2005 Yamaha R1 | Clear Vision

If you could do anything you wanted to your bike, what would you do? This was the question Alex Monroe asked himself after he paid off his R1, so he went to his brother Matt of Platinum Motorcycles to help him with the answer. Residing in Austin, Texas, a city covered by desert sun almost year round, the bike had to remain a daily rider yet roll out show caliber.

“I wanted a clean, classy, luxurious and completely one-off custom bike that appealed to the general public, riders and professional builders alike,” Matt said, so he fitted the bike with handmade Plexiglas levers, top triple tree, rearsets and other pieces to create something “new, innovate and different” that no one else had done before.

At bike nights, the R1 lights up like a billboard in the red light district as the lighting kit, sound system and onboard electronics come to life. Equipped with hundreds of red LED lights, the bike’s Plexiglas components appear almost transparent against the mechanical skin. A Ballistic Performance 12-cell battery then provides enough volts for a seven-speaker marine-grade Polk audio system and 800-watt Pyle amp that pounds the pavement parked or on the move.

Matt and Alex racked their brains to figure out how they could make the bike look stealth at night, but cherry during the day. “The hardest part was getting the right color,” Matt said. “Selecting the number of coats was trial and error for many nights.” The twosome finally decided on a House of Kolor Brandywine that emphasizes the red LEDs. “It took ten spray outs to get the right amount of red coat on top of the silver,” Matt said. Brooks Industrial Coating was than called in to tighten up the look with powder coated-to-match components.

Most of the parts on this bike were fabricated in the shop or further modified for exact fitment such as the wheels and Tricky air ride system. “The wheels were custom cut specifically for us by Syndicate,” Matt said. “But we modified them further to accommodate the custom Plexiglas inserts that are on every blade of the wheel.” Matt and his team also added extra solenoids to the air ride system, as well as check valves, pressure switches, digital gauges, air tanks and power switches so the system would “reserve air and go up instantly” without having to wait for the compressor to kick in. “Every custom part of this bike was fabricated in-house and only a couple of pieces can be bought off-the-shelf,” Matt said.

With all the unique custom and Plexiglas bits, this bike is the ultimate representation of debt relief.

2005 Yamaha R1