Verona, Italy. The city of the play “Romeo and Juliet”, the tragic love story written by William Shakespeare with the famous balcony scene (see picture) where Romeo and Juliet agree to be married. And the city where each January, during 3 days, the international custom world, from manufacturers to custom builders to aftermarket parts vendors display their creations. This year, a record number of exhibitors, and thanks to better weather, probably a record of best attendance by visitors from all over Europe. During the Verona Motor Bike Expo is held one of the Custom Chrome International Series bike shows competition. Below are the top winners in 4 different classes. 1- Championship 2- Jammer Old School 3- Modified Harleys 4- Rev Tech Performance. (photography @ Horst Rösler for Cyril Huze)
1- CHAMPIONSHIP CLASS
1st Place. Rough Crafts, (Taiwan) Graphite Speedster
2nd Place. North Coast Customs (Italy) FIAT Abarth Bike
3rd Place. S-Bay (Spain) OMEGA
2- JAMMER OLD SCHOOL
1st Place. Hard Nine Choppers, (Switzerland) + LA Speed Chop/USA Pan Chopper
3- MODIFIED HARLEY
1st Place. Stile Italiano (Italy) Harton
4- REVTECH PERFORMANCE
1st Place. Asso Special Bike, Mario Colombo (Italy) U199 RB Racing Power
Judges were: Jody Perewitz, Aykut Tartaroglu, Indian Larry (Bobby), Adolfo Calles, Jordan Mastringani und Jeff Holt/Hot Bike (Bagger), Dimitri from RuRiders, Onno Wiringa (Read and Ride)
You cannot help but notice how different Euro (custom) bike competitions are to the US – eg it frees the mind a to see more than a sea of big front-wheel baggers (even Polaris has now contracted the very contagious ‘big-front-wheel’ disease).
RC’s Graphite Speedster deserves many major titles. I recon it should have done better at the AMD World Camps – but then again they march to their own (often strange) beat. Not that I am taking anything from Krugger – he deserved the win; it is therefore worth noting that the Graphite Speedster topped the “Fiat” bike this time around.
I like S-Bay’s OMEGA – very S-bay-ish. I like it not because it looks like a JT Nesbitt wet-dream, but because it captures a V-Rod motor in a “frame” that I think has mega potential. The V-Rod is being treated like an incongruent stepchild – yet it is HD’s own fault; eg wrong frame, capacity should be 1600cc (at least) or the current capacity but with a std supercharger or even turbo charger (let Porsche do it – they have been making performance turbo’s longer than any). After all the V-rod motor is so good that Polaris copied the 1st gen V-rod motor for the Polaris Scout.
A nice spread of judges from across the industry.
While I’ll agree its nice to see whats coming out of the European custom bike scene the sad reality is lately its pretty becoming … other than the Abarth bike and Omega bikes nothing more than a constant rehash of whats already been built a thousand times or more . Sadly this was the case with hot rods at this years AMBR as well .
To be honest its looking like creativity overall on both sides of the Atlantic has been placed on the back burner when it comes to hot rods and customs [ both cars and bikes ] having been replaced by Xerox pastiches of a past the builders themselves know nothing about . e.g. ‘ Hipster ‘ mentality replacing Craft & Creativity
But to end on a positive note . The Abarth bike I’ve seen before and oh what a gem that is . From the motor right down to the overall design … it is a winner 1
Omega does in fact owe a lot first and foremost to the Bimota Tesi and Vyrus’s efforts and may in fact be the result of JT Nesbitt’s call for originality and a move towards the future rather than constantly looking in our rearview mirrors
Now we can only hope others will heed the call , leaving behind the current trend towards …. Trendiness 😉
Give me a double-shot of the Hard Nine + LA Speed Chop/ USA Pan Chopper -I don’t really care if it is a rehash of days gone by. It’s speaks volumes to me.
Later Jay
I agree Sigfreed! I loved working and living for the 4 year’s I did in Europe. I also noticed where I lived THEY rode to beat traffic/parking /gas issues,however the riding lifestyle was not BLINGED out ! Just to simply CATALOG miles under your asscheek’s