honda CX500D Scrambler

It seems the Scrambler style of motorcycle is often overlooked. However, this particular scrambler is a hard one for overlooking. A husband and wife teamed up on this 1979 Honda CX500D to create a beautifully driving and fully restored bike that looks bad enough to be in the movies.

Max and Erica Droog go for a post-apocalyptic style on their trackers, scramblers, and desert sleds, and they do good work on them at that.

Calling themselves Droog Moto, the first thing they did to this bike was put on Yamaha R1 and a new subframe, thereafter adding super chunky Euro HF904 Tires. A necessity for being a scrambler, they used high pipes, and added more modern parts including a lithium battery, and a Mosfet Regulator/Rectifier to keep all running properly.

18 Awesome: Royal Enfield WW2 Dispatch Rider

Perhaps some of the coolest modded motorcycles were made that way for times of war. This 1937 military bike contains a 350cc overhead valve engine with a 4 speed gearbox. According to the seller in the article, he has reconditioned the whole engine for use in WW2 events. This is one of the best parts about motorcycles and motors alike, is keeping the great old ones alive and running so they can be appreciated later on. Inside cargo bags contain clothes that the soldier would have worn, and spare parts. This would most definitely a very fun motorcycle to own. 123rf.com

17 Awesome: Heavily Modded Bantam

This BSA Bantam is a two-stroke motorcycle that was produced by the Birmingham Small Arms Company from 1948 to 1971. It is not known how many were produced, but a ballpark number is from 250k to 1 million.

Pictured here is a man’s bike taken from his blog reddevilmotors.blogspot.com. 

Visually it is easy to tell that the modifier of this bike wanted more rise in the front, creating more of an old style dirt bike, which probably made it a ton easier to ride off-road, considering the technology of the time. Interesting that people were modifying bikes for better off-road travel before they were made in factory.

16 Awesome: Big Dog

It’s looking like Big Dog makes some of the hands-down sleekest custom bikes. With elegantly pointed chrome air intakes, and very classy flame and flow style paintings, you are going to look good driving down the road on top of one of these beauts. But just remember to please be careful! Oh, and also if you want to know where to possibly buy one of these machines you can visit cycletrader.com which seems to hold a number of these in their listing, anywhere from $10k+. Might be a good addition to your family if you are that kind of motorcycle owner.

15 Awesome: Rajputana Motorcycles

Okay take what was said about Big Dog bikes and just step it up another notch. Rajputana makes some really dirty street bikes.

And by "dirty" I mean to say that their work is on a whole other cosmetically detailed level.

With less of a chrome shine and more of a warm glow to all of their work, you are staring at a work of art that embroiders the road with its ambient glow, kinking the necks of innocent bystanders who would most definitely have to behold such a custom on the road. Definitely would recommend checking out rajputanacustoms.com it is a very well built website of eye candy.

14 Awesome: Lifted Dirtbike

This little Honda CRF150 with a lift on it has got to be no doubt very fun to drive, and will also definitely get you to where you need to go in the mountains if you are in a mid to lower weight class. It even looks like these people have been riding this thing on snowy roads, which looks like a lot of fun. If you haven’t hopped on a CRF150 you should definitely try one out, they are a lot more peppy than you would think, and it can be a lot of fun to step your size down a notch and play around like a kid just a little bit more!

13 Awesome: Custom Ducati Diavel

Now if you have ever ridden a Ducati then you know how it feels to be on a very responsive and energetic motorcycle. When you start a Ducati it speaks to you with vibrations, and calms your nerves into a frenzy of brilliance.

It looks like the Termignoni pipe is the highlight of the show on this thing and will get all of the love vibes flowing, as angry and loud as the thing can sound.

If you are trying to get yourself into a good motorcycle loan, a Ducati is not a bad choice as these beauties hold their value and carry a very distinct and reputable name.

12 Hide: Oversized Fairing

Again, before we go on to the uglier looking beauties, let’s mention that anything with two wheels and a motor is really pretty awesome. And not all bikes with large fairings are ugly, however this particular look is one that could be done without. A bad thing to do to any classic motorcycle is to put an ugly oversized square looking robot head on it and try to drive down the road in style! But hey, you never know, the thing could be as comfortable as ever, and you really just don’t know something until you try it! So go find out for yourself!

