September 6, 2023: a milestone. For the first time I showed the bike not only to ’the outside world’, but to the most important motorcycle journalist in the Netherlands: Onno ‘Berserk’ Wieringa.
I’m quite confident about the quality of my build, both technically and design-wise, but presenting the bike to a man whose job is to review motorcycles worldwide is a different story. So I found it more exciting than I expected.
Onno kon de motor wel waarderen. We reden samen naar Shipyard Millingen, een locatie waarvan ik wist dat de motor goed tot z’n recht zou komen. Pas sinds die ochtend zat de motor in de verzekering, dus dit was de ‘maiden trip’. Die best lekker vlot verliep, zo over de vertrouwde dijkjes van de Ooijpolder.
A photoshoot is a very concentrated activity. Onno took his time.
Tank details …
… and ones from the rear end.
You can tell it was over 30 degrees that day.
A nice ‘full shot’ …
… and this is my favorite.
A bit of post-processing in Photoshop and voila, you have a desktop background.
Because not everyone believes this motorcycle can actually be riden, we made pictures on a country road. Riding went well, but turning on the road was quite exhausting. And in between, I had to make sure that no cyclists, walkers nor motorists took ‘spoiling’ photos.
Really nice, controlling that brutal power.
This was a very important photo. It turned out that the pose …
… that I envisioned 20 years ago in my 3D program actually turned out that way. Because I decided to start building when I was sure that I could lie over the engine block (as in: drag race) instead of sitting upright behind it (as in: chopper).
Motorcycle magazine BigTwin #447 was published in early December. Onno really wrote a beautiful article of no less than six pages. These are the first two pages …
… pages 3 en 4 …
… and the last two.
Quita a special moment when you pick up the first article from the kiosk. :)
On the sun-drenched September 25, 2023, German motor journalist Sabine Welte traveled to Erlecom. I have known her for over 20 years and we are very good friends. The Swanenberg Iron Group, location Beuningen, had given permission to do a photoshoot in their beautiful setting.
Eating dust for the best shot.
Details from the front …
… from the center …
… and from the rear end.
Posing with and without helmet …
… of which I like this one the most.
The photo inspired me to do a post-apocalyptic Photoshop post-processing.
I asked cartoonist Fuad Zain to draw this picture in his striking way. Very nice.
Just like Onno, Sabine also thought a riding impression was important, for the aforementioned reason. They also both felt that the history of this bike is more suitable for a book or series of articles than for a single publication.
Sabine wrote the article for the German motorcycle magazine MO; this magazine offered her no less than eight pages.
The article was published in January 2024.
Here you see the first two pages …
… pages 3 and 4 …
… pages 5 and 6 …
… and the final two, pages 7 and 8.
Nice to see how both articles have their own unique tone.
A bit oldschool, you might say, but I really like magazines; for me they are more tangible and ‘real’ than digital stories. :)