They call it the Fremont Street Experience: five blocks of real estate that is home to 10 casinos (a claimed 10,000 slots), 60 restaurants, uncountable bars, the world's largest television screen hovering 90 feet in the air and, for one weekend in September, nine of the wildest custom sportbikes ever constructed. As far as locations to publicly unveil for the first time all nine bikes built for the Metric Revolution sportbike build-off (www.metrictv.com), the Metric TV producers couldn't have chosen a better site than Fremont Street. Where better to debut the most outrageous and over-the-top sportbikes ever seen than on the most outrageous and over-the-top street in the world?
If you've been reading the magazine for the past few months, you know that we've been following the progress of the Metric Revolution build-off closely, and we've even featured a few of the bikes in the magazine already (including Roaring Toyz' GSX-R1000 and C&S Custom's Triumph Daytona chopper further along in this issue). As the exclusive Metric TV media partner, we had the opportunity to photograph many of the bikes in advance. This event in Vegas represented the first public unveiling of these bikes, the first time that all nine were gathered in one place and presented to the motorcycle enthusiasts of the world. And what a presentation it was-held in conjunction with the Las Vegas BikeFest 2006, Fremont Street was choked with bikers each night eager for an eyeful of these builders' work.
A twist on the familiar "biker build-off" concept made famous by the Discovery Channel, Metric Revolution rejects the played-out American V-Twin choppers and instead selected 22 of the top metric (i.e., import) bike builders and gave them motorcycles of Japanese or European origin to base their masterpieces on. In addition to 13 metric cruiser builders (nine pros and four rookies), Metric TV also selected nine premier custom sportbike builders to play along, gifting them with stock motorcycles ranging from Hayabusas, GSX-Rs, R1s, ZX-10Rs and various Triumph models and giving them just 180 days to transform these stockers into complete custom rides.
The sportbike builders who gathered in Vegas to show off their work included Nick Anglada of Custom Sportbike Concepts, Adam Canni from Canni Designs, Robert Fisher of Roaring Toyz, Dean Kawczak from LBF Cycles, Stephen Kehler of Tricked Out Custom Cycles, Mike McCoy from McCoy Motorsports, Carlos Navarro of Chrome Effects, Jason Sapp from C&S Customs and Dennis Vazquez of Pit Stop Motorsports. The "revolution" portion of the Metric Revolution title refers to the producers' desire to spark a revolution in the custom bike industry and show that sportbike builders can create bikes just as impressive as American V-twin chopper builders-and they couldn't pick a better group than these nine to drive that point home. And hosting the unveiling in the belly of the beast, smack-dab a the center of one of the nation's biggest traditional chopper rallies, put these metric builders in front of thousands of bike fans who no doubt had never seen anything like the metric bikes lining Fremont Street that weekend.
In addition to the unveiling, this event was also the first judged competition of the build-off, narrowing the nine qualifying bikes down to three finalists, as selected by guest judges including yours truly along with stunt superstar Kyle Woods and world-famous custom bike and hot rod builder Jerry Covington. In addition to the juried bike show, the builders also had to complete a street ride and obstacle course to show that their bikes were indeed rideable art.
Selecting the finalists was no easy feat given the incredible level of detail and innovation presented by each builder. Every bike entered incorporated some never-before-seen technology or feature. Roaring Toyz' entry was powered by a motor that was turbocharged, supercharged and equipped with nitrous, not to mention that it ran a 180-width front tire. Custom Sportbike Concept's R1 rolled on a 20-inch rear wheel designed and built by none other than Chip Foose, while TOCC's bike rocked an oversized 19-inch front wheel on a raked fork and bodywork made from the pieces of a half-dozen other bikes. Pit Stop's ZX-10R featured an on-board PC, and LBF's bike had see-through Lexan wheels and invisible controls. McCoy's Hayabusa hybrid featured one-off everything, and the Canni Designs' and C&S Customs' bikes, both chopper-styled, were entirely hand-built save for the Triumph motors. Wild stuff.
The nine bikes were judged carefully-and objectively-against a 100-point criterion that assessed the builder's level of innovation and execution with regard to the bike's chassis, body, engine, paint and other elements. When the dust settled (and the various points penalties were levied against those builders who failed to meet the 180-day deadline or who had troubles during the riding component of the contest), three bikes emerged on top: McCoy Motorsports' Hayabusa, Custom Sportbike Concepts' R1 and Tricked Out Custom Cycles' ZX-10R. In addition to the final qualifiers, one more prize was awarded: the "People's Choice" verdict that was cast by onlookers on Fremont Street, who unanimously chose Pit Stop's Internet-enabled, wildly painted, custom ZX-10R as their favorite sportbike.
All nine bikes looked brilliant underneath the "Viva Vision" lights, soaked in neon and appreciative looks. We hope this is just the beginning of the revolution, and we're back on Fremont Street again next year, looking at twice as many custom sportbikes that'll be twice as innovative as these.