A man's wealth can be measured in a multitude of ways. Nowadays, in this era of excessive disposable income, we tend to judge a man by his toys--hence the popularity and proliferation of powerboats, exotic cars, and even high-end custom sportbikes. Around 150 years ago, though, when life was lived a bit closer to the bone, a man was more often judged by his tools--and in the early days of the Wild West there was no tool more important to a man than his gun, which was an essential component for survival. But even if guns were more than just playthings, many frontiersmen--just like most sportbike freaks today--couldn't resist the urge to customize their piece. And when it came to customizing your gun to set it off from all the other Davy Crocketts trying to jump your claim, nothing topped having intricate engraved patterns covering every visible surface.
Today's custom sportbike enthusiasts often run into the same problems as yesteryear's pioneers--that is, their bikes never seem to be individualized enough to express their personal style. No matter how much billet or chrome or candy paint they throw at their ride, they still end up with something that looks vaguely like every other "one-of a kind" bike on the road. This was one of the things that Alex Gomez of Hayward, California, feared when he set out to set off his 2005 Suzuki GSX-R1000. So to make sure that he ended up with a Gixxer utterly unlike any other, he took a cue from old-time gunslingers and had his 170-hp piece engraved by master gun engraver and artisan Rudy Pena of Castro Valley, California.
When it came to flossin' out Gomez's Gixxer, Pena didn't mess around. He spent hundreds of hours hitting pretty much every last bit of metal on the bike--including the frame, swingarm, rims, exhaust, levers, rearsets, brake calipers, even the rotor carriers--with the engraver. Literally every square inch of metal on the chassis has been touched by Pena's tool, leading to the most outrageous juxtaposition of old-world craftsmanship and new-millennium technology that we've seen yet. Love it or hate it, the end result is outrageously originally and stunning in its detail--the hand engraving gives the bike a character and personality that could never be duplicated by any collection of CAD-made billet piece.
Gomez is no stranger to custom bikes--he's been building and riding them since '90, and past creations include various custom R1s and a ZX-11, so he knew all the right people to contact for top-quality custom work. The first call was to Alex Torres of Fastlane Cycles in Fremont, California, who completely disassembled the bike and prepped it for mods. Once Torres had the bike torn down, all of the metal was packed up and Fed Exed to Excalibur Polishing in Fullerton, California, which completely polished all of the pieces before they were shipped off to Pena's shop for engraving. Excalibur is also the outfit that chromed everything once the engraving was done.
Once everything was suitably blinged, attention was turned to paint, which was handled by the talented Jason Bonilla of Unique Auto Body in Fremont, California. Bonilla started off with a basecoat of House of Kolor Oriental blue, which was then hit on the high spots with a darker, cobalt blue fade. Over the top of this indigo base, Bonilla applied some skull-themed undergraphics and wispy filigrees to echo the engraving on the frame, and then lit it all up with candy apple red, burgundy and gold licks to add some color into the mix. The whole thing really pops off in the sun, giving it a life-sized Hot Wheels look that locks your gaze.
Given the incredible amount of attention and detail gifted on this bike, the two-and-a-half months it took for the bike to be returned to Torres at Fastlane for reassembly seems almost like nothing. Except for the Yoshimura exhaust Torres installed, the bike as photographed is nearly all stock--this is largely due to the fact that Gomez started this project in early '05 when the latest-generation GSX-R1000 was fresh off the assembly line and virtually no aftermarket components had been manufactured yet. It probably won't look like this by the time this issue hits the streets, however. As soon as his checkbook recovers for this initial outlay, Gomez is talking about lowering the bike, adding an extended swingarm and maybe a little toot of nitrous, too.
All the better for playing around with--and you can see from the pictures that Gomez isn't exactly afraid to have some fun with this toy--the price tag for the paintjob be damned! How else do you explain the sight of Northern California's most famous man in black, Bullo from Ruff Ryders, wheelying this engraved beauty around at 12 o'clock? Yes, Bullo had Gomez's permission--now that's trust [or sheer stupidity--Ed.]!
Then again, the old-time gunslingers didn't retire their hardware after the engraver did his thing--why should Gomez act any differently with his bike?