Journalism of Courage
Right from air brushing designs to using left-over vehicle parts to create interesting blends of furniture,bikers and car owners are finding new ways to unleash their creativity
A skull painted onto the hood of a car,or a writing table made out of the chassis of an old bike? Take your pick. While bikers and designers in the Western world usually go overboard with their creativity and their designs,their Indian counterparts,if not as suave and slick as them,are fast jumping onto the bandwagon and are coming up with designs that are not only creative and unique,but also,if they are to be believed,are right up their competing with the best in the business.
As Imran Khan,who is a car and bike designer and works with the store I.Modifiers says,For air-brushing vehicles,the entire concept is about looking unique and reflecting ones personality. For instance my Scorpio was painted over with a design of an eagle on it. It has an M-Hawk engine on board the car,so I decided to go overboard with the design for it and hence the eagle on the car was born.
While these are designs that interest both the average man walking on the road,and those who are into cars and bikes,they also bring about a uniqueness of their own. Even though skulls flames,and Gothic designs are what rule the roost,we do have some interesting designs that come in. Basically when I sit down to designing a bike or a car I first ask the owner a few basic questions to get a fair idea of his or her personality. Then,according to the design that the person wants I sit down and work the same around them so that the bike or car is an extension of their personality, says Sachin Shinde,an airbrush artiste who works with D’Souza at Grease Monkee.
However all said and done one cannot deny the fact that the shows like Chop Shop,Monster House,and even Orange County Choppers have had a lot to do with this trend coming up in the city according to D’Souza. Another avid biker Rupesh Arora,who is a Tattoo artiste and has a Yamaha Enticer that is modified and air-brushed says,My bike has greenish blue symbols done up on the fuel tank,and the front and rear mud guards. The design is taken off from the symbols in the Matrix films trilogy. Not only does it look uber cool,but also it reflects my interest in the films,because I found the running bluish geen symbols to be truly fascinating.
while the concept of airbrushing is not at all cheap,getting furniture made from parts of old vehicles is an option enthusiastic bikers can consider. If creativity is a norm then there are unlimited options,to create furniture from vehicle parts, says D’Souza,adding,A table made from a bike chassis can cost a buyer somewhere around Rs 4000,while a chair can cost anywhere between 900-2000 depending on the seat and the amount of creativity and fabrication work involved in it.
On the other end of the spectrum,as Arora says,air brushing designs on bikes is something that is not the cheapest proposition available for a biker. From Rs 13000 for a basic design,to Rs 20,000 for a design that has been worked a lot on,the pricing for getting the airbrushing is different. For my next bike,I’d like to get a design that reflects my passion for music. Mostly heavy metal and hard rock. So my bike will incorporate influences from these genres of music, he says emphatically.
