2013 Star Bolt Custom Build-Off – Video
Let the fans decide
Star Motorcycles has done everything a company can to attract attention to the Bolt. Well, everything short of the Oprah-esque trick of telling a crowd to look under their seats for the key to their new bikes. Instead, Star approached a group of 10 customizers that reads like a Who’s Who of the bike modification world, and supplied them with stock Bolts and a deadline. The rest was up to them. Naturally, you’d expect to see some pretty dramatic results. And we did. However, the brilliance of Star’s plan is reflected in the choice to let the fans decide who won the build-off via Facebook voting.
The entries were largely broken down into three groups: choppers, slick customs, and scramblers. The chopper entries were supplied by Broward Motorsports and Burly Brand, while the slick, lowered customs hailed from M&M Customs and Low and Mean. Scrambler-styled offerings made up the majority of entries and came from the likes of Doc’s Chops, Palhegyi Design, Roland Sands, Rooke Customs, and Sesto Custom Cycles. A lone café-inspired entry was the brain-child of Chappell Customs.
In the end, the Doc’s Chops entry stole the hearts of the voters. Without cutting the frame, the bike is a modern look back at the 1960s and ’70s scramblers . The classically styled bobber from Broward Motorsports took home second with its 23 in. front wheel and springer fork, peanut tank, and chain drive. The racy M&M Customs featured hand-formed metal tank, fenders, side panels and lowers placed third.
All 10 of the bikes were assembled for the only public viewing at the AIMExpo, and the reception from attendees was positive. Hopefully, this won’t turn into a one-off contest. With the bar set at this level on the first year, imagine what would be built for the second! Builders are competitive, and that can only be good news for fans of custom bikes.
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Like most of the best happenings in his life, Evans stumbled into his motojournalism career. While on his way to a planned life in academia, he applied for a job at a motorcycle magazine, thinking he’d get the opportunity to write some freelance articles. Instead, he was offered a full-time job in which he discovered he could actually get paid to ride other people’s motorcycles – and he’s never looked back. Over the 25 years he’s been in the motorcycle industry, Evans has written two books, 101 Sportbike Performance Projects and How to Modify Your Metric Cruiser, and has ridden just about every production motorcycle manufactured. Evans has a deep love of motorcycles and believes they are a force for good in the world.
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