4 “ARTISTS OF MOTORBIKES”: UNITED MOTORCYCLES, RODSMITH MOTORCYCLES, REVIVAL CYCLES, MOTO STUDIO. 1 CHALLENGE: EXTOLLING THE FEATURES AND PERSONALITY OF THE MOTO GUZZI V9, IN THE BOBBER AND ROAMER VERSIONS.
There are two attributes which indelibly mark out the Moto Guzzi brand: personality and uniqueness. And these two characteristics become even more marked when the Italian motorbikes from Mandello del Lario are customized. Last year Moto Guzzi Americas dedicated the V9 Custom Builder project to the passion for customization, which is very widespread among bikers across the Atlantic. This featured the best builders and greatest fans of the Eagle brand, who won international recognition for their work, encompassing creativity and craftsmanship of the highest order. Moto Guzzi USA then gave them the task and challenge of extolling the personality and uniqueness of the “V9 platform”, in the Bobber and Roamer versions. The four builders are: Untitled Motorcycles (London, with a base also in San Francisco); Rodsmith Motorcycles (Lake County, Chicago); Revival Cycles (Austin, Texas); Moto Studio (Miami, Florida). Let’s find out who they are and how they got creative.
UNITED MOTORCYCLES (LONDON & SAN FRANCISCO). Untitled Motorcycles is known for some seriously unique builds, including the Hyper Scrambler, that was featured on some of world’s most popular moto websites, including Bike EXIF, Cycle World and Jay Leno's Garage. Led by Brit Hugo Eccles, Untitled Motorcycles has a shop in London and another in San Francisco, where the customised V9, known as “UMC-052 Fat Tracker”, was built and then presented at “The One Moto Show” 2018 (9-11 February, Portland Oregon), together with another splendid creation built on a Moto Guzzi base, the “Supernaturale”.
With the fat tracker V9, Hugo wanted to build a fun bike which, as he says, makes you want to take a ride.
Here the creative process is explained:
www.motoguzzi.com/us_EN/news/Moto-Guzzi-V9-Fat
INFO:
www.untitledmotorcycles.com
RODSMITH MOTORCYCLES. It is based just north of Chicago, in Lake County, and was founded and is led by Craig Rodsmith, born in Melbourne, Australia. Rodsmith has some serious passion for Moto Guzzi motorcycles, which is evident in his famous dustbin racer, a customised 1969 Ambassador. Besides bikes, Rodsmith has created customs out of everything, even World War II fighter planes. As comes over clearly from his builds, Rodsmith’s work is all done by hand, starting with the working of the bare metal.
And here is Roadsmith’s Turbo Moto Guzzi V9 Retro Café Racer, designed by Craig (based on the Moto Guzzi V9 Roamer), which was exhibited at the recent International Motorcycle Show in Chicago (IMC, 9-11 February 2018), on the Piaggio Group Americas stand.
Here the creative process is explained:
www.motoguzzi.com/us_EN/news/rodsmith-moto-guzzi-v9-retro-cafe-racer-style-build-update
ALSO READ: The motorcycling art of Craig Rodsmith.
wide.piaggiogroup.com/en/articles/people/the-motorcycling-art-of-craig-rodsmith/index.html
INFO:
www.rodsmithcustoms.net
REVIVAL CYCLES. What would a custom V9 build project be without Austin’s well-known Revival Cycles? The owners are responsible for the creation of the famous “Handbuilt Motorcycle Show” (next edition 20-22 April 2018) that takes place in Austin during MotoGP weekend, and involves all sorts of custom motorcycles.
The V9 “chopper attitude” build is led by the founder of Revival Cycles, Alan Stulberg, who was recently a judge on the TV show “Wrench Against the Machine” on Esquire TV.
Here the creative process is explained:
www.motoguzzi.com/us_EN/news/revival-cycles-moto-guzzi-v9-chopper-attitude-build-update
INFO:
www.revivalcycles.com
Moto Studio. Located in Miami, Florida, it is a custom motorcycle shop known for building top Italian bikes. The company is led by Bruce McQuiston, a former Formula 1 tech who has worked a lifetime in the paddock. McQuiston incorporates those skills into his builds: Bruce enjoys enormous credibility with the Guzzistis and takes part in high-profile events. He also took part in the TV show “Ride with Norman Reedus” (alongside Peter Fonda, the star of Easy Rider fame), which visited the Miami workshop and tried out the bikes.
Moto Studio created a custom motorcycle using the current Moto Guzzi V9 Roamer platform. The goal was to offer a new interpretation of the original V9 while sticking to the Moto Studio design philosophy, where the Moto Guzzi truly resides. This is shown by its creations, such as the elegant Moto Lino (here below on the left, photo by Peter Harholdt), dedicated to Lino Tonti, the historic Moto Guzzi creator and designer, and the top custom Moto Stormo 219 café racer.
INFO:
moto-studio.com