Eastern Bobber and their amazing custom bike will become the first ever Malaysian to compete in the 2018 AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building in Germany next year.
The custom bike contest organised during the Motonation event in Putrajaya last weekend saw eight entries from The Rusty Factory, Beautiful Machines and many more.
The winner was chosen by AMD Showmaster himself, Neil Blaber.
Eight custom bikes entered and one bike emerged as the winner. Out of all the amazing custom creations that entered the custom bike competition organised by Motonation during their gigantic festival in Putrajaya last weekend, it was Eastern Bobber and their amazing machine who won what we think one of Malaysia’s most interesting custom bike competitions yet. (more…)
Neil Blaber of AMD Magazine was brought in to judge Motonation’s custom bike and Modenas’ SUPER MOD contests.
Motonation will sponsor the winning bike and builder to the World Championship at Intermot.
Neil was impressed with the quality and creativity of Malaysian builders.
We had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with Neil Blaber of AMD Magazine at the recent Motonation carnival in PICC. Neil had been called in by the organizers of Motonation to judge the custom motorcycles competition.
It was a high-stakes game as Motonation will support the winner’s entry to the AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building 2018, in the Intermot Show in Cologne Germany. (Click here to read more of our coverage of Motonation and here for the report of the competition).
Bikes Republic: How does AMD run its bikes shows? Neil Blaber: We did bike shows and competitions a little bit differently than those in the past. We’ve had people enter their bikes in more than one class, and found out not to ever, ever do it. It’s a nightmare, because how we do the judging is all the competitors vote on their peers’ bikes.
We’ll have a few VIP judges also, but they’re usually builders who didn’t enter their own bikes. There’ve also been trusted journalists who don’t just won’t for their mates (friends), besides other experts in the industry who know what they’re looking at.
It’s done almost like a survey among experts. When you think about it, who are the best qualified to determine which is the best bike than these guys. You’ve got all these experts there and if judging is handed over to just four guys, it’s all wasted.
So, in the end, if people aren’t happy with the results, at least they know it’s fair because it was peer reviewed.
In the end, you could end up with a hundred votes papers returned. Counting the ballot papers was hard work, I’d usually be up until 4 in the morning, tabulating the results. I’d take the feedback from the ballot sheets and key them into the spreadsheet for the results to be tabulated.
They’ll vote for their favourite 12 bikes, the top build will receive 15 points, second place gets 12, third gets 9, then 7, 6, 5, 3, 2, 1 points respectively. What that means is that getting voted as the top isn’t necessarily a huge advantage. In the end, the winning bike is usually the one which was rated reasonably high by all the guys. (What Neil means here is the entries must be good overall.)
You may get a controversial bike which was voted first by three guys but no one else, on the other hand, you get a bike that’s voted for third or fifth by everyone and it will win.
Bikes Republic: Is peer judging carried out in many bike shows? Neil Blaber: It is carried out in many bike shows now but not many are done properly.
For example, you got have enough bikes for representation, because if you just ask for which is your favourite bike, you’d probably end up with the same result. However, if there are enough bikes, and if a certain or a few judges don’t like a certain type of bike and put it as last, the bike still earns a point.
Some shows look for the Top Three and the spread is just not enough in order to get a true representation of what people sincerely feel.
Some people don’t like not winning and the World Championship is the worst feeling. They may have spent two years or more working on their bike then ending up 50th is, well, you know how it’s like.
We award down to 10th place for the Freestyle class, and the Top Three of the other classes, as the latter classes attract smaller entries.
Bikes Republic: What’s your thought on what you’ve seen this weekend? Neil Blaber: Honestly, I had no idea to see what Malaysia had to offered and I surprised and impressed at what I saw this weekend. Those eight finalists had some truly wonderful material.
The SUPERB MOD Challenge 2017 organised by TERAJU and Procara Entertainment saw custom bike builder FNG Works emerging as the ultimate winner.
Five participants were given a Modenas V15, RM10,000 and 30 days to build the best custom bike for the Motonation festival organised at PICC.
Ipoh locals FNG Works and Rusty Factory emerged victorious and took home the RM30,000 and RM10,000 grand prizes respectively.
Six custom bike builders from across the country were chosen to create their best rendition and customisation works using the Modenas V15 as their basic platform. Based on public votes collected via the videos posted up on Motonation’s official Facebook page together with a panel of professional judges, the boys from Ipoh took the hole shot with FNG Works emerging victorious followed by Rusty Factory. (more…)
2018 has marked the return of Kawasaki modern classic motorcycles with the introduction of the 2018 Kawasaki Z900 RS and Z900 RS CAFE.
After years of having the Kawasaki W900 as their only heritage option, Kawasaki returns with two of the most anticipated modern classic bikes for 2018.
Both the Z900 RS and Z900 RS CAFE are expected to show up across showrooms worldwide early next year.
The past decade has shown that Japanese company Kawasaki proving itself as one of the major powerhouses of the world when it comes to manufacturing motorcycles. Not only do they have one of the most diverse selection of motorcycles that’ll cater to any motorcycle enthusiast but also some of the best the world has ever seen. (more…)
Motonation’s roadshow and carnivals concluded today (3rd December) at PICC.
The event drew the interest of a large number of corporations, vendors and clubs.
The winners of the AMD World Championship for Custom Bikes has been concluded.
The winner of the Bakat Besi competition has also been determined.
