Like stamping a butterfly on a bubbly blonde’s lower back, spraying meaningless shapes and symbols across a bike’s bodywork is no way to stand out in the custom paint game. Without that twist of creativity, the thrill will most certainly wear off with the clearcoat. Noe Quintana dreamt of rocking a parking lot parader that still raged through the corners but feared a wrong move with the color scheme would forever forsake his 2007 GSX-R750 into the realm of “so what.” Before clicking buy on go-fast parts, he stewed over the best alternative to OEM graphics:

Custom paint jobs can get repetitive—it seems like tribal slashes, flames and skulls appear on everything from T-shirts to motorcycle fairings and very few artists stray far from the standard theme. Garwood Custom is one shop that has done well to give customers loud, in your face spray jobs that normally utilize standard elements such as tribal and skull patterns. Garwood knew it was taking a chance when it laid down this striking scheme, but it paid off tremendously and demonstrated that there’s deep interest for unique yet subtle paint.

Since its introduction in 1998, the R1 has been a universal favorite. Smooth lines and an aggressive face have made the R1 a popular starting point for customizers and track junkies alike. This was precisely the reason Krystos Efantis of MSP Motorsports Performance picked one up. The challenge of rewriting the rule book on what’s been done thousands of times before was too hard to resist: “There are tons of built ‘07-‘08 R1s, so I wanted to do one completely different since it’s really popular. I wanted to make something that was an appealing eye catcher but still 100 percent reliable and rideable.”

Does this Duc look familiar? If you have a sneaking suspicion that this isn’t the first time you’ve seen an almost all carbon 1098S in the pages of SSB, you’d be right. A little over a year ago we featured one of Jim Muhich’s Ducati superbikes and it received more fan mail than the North Pole before Christmas. In the spirit of giving, we felt a return visit to an underweight Italian model would undoubtedly be well received.

From a mechanical standpoint, there are two kinds of people: the doers and those who pass the wrench to a more skilled hand. There is nothing wrong with the latter, but being hands-on teaches things missed when taking a back seat to maintenance. Korey Chick may not be an engineer but he gladly dove into the intricate business of disassembling his R1 for the sheer experience. Without onsite help, he devised a plan to tear down his ’05 Yamaha, mend the 17K miles worth of wear and then rebuild it: “I’m the kind of person who takes something apart to learn how it functions before putting it back together. The bike build was one of those types of situations. I tore it apart, looked at it and figured since it was apart I might as well play with it. It was an educational thing to me too. I wanted to understand the bike I was riding. My overwhelming thought through the whole process was how someone could create so much power, so much acceleration and speed in such a compact package. It’s ridiculous.”

Bike enthusiasts always have their camera phones holstered with the safety off in hope of snapping a blurry spy shot or two of a new model. Kawasaki bolstered these aficionados with its viral video program that promoted a lightning fast new model for 2012. Months and months of flirtatious marketing hinted at something beastly, but everybody knew what it was—a new ZX-14. But what would it look like? How fast would it go? Surprisingly, there wasn’t a single authentic photo leaked until its recent unveiling.

There are two things you’d never guess about Terrance “T-Hi” Hightower: what he does for work and his ride of choice. He’s a cop—one with more character than the 48K miles rolled over on his dressed up Honda CBR900RR. A smooth demeanor and candor about past street racing and road wheelies isn’t what you’d expect from a boy in blue but he’ll be the first to vocalize that the long arm of the law doesn’t play favorites: “I used to race the quarter mile on the back roads until myself and some guy got caught. One time I was at work and a complaint came into my sergeant and he’s like, ‘Hightower’s out there riding his bike on one wheel, oh yea? Wow.’ There’s no special treatment, it’s all about timing and respect.”

If this bike isn’t familiar and the phrase, “Bawse!” means nothing to you than you may want to YouTube DJ Khaled’s All I Do Is Win video. After popping an antacid to stomach the ridiculous chorus, look out for this pinstriped beauty behind Rick Ross’ ego. In total, this dark horse has parked itself in four Miami-based music videos thanks to a connection Jose Garcia of Leading Edge Custom has with local film producers. Making a stocker rap worthy isn’t nearly as over the top as Snoop Dogg’s herb affinity but nonetheless impressive, explained Jose: “Jorge came and bought a stock 750 that I owned and we built it for him. I’m not going to lie, every bike I build is left in my hands. Jorge saw a Banshee four-wheeler we were pinstriping and was adamant about having something similar done to his bike—so we did.”

We’re not exactly on top of the high-fashion scene and prefer Dickies over D&G, which explains why we didn’t know what Citizens of Humanity was all about. Any extra cash that’s left in our grease-stained pockets usually goes towards exhausts, race fuel and the like—not expensive designer jeans. But it’s high-end clothing that allows the Citizens of Humanity company owner to build gorgeous beauties like this 2011 Suzuki GSX-R750.

No, it’s not a joke. That’s actually how Jim Woodyard became the second owner of this outrageously customized 2000 Suzuki Hayabusa. “I was sitting at a bar during Myrtle Beach Bike week. The ‘Busa owner saw the for-sale sign on my chopper and offered to trade. He wanted a chopper and I wanted a sportbike, so it worked,” Jim told us.

Deciding how to attack a partly dismantled Honda CBR954RR scattered across a garage floor did not come easy for Norbert “Pigmool” Szczepanek (we aren’t sure how to pronounce it either-Ed.). Plans for a brutal streetfighter decided, he wasn’t sure where to begin. Months of bargain hunting turned up nothing close to the quality bodywork he hoped to find so he started with what was in front of him. A lightly shaved down OEM hugger led to slicing the stock lowers into a modified belly pan finished in fiberglass. Up front, he turned to a Buell flyscreen capable of concealing the HID kit chosen for the two round headlamps bracketed onto the forks. A minimalistic approach to fairings complete, a self-taught lesson in subframe fabrication commenced,

“I bought six feet of aluminum and went to work. After an evening fueled by caffeine and Marlboros, it was ready—but nothing to be proud of.”

