The Recidivist won 1st place in the “PRO Class” in the H-D Museum Custom Bike Show
During the Labor Day Rally Weekend (30.08-03.09.2017), the biggest motorcycle event organized annually in Milwaukee by the Harley-Davidson Museum, built by the Polish company Game Over Cycles motorcycle called The Recidivist won 1st place in the “PRO Class” in the H-D Museum Custom Bike Show, one of the largest custom bike shows in the US. The show was held on the 3rd of September 2017 and the award was presented to the company by Bill Davidson, Vice-President of the Harley-Davidson Museum and his father – legendary H-D motorcycle designer Willie G. Davidson, the grandson of one of the founders of Harley-Davidson company.
The Recidivist is world’s first tattooed motorcycle. The bike, which was unveiled in 2014, last month was displayed for the first time in America and it came to the US with its new construction element – a fully tattooed sidecar. The new element had its world premiere at the 77th Annual Sturgis® Motorcycle Rally™- the biggest motorcycle event in the world. During the Sturgis rally the bike won 1st place in the “Most Unusual” class in the Rat’s Hole Custom Bike Show – world’s oldest and most prestigious custom bike show.
“We came to the US for the first time. We took part in two competitions. In the first one we got award at the biggest bike event in the world in the oldest and most prestigious custom bike show. In the second competition we received an award at the event organized by the main institution of the legendary motorcycle brand, and the trophy was presented to us by the living legend of the brand, Willie G. Davidson. Yes, this has been a crazy month and we are very happy with what we have achieved here” – summed up his company’s stay in the US Stanisław Myszkowski, founder and the owner of GOC.
The Recidivist is a machine inspired by the art of permanent body adornment. Motorbikes are commonly adorned with tattoo motifs using an airbrush, however the uniqueness of The Recidivist lies in the fact that the bike’s entire construction is covered in tattooed skin branded directly onto the bike’s tires, tanks, seat, rear fender, lamp and many other smaller elements. Light colored cow hide leather – similar to the color of human skin – is engineered onto the bike. Artists from Polish tattoo studios applied traditional works of tattoo art onto the bike using. All of that makes The Recidivist world’s first tattooed motorcycle.
The worlds of motorbikes and tattoos have long been kindred spirits. The theme of the The Recidivist relates to this traditional relationship. In the USA, bikers used to tattoo for personal reasons – to express their character and lifestyle – as well as their social attitude. The Recidivist as an artistic vision references those traditions and through its construction and decorations presents a story of a man with strong character – a person, who values individuality, personal expression and sense of freedom.
References to the traditions are expressed not only in bike’s theme, but also in its construction. The motorcycle’s construction include elements that draw from the look of tattoo machines. All of these parts are fully operational elements of bike’s construction, and the mechanisms of these elements operate in the same way as they do in the original tattoo machines:
– bike’s front suspension has the look of a traditional coil tattoo machine
– the exhaust pipe looks exactly like a modern tattoo machine, including the tattooing needles which when you start the bike, move exactly as they do when the tattoo machine applies ink under skin
Further more, the machine’s design is based on a number of technical solutions drawing from the turbulent lifestyles of post-war bikers.
– the lever starting the bike has a shape of a bomb detonator lever.
– the rear light indicators look like brass knuckle-dusters
– front wheel caliper brakes have the appearance of handcuffs
– front clutch and brake handles are formed in the shape of “butterfly” knives
– the break pump lever is shaped in the form of a section sign.
The Recidivist is based on the Harley-Davidson Heritage model. From the original machine only the engine – a Twin Cam 96” – and part of frame are left. All other construction elements and mechanisms are original solutions created by constructors of Game Over Cycles. Bike’s unveiling took place in September 2014 at the London International Tattoo Convention 2014 – the most prestigious body adornment convention in the world.
The Recidivist’s sidecar was created in 2017 and had its world premiere at the Sturgis 2017 rally. The sidecar is fully tattooed, both outside and inside and also on the tires. In terms of the construction the sidecar relates to the bike, mainly it’s fuel tank, as it has similar construction made of two sheets of metal joined with tubes, which imitates the look of a human spine. Sidecar tattoos also relate to motifs present on the bike, but as it is with tattoos on a human body, with time they change together with the person they are tattooed on. Given elements get bigger, change colors, shapes and meanings. That is why on the sidecar there are tattoos paralleled with the ones on the motorcycle, such as the Themis or handcuffs, but it also includes new motifs in the form of relations to the abstract art of H.R. Giger and Polish artist Zdzisław Beksiński, as well as inspiration taken form the real life, such as selected images from the history of Harley-Davidson company.
Construction of the motorcycle and sidecar took 3000 hours. Tattooing of the bike and sidecar took over 2500 hours.
The Recidivist and the sidecar – technical information:
Size (both vehicles together): length 265 cm, width 185 cm
Weight: bike – 380 kg, sidecar – 155 kg
Engine: Twin Cam 96”
Specially impregnated leather: bike – Kult Motor DRP, sidecar – KM leather design
Tattoos:
Bike: Tomasz Lech – Individuum Tattoo, Krzysztof Królak – Rock’n’Roll Tattoo and Piercing Warszawa
Sidecar: Artur Wiśniowski – Moto-Paint.pl
The Recidivist – Current awards:
• “Best paint/airbrush” at Custombike-Show – world’s biggest trade fair for modified bikes (12.2014, Bad Salzuflen, Germany)
• 1st place in the “Best Painting” category at Custom Bikes Championships (03.2015, Wrocław, Poland )
• Bike of The Year 2015 – Chopper Magazine award (03.2015, Wrocław, Poland )
• Three awards at Custom Festival – Polish Custom Bikes Championship 2015 (04.2015, Poznań, Poland):
– 1st place in “Best Paint’ category
– 3rd place in “Free Style”
– Special Award for best bike of the show from Custom Chrome Europe
• Two awards at European Bike Week 2015, Europe’s biggest bike rally (09.2015, Faaker-See, Austria):
– 1st place in the “Custom” category
– Audience award — “People’s Choice Award”
• 1st place in the „Most Unusual” class in the Rat’s Hole Custom Bike Show, the oldest and most prestigious custom bike show in the world organized at the Sturgis® Motorcycle Rally™, the biggest motorcycle rally in the world (08.2017, USA)
• 1st place in the “PRO Class” in the Harley-Davidson Museum Custom Bike Show, one of the largest custom bike shows in the USA (09.2019, Milwaukee, USA)
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Game Over Cycles (GOC) is a Polish custom motorcycles manufacturer formed in 2012. The company is known for its original creations, such as The Recidivst – world’s first tattooed motorcycle and Behemoth Bike – a custom motorcycle created in collaboration with global Polish metal music legends Behemoth. Machines created by Game Over Cycles have won awards at some of the world’s biggest custom bike competitions. In just four years, the company received eight awards at European Bike Week, having won the prestigious “People’s Choice Award” no less than four times. European Bike Week is Europe’s largest open and free bike festival and one of the biggest in the world. The event has been organized annually in the Austrian village of Faaker-See and according to organizers’ data in 2016 the event saw an attendance of more than 120,000 visitors and 70,000 bikes from around the world. In June 2016 GOC became the official dealer of legendary motorcycle brand Harley-Davidson. In march 2017 the company officially opened GOC Harley-Davidson Rzeszów, the biggest Harley-Davidson dealership in Poland and Central-Eastern Europe as well as GOC showroom.