Rat Bike: The Curious Tale of Nick Heij’s Dnepr MT11

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...