Excalibur custom drops jaws around Europe and USA
This is probably the most labour-intensive custom motorcycle I’ve ever seen. Argentina’s Daniel Echeverria has poured more then 2200 hours into transforming his 1979 Kawasaki 1000 LTD into a motorcycle worthy of King Arthur.
The detail is unbelieveable; custom parts have been scavenged from celtic antiques or hand-designed and cast in bronze. The handlebars are twisted swords, the tank and rear guard are draped in chain mail, and the headlight is a dragon’s head with powerful globes for eyes and a remote-controlled fire-breathing mouth. Even the footboards and brake calipers are works of art - Echeverria has spared no effort or expense in Excalibur’s creation, and he’s built and assembled every tiny detail himself. Click to zoom in on the pics, the thumbnails don’t do it justice.
More including videos after the jump.
If you want to build one yourself, here’s the materials Echeverria says you’ll need: “2 cloth meters for dance dress, 6 tickets to cinema, 4 books related the topic, several buttons, 6 Lbs. of hard plaster, 221 hours of doubts, boat speaker, cloth for purses, lac for wooden floors for external, 4450 blond cigarettes of several marks, 1326 Parisiennes (black cigarettes french), 196 bottles of Coke, 12 JB, 18 Blenders Pride whiskey, 1 whiskey of doubtful mark, 32 frustrations, 642 burgers (128 with egg, 2 without mayonnaise), 394 internet hours, mark for picture of 2 x 3 inch., “alginato” that the dentists use for the false dentures, strass, fornitures for necklaces, rubber rings, a divorce.”
Echeverria’s riding gear naturally follows the theme of the piece - chain mail, metal gauntlets and a fearsome-looking flip-up helmet that’s been customised to look like something a 16th century knight might wear. He also carries a full-length Excalibur-style sword, mounted on a scabbard on the left of the bike - presumably in case anybody gives him trouble in traffic.
Unlike many customs with half the hours in them, Excalibur gets ridden some serious distances. Echeverria has taken the bike into and across the USA twice, dropping jaws at biker events all the way around. We met Echeverria in Paris, in the middle of his first European crossing during which the bike had a chance to explore its cultural roots.
Here’s a video of the bike in action:
And another of a short visit Echeverria made to the American Chopper lads:
Sadly, the bike’s official website (www.excaliburbike.com) has been down for a while, but there’s still a bit of information out there about the bike:
Now, we just need to convince Echeverria to build another one so we can organise a proper motorcycle jousting (warning: language very NSFW) tournament!