Ooh La La: A Rudge-Whitworth ‘bitsa’ from France

This remarkably elegant vintage motorcycle is actually a bit of a mongrel: it's a Rudge Whitworth ‘bitsa’ built by Jean-Claude Barrois, who also restored the Honda CB450 we’ve featured before. This bike has had a chequered life, starting out as a 1928 Soyer—a French brand that produced motorcycles between 1920 and 1935. Like many French makes of the time, Soyer used a variety of engines for their motorcycles, including 
JAP, Sturmey Archer and Chaise. This particular Soyer 07S had a JAP engine but the frame was wrecked, so Barrois built his own frame—and eventually replaced the JAP motor with the...