Custom paint jobs oftentimes seem somehow to become the absolute antithesis of the notion. Stenciled-in flames or skulls, unfortunately, are about as common as a barbed-wire armband tattoo. They're also equally tacky and don't require a great deal of skill to lay down.
When Florida's Bang Customs showed us its sick "all paint" Repsol scheme, we immediately decided there still might be hope for those Yosemite-Sam-tattoo types yet. Breaking the mold is what a custom job is all about, and Bang Customs came from a bust-up of another sort. Bike and company owner Charlie Curran explained how he got started. "After a hurricane wiped out most of my house, I started shopping for new furniture but couldn't find anything I liked. I decided to build my own patio bar and furniture, and once it was done a lot of people wanted similar stuff. We started building custom furniture, and it then turned into bike painting and building after I decided to go for it on my personal bike."
Curran's Honda CBR1000RR was fresh out of the crate when he began stripping it down to make his own version of a Repsol replica. His has a twist, though, as it's completely done in paint. "We tore the bike completely apart, then painted every piece in the largest metal flake available. The inside of the plastics are even painted to match the outside, and the inside of the swingarm has logos painted in it that you can't see until the wheel is removed."
Those wheels he refers to aren't just any old hoops, either. They're ultralightweight carbon-fiber rings from BST and one of the many aftermarket performance parts that are only noticed after the deep and powerful trance loosens its hold a bit. Curran wanted something he could ride as much as make people gawk at, and his Repsol does just that. "Some of the showbikes look impressive, but you can't really ride them. This bike can do a track day and compete in a custom show the next day."
Starting a custom sportbike shop in Florida could be tricky, considering how deep the talent pool runs there, but with killer jobs like this Repsol wonder, we imagine Bang Customs will stay pretty busy. If the company has the balls to try bass boat metal flake on a MotoGP replica and make it work, we can only imagine what's coming next. Don't bet on stencil skulls and flames, though.