dWRENCHED

     Rolling scultpture...

  Underneath that layer of purist and period correct bike ''experts'' is another interesting one. A layer formed from a certain sort of people who don't really care that their Cafe Racer doesn't have ''that'' certain style of handlebars a Cafe Racer supposed to have. That sort of issues are irrelevent for them. Those kind of people who are not playing by the rules. Among them there are a few who put their work up to the dedication and effort levels that the result is more of rolling art nature. These guys don't build...they create.

     It's the case of David from France as well (no full name or extra infos through my main source) . He started playing with aluminium sheets and transforming the old beaten 1971 TR 6 Triumph into someting really cool.

    He got the Triumph from eBay. For around 1200 Euros (~1500$) and the frame, engine and fork were salvageable. Funny thing... the previous owner, once he saw what David was starting to build he decided to help out with other parts that were needed. Now that's class.

      ''I create with my hands and my imperfections are the signature of my work.''

   David hand built almost everything using 4mm aluminium for the Octopus. But the whole thing looks perfect. Not factory, laser cut perfect...but hand built perfect, Hand making something for your bike instead of choosing a bol-on part is a terrific way of taking pride in what you do. Going one step further (and beyond in David's case) sure is a massive accomplishment. And by looking at these photos and realising the amount of work around the details really puts the final result in another perspective. Wow...

   The Octopus has heavy Cafe Racer and steampunk influences. While David was at it, he came across Shinya Kimura's brilliant work. It wasn't David's intention to copy Shinya's style or anything like that, he just went his way.  Contacting the Master, Shinya complementing his work.

        In real life, especially these days, you can put a price on everything. And if you'd ask David if he'd let go (like in sale) the Octupus, the combined hourless period of time it took to build it plus the parts... you're looking at a price tag around 80.000$.  ''If'' he will actually let it go. 

   Photo credit : T Calplain