Big ballers like to use Las Vegas as their playground, and for good reason. Not only a peculiar place where those with the most money pay for the least, it's also a fantasyland of debauchery. A couple of lucky hands at the table can land you in the embrace of a host of gold-digging hotties eager to fulfill your wildest fantasies-and also in the high regard of casino managers (who are good folks to be in cahoots with).
With such a Nirvana at our fingertips, it's no wonder that owner Mike Dutry decided to build a bike that pays homage to his favorite hobby-and one that does so in such a manner as to capture the very spirit of Las Vegas and high-stakes gambling in all its spectacular flashiness.
When Dutry gave his ride over to Mike Godek at Wild Card Customs, he expressed his fondness for the Suomy "Gambler" helmet, and that helped Wild Card's in-house paint-slinging design genius Clint Sweet to determine the attack plan. Godek explained, "Mike wanted to have the wildest bike possible, and he's a true lover of loud colors and crazy paint schemes."
If there was one shop that could bring the glitz and glamour that Dutry desired to life on his bike, it was Wild Card Customs. The striking scheme Godek and Sweet created has over 120 hours invested in the combination of airbrush and hand-painted detail, and the result hit the jackpot with a loud-and-proud theme. It's loaded with plenty of finishing touches as well.
Wild Card went beyond the basics of a paint job and sprayed much more than just the bodywork. Notice that the engine case covers have become virtual money chips, while the typically ignored subframe tray also had a bit of dressing up. Even the dash and controls were attended to with dice and color coordinated as well. A little bit of bold and daring imagination can go a long way, but then that's the very spirit of rolling the bones, isn't it?
Keeping things simple and adding minor accents is a wise plan when building a bike with paint as intricate and busy as this, and Wild Card did just that by tastefully adding actual playing chips and dice throughout the body. Who would have thought that those silly valve-stem dice we used as kids on our BMX bikes would eventually find a spot on something like this?