Saturday morning cartoons and a bowl full of sugary sustenance defined countless weekends of our youth—at least for many of us. From caped crusaders to mutant do-gooders, we each had an animated favorite. For Henry Bates, a salty sailor named Popeye stole the show. The story of a rough around the edges underdog with a serious punch made a lasting impression on this hardworking gearhead. His appreciation for classic characters and an unshakeable neighborhood nickname developed into a ZX-14 with real comic charisma: “I love cartoons. My last bike had a Foghorn Leghorn theme. I love Popeye too. I have real big arms ‘cause I work on cars all of the time so everybody around the neighborhood calls me Popeye. Because of that, I decided to give them something to talk about and came up with the theme for this bike.”

Making waves in the modified cycle circuit requires a builder to roll out something that snaps heads as often as it’s snapped for a picture. Around the SSB office, tales of just about every kind of build has at one time bounced around the editor’s round table—from dyno record holders to detail- draped parking lot prisses. Finding these elusive rides isn’t always easy; sometimes it takes good old-fashioned detective work, which in this day and age amounts to infinite clicks of the mouse. While trolling the forums we encountered a Toronto-area shop recognized for sparking the fire under Canada’s growing custom sportbike scene, so we dove deeper to decipher fact from folly.

Don’t write this ride off as just another cookie-cutter custom because it hides more detail than a lot of show bikes boast in their complete package. Make no mistake, this 2007 Suzuki Hayabusa doesn’t stun with a huge turbo or one-off bodywork, but a trained eye will soon identify the follow-through and attention to detail that elevated this ‘Busa above the rest of the herd.

All too often a sticker kit, loud pipes and some bolt-on bits can trick bystanders into thinking that a sportbike is actually a street-legal race machine. If the onlookers had a clue they’d realize there’s a huge difference between a modded production bike and a former factory racer. A true racebike is a unique animal with a price tag well north of $40,000. In fact, we’ve only witnessed a handful of legitimate examples here at SSB.

Exotic women, exotic rides, exotic islands—strap the word onto just about anything and expect a starry-eyed response. The fundamental problem of “exotic” is how hard it is to come by. Take Italian’s greatest stable of stallions, Ferrari. A brand for the price tag indifferent and caviar stuffed, one we commonfolk have dreamt of garaging since tearing the Christmas paper off our first die-cast Testarossa replica. Of the many models the dancing horse has bejeweled, possibly the most exotic takes two-wheeled form.

Shop sponsored projects backed by piles of cash are nice for the lucky few but for the everyday Joe or in this case Jorge, bringing a custom to life takes patience and resourcefulness. Jorge Gual, a 41-year-old family man and at-home mechanic, aspired to turn his bone stock ’04 GSX-R1000 into something more.

At first glance, onlookers of Rick Livy’s wild Hayabusa most likely get caught up on the 12-over stock tail—there is no denying its odd, alien shape. A keen eye will soon notice an icebox plenum quietly nestled in-between the one-off swingarm, a hint at some serious cooling power. But for what?

There are certain people for whom the customization process seems to be as normal and everyday as eating lunch—Simon Ross of Nottinghamshire, UK, falls into this category. By trade, Simon paints trains and planes, but off the clock he has always played on two-wheels. The hooligan nature of Suzuki’s GSF Bandit 1200 made it an obvious choice for a revival type of project build. At purchase, the Bandit came with a few modifications, all of the usual bolt-on variety but it lacked any sort of uniqueness. Simon needed his GSF to stand out from the rest, so he decided to do some cutting, trimming and turbo tuning, albeit with a little help from his friends.

The project of turning a nearly stock street rocket into a two-time World of Wheels Best In Show winner began with an airbrushed T-shirt. No joke. While at a local event, the MOB tent drummed up a crowd by airbrushing shirts for anyone interested. Ryan Enevold, a well-dressed corporate type, was one such spectator who walked away so impressed that he returned a few months later with a much larger request. Mike O’Brien, owner of MOB Airbrush, approached Enevold’s ZX-14 with gothic intentions after getting the green light from the bike’s owner.

Valentino Rossi is quite possibly the most acclaimed motorcycle racer of all time. Not only has he won more Grand Prix/MotoGP races than any other racer, but he’s done so with an intoxicating charisma seldom seen in the sport–and it’s this magnetic pull that’s garnered him a following more akin to a movie star.

Not every custom needs to be as over the top as Lady Gaga at the MTV Music Awards. For every guy who loves chrome and the fat tire look there is another who gets nauseous at the mere idea. But pleasing the masses is almost impossible, just ask Obama.

A lot of the green movement wackos want us to take an electric bus to work, operate a handloom by candlelight and eat cold bean stew for dinner. This is quite unlikely for the majority of us who need more than a single horsepower to get our kicks.

Wayne Belaruski, USAF flight navigator and longtime Yam man, needed an ergonomic answer to the ever-shrinking literbike he’d become increasingly uncomfortable on. Enter the FZ1. It wasn’t long before temptation led him back to the R1, but by this time the leisure of riding a sport tourer had spoiled him. Bent on having the best of both worlds, he drew up plans for a showroom quality combination build.

Some buy art and others create it. The latter is so much more fun. Trusting our own two hands with a spray can, power tools and a garage full of aftermarket parts can be daunting, which is why on the eighth day God created bike shops and high limit credit cards.