11 Hide: Japanese Bosozuku Mod

In this very optimistic post from reddit.com, the owner describes how his VLX was rear-ended by another car, but what came from the collision appears to be a Japanese Bosozuku mod, with the whole tail end of the bike very obviously floating up in the air at a slant.

What more of an interesting way to mod your bike than to do it unintentionally?

More people should definitely not try this, for the good reason that the statistics for likeliness of surviving a motorcycle crash are definitely a lot more in number than even a dangerous car crash.

10 Hide: Extended Swing Arms

Here is another case where the bike just looks overdone because it is just disproportionately long. Not all applications of this are bad, though, because if you put just the right amount of extended swing on a bike you will find yourself more stable instead of less. In this case, though it’s too much, this guy looks like he will tip over really easily on this thing. Not going to say the paint job is bad though, this is a pretty good gothic looking death type paint job that really works for the bike. Everything other than the chrome wheels that look just a bit tacky when compared to a really good flatter paint job on alloy wheels.

9 Hide: Overdone Cosmetically

We all love the USA because it allows us to do fun crazy stuff and go out into the wild and truly be free! Is there such a thing as too much patriotism? That is up to you. This motorcycle looks a little overdone so that the rider would want a lot of attention, and would probably get it? What’s wrong with that? Nothing at all. What’s better than that? Blending in to the flow hard on something a little less flamboyantly military. Some of the most heroic people ride by on rather normal looking motorcycles, and are hardly noticed.

8 Hide: German Sidecar WWII

The reason this WWII German Military BMW with a sidecar should be hidden away is more of an obvious presumption. The paint job is super thick and flat, the BMW symbol is classic, and the thing just looks like it will run you over it is that mean.

But for reasons that are very obvious there is no cause to celebrate this bike, when compared to the more victorious and modest looking British WWII Dispatcher’s bike.

It is too bad dirt bikes weren’t a thing back in the days of the war, it would have been really fun to see the more offroad style in the form of tricked out war vehicles.

7 Hide: Overly Tall Handlebars

Anything with overly tall handle bars can definitely step off of the highway, and stay in the garage. This cannot be comfortable, or safe. Not to mention you are putting your body into a cup shape, making it catch as much wind as possible that is coming towards you. The only really good thing about this is that someone with the intelligence even to do it will probably not last very long in Darwin’s whole "survival of the fittest" plan. There are much more comfortable and aerodynamic ways to do 100mph on a motorcycle, without feeling like you are going to be ripped off of it.

6 Hide: Tesla Concept Bike

The Tesla Concept Bike goes to the other side of the list because they need to rework their design just a little bit. It kind of looks a little fat towards the front of the bike rather than an even weight distribution through the whole.

This one is a hard one, though, because Tesla is such a unique company and they are always doing cool eye popping things that are just different.

I’m sure they will figure out something out that will take the world by storm and possibly change the world for the better. Also just the fact that it’s technically just a concept means that the company actually still needs to put the bike into production.

5 Hide: Stretched out ZX6R

This bike is your classic gangster neighborhood style mod, where the hoodlums have excessive money that they don’t know how to responsibly spend. The paint job on this one is super blandly white, however the wheels kind of look cool, if the owner could just do something good with the side panels and the gas tank. Maybe it would be a good two person bike, but it is still not very cool looking. Kind of look like something you would see in a bad dream or something similar like the bad guy in the movie rolls up on one of these to cause conflict with the main character. Pretty bad looking.

4 Hide: Dangerous Looking Retro Forks

If you ride on your bike with your girlfriend you should at least put a helmet on her head. Oversized front end parts really just don’t make a lot of sense, and it looks like this guy’s girlfriend is about to fall right off the back of this thing and get caught up in the rear wheel.

Having said all that, this is a really good picture of a retro couple on a motorcycle.

They are both wearing some pretty cool boots, and the lady’s outfit is pretty classic and nice looking. Pictures from 1970s USA really always have a cool tint and vibe coming off of them.