'Custom Revolution' in Cycle World

[From Cycle World, Mar 3 2018]

“Custom Revolution” Exhibit Opens At LA’s Petersen Automotive Museum April 14

See 25 examples from the Bike Exif generation of builders

“The “Custom Revolution” motorcycle exhibit gathers avant-garde motorcycles from independent builders around the world at the Petersen Museum in downtown Los Angeles, curated by Paul d’Orléans from April 14, 2018, to March 19, 2019.

Twenty-five examples from the Bike Exif generation of builders will be on display in the Richard Varner Family Gallery, where the successful “Harley vs. Indian” exhibit sponsored by Cycle World parent company Bonnier wraps up its one-year run on March 7. “Custom Revolution” is supported by TheVintagent.com and the Motorcycle Arts Foundation.

“Custom Revolution” presents, for the first time in one location, the work of the most influential alternative custom motorcycle builders of the past 10 years. These international stars include Ian Barry (Falcon), Shinya Kimura (Chabott Engineering), Revival Cycles, Roland Sands, El Solitario, Michael Woolaway (Deus Ex Machina Customs), etc., with bikes from the US, Ireland, Spain, France, Germany, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Japan.

According to d’Orléans, the attention lavished on these builders is astonishing.

“They have millions of fans around the world watching their every move, including the design teams at the big factories,” he said. “Each has been approached to collaborate on prototypes or show bikes by the likes of BMW, Yamaha, Harley-Davidson, or Ducati.

“Some have created iconic machines using factory support, and the influence of all these designers on the motorcycle industry over the past 10 years is clear,” d’Orléans explained. “Factory design teams readily admit following the lead of these alternative custom beacons, whose work is now being acknowledged as seminal to a new vision of motorcycling itself”.”