Thunderstruck
Polish custom house Game Over Cycles have created yet another rock ‘n’ roll themed masterpiece. After their bespoke motorcycle developed for heavy metal outfit Behemoth that we carried a few years ago, they have now made one for the Kraków iteration of th
ROCK ‘N’ ROLL AND BIKING ARE like two extremely epic peas in one badass pod. Steppenwolf, AC/DC, The Doors, Metallica, and even Rob Zombie have over their illustrious careers (and Rob Zombie’s career) illustrated how intrinsically these two somewhat disparate worlds can intertwine. One of the few places that have always recognized this magical bond between rock ‘n’ roll and purveyors of a two-wheeled lifestyle is global music-themed F&B conglomerate Hard Rock Café.
Their long-term association with Harley-Davidson includes the launch of the Street 750 at an HRC (yeah, I’m a regular at Hard Rock Café and found out a long time ago that saying or
typing the whole moniker can get a little tiresome) in Dubai, a strong association with the Harley Owners Group and HRC in India, and even the dangling a few H-D choppers from their ceilings at a few choice Cafés across world, none more famously so than the flagship Hard Rock Café in Vegas. And when you think of this long and storied association that the two share (and the HRC chain’s penchant for hoarding memorabilia), it should come as no surprise that the HRC in Kraków, Poland also decided to get in on the act. They wanted to display a unique and distinctive two-wheeled art piece that embodied the spirit of this relationship, and of course, they commissioned Game Over Cycles (GOC) as the vessel for the execution of this idea.
Of course, GOC couldn’t very well use anything but an H-D as their starting point on this project, and so they chose the Sportster 883 engine as the nucleus around which they would build this music-meets-motorcycle project. And when they were tasked with making a bike that embodies the spirit of the rhythm and riffs of good ol’ rock ‘n’ roll, they didn’t take to their task lightly. Quite the opposite in fact, because the resulting design is covered from pillar to post in musical instruments and devices. I won’t go into too much detail about these intricate elements here, but examples like the custom leather seat – engraved with notes from AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell,” custom gold-flaked paint-job (with the shades matching HRC Kraków’s cymbal-lined ceiling) with the iconic Hard Rock Café emblem on the tank and tail piece, and insane blacked-out rims that look like an old-school LP record can provide some insight into just how deeply GOC have immersed the bike in musicality and the project’s theme.
GOC bagged a whole clutch of accolades for this amazing, singular creation including both the top spot in the “Sportster” category and the coveted People’s Choice Award in the HarleyDavidson Custom Bike Show at the European Bike Week 2016 which was held in Faaker-See, Austria. Along with this the bike also won the prize for the modified Harley category in the Custom Chrome Europe Faaker-See Championship, also at the European Bike Week 2016. All these awards and accolades are inevitable when the subject is a masterpiece of creativity, art and engineering like this one.
Game Over Cycles have painstakingly crafted a motorcycle that is truly one-of-a-kind, which is saying a lot for a product of the custom world – where standing out is the bare minimum requirement.