What you find when you're looking for something else

The magazine began as I became fascinated with people's interpretations of what kids might have built back in the fifties and sixties, with all their contemporary influences showing in the parts they used (and the parts they removed).

As time's gone on, I've become more interested in the original machines – the motorcycles still being dragged out of sheds and containers, frozen in time from that day when they were laid up, perhaps with a minor mechanical fault, the owner fully intending to tackle the repairs 'one day soon'.

If the bike is a custom, all the better. This Indian bob-job's a great example. I know nothing about it: found it on an online auction site when I was searching for something else; it's an old sale and the buyer secured it for just over $8 grand.

So we're left to imagine the back story and put this crazily cool bike into the context of its time – late '50s? – and work out what the mods are, and just as important, why they are. If you know what this is – or who owns it now, please comment! I love this thing.