The Stingray
Thor Wasn't The Only Award-Winner Superbike Concepts Brought To The Palm Beach Bike Show
Even though Thor (the radical, dragon-themed custom featured in the main story) won the vaunted Sportbike Build-Off prize at the Palm Beach Bike Show, this wasn't the only award the Superbike Concepts crew brought home that weekend. Superbike Concepts owner Jose Rodriguez also stepped up to the stage to collect the "Best Engineered" award for his personal ride, this pearl white Hayabusa. And as proud as he is of Thor, Rodriguez thinks that his own ride is actually the cooler 'Busa of the two.
"I get more stares with my bike than with anything else I've ridden," he tells us. "It's the color-you're just not used to seeing a white bike, especially not a Hayabusa. It just catches people's eye, and once they get right up to it they realize the graphics [red tribal patches filled with incredibly detailed skulls and women, again done by Volusia County Customs] are just unreal."
Unlike Thor, which is covered with hand-molded spines, the bodywork on Rodriguez's Stingray (so named for the red stingray in the center of the custom ostrich skin saddle) is stock save for the custom Euro Fender in front. The extended swingarm is a six-inch over piece made by Trac Dynamics, wide enough to accommodate the 240-section RC Components "Warlock" wheel. And like most of the bikes that come out of Superbike Concepts, the motor on the Stingray remains stock except for the dual high-mount exhaust from HMF. "I like to keep the motors simple, so they start up all the time," Rodriguez says.
One modification that Rodriguez didn't pass over on his own bike was the on-board security system-he learned the importance of this lesson the hard way, when his first custom sportbike, a Hayabusa tricked out by the folks at Custom Sportbike Concepts, was boosted from Daytona Bike Week in 2002. The Stingray features both an alarm like that on Thor as well as a hidden GPS tracking unit that allows Rodriguez to monitor his bike's location at any time using his home computer. "If the bike moves even three inches it pops up on my computer screen so I can see exactly where it's going," Rodriguez says. A very valuable feature, we imagine, especially considering how in-demand Superbike Concepts' creations have become lately. -Aaron Frank