The event’s lucky draw winners will be announced on this Friday (8th December).
1st – 3rd December 2017, Putraja International Convention Centre (PICC) – The Motonation 2017 roadshow that has been touring the country for the past few months came to a grand conclusion over this weekend.
From having just a few vendors and vehicles being displayed at the initial shows, the event at PICC was certainly grand – occupying the main concourse, multiple halls, and all of the outdoor areas – featuring everything pertaining to the automotive lifestyle, regardless is directly or indirectly influenced.
That meant different family members could occupy themselves with different activities and attractions, while not bore the others.
For example, while the main display areas were occupied by automobiles, motorcycles and related products, there were smaller vendors who sold watches, sunglasses, toy motorcycles and cars; JKJR was present to convey the message on road safety, there was a dance competition, and outdoor concerts featuring local bands such as the infamous Indy-band, OAG. There was also a vendor who displayed their awesome feat of completing a replica Harley-Davidson Evolution engine completely from Lego blocks! Tayman Chua decided to show his airbrush skills by “tattooing” visitors – FOC!
The major players in the automotive industry were present, including Petron, X-1R, WD-40, Modenas, Shell, Brisk, Audi, Ricoh, etc.
Besides the specialist car and motorcycle customizers such as Eastern Bobber, Beautiful Machines MC, FNG Works, The Rusty Factory, Taymen Airbrushing and many, many more.
Speaking of Modenas, the competition based on their motorcycles, called Bakat Besi saw FNG Works’ creation winning the contest, with a novel creation which even carried a skateboard.
Besides that, run for the first time in Malaysia, Motonation had invited Neil Blaber of AMD Magazine to judge the custom bikes in the running to representing Malaysia during the AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building 2018. In the end, it was Eastern Bobbers’ ultra-radical entry which won the ticket to Intermot, beating the entries by Beautiful Machines by a whisker.
The event started slowly on Friday, before picking up on Saturday and had the crowds packing into the halls and outdoor areas on Sunday as the news got out.
There was a trial riding demonstration by Acoi Pangkolo Riders on Saturday evening, while today saw pocket bike races.
Motonation is also holding a lucky draw for ticket holders to the event, which the Grand Prize is an Audi A3, iPhones, iPads, amongst other great prizes. The winners will be announced this Friday.
There were of course voices of criticism, as the event areas were too spread out over such a vast area, besides other teething problems, but do remember that this is only Motonation’s first year in the automotive event segment and being able to draw the massive number of prestigious corporations, vendors, motorcycle and car clubs, hold a custom motorcycle competition is more than commendable. Motonation will learn and will improve for the next one.
Day Four of the GIVI Golden Triangle Adventure 2017 took the GIVI Explorers to Phnom Penh.
The GIVI Explorers stopped at the 800-year-old bridge in Kampong Kdei.
They got a taste of some truly chaotic traffic with vehicles buzzing around everywhere.
Phnom Penh, 15th November 2017 – As we GIVI Golden Triangle Adventure 2017 Explorers had breakfast and prepared our bikes for the next leg of the adventure in Siem Reap, the rain came down on us.
We pondered if the occasion has finally arrived to test the new GIVI rainsuits (made specifically for this GIVI Golden Triangle Adventure 2017). One of the Thai marshals, Nok (full name: Sitthithat Ritthikraironnaka), consulted his weather radar app, and informed us that it was only a passing cloud that’s headed away from out travel route.
We hopped our bikes as soon as the rain subsided, as we had been delayed for an hour. Today’s destination was Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, 315 kilometres away.
Again, we rode through the slightly chaotic urban Cambodian traffic before breaking clear and opening up in the countryside. Much of Cambodia is very flat, with rice paddies on both sides of the road. The rain had turned the roadside laterite into mud and some of it had been thrown onto the road surface itself, so we took it easy.
We were actually travelling south, adjacent to the great Tonle Sap Lake to the west (on our right) but heavy foliage and built up areas obscured our view. Shame.
There were many cows grazing and chewing on their cud serenely right up on the road shoulders. It panicked me a few times initially as I’ve grown wary of livestock crossing the road back in my wife’s kampong in Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan, prompting me to stick my leg out to warn the other Explorers behind. But it had been unnecessary as the ones in Cambodia stayed off the roads. “Cows here are much smarter,” remarked Giorgio Dalla Rosa, GIVI Vietnam’s Factory Manager, when I recounted the experience to him.
By the way, speaking of the word kampong, villages in Cambodia are incidentally called the same as we do in Malaysia, for instance Kampong Kdei, Kampong Thom, and so forth.
We rode 63 kilometres out before the marshals called for us to pull off the road on another ornately designed bridge, similar to the one we saw at Bayon yesterday. Just as well, the heat and humidity had returned after the downpour.
Known as the Kampong Kdei Bridge, and officially known as Spean Praptos (some called it the Naga Bridge), it was also built in the 12th century during the reign of that Jayavarman VII guy, the same King who commissioned the construction of the temples we visited in Siem Reap.
The bridge was one of the world’s longest corbeled stone-arch (same building technique at the temples in Angkor) bridge and one of the few Khmer Empire’s bridges to have survived to today. The stone railings on both sides end with carved articulated cobra heads.
Anyway, we noticed a few locals shooting pictures of us with Nikon DSLRs as we maneuvered our bikes to park along the bridge, and as soon as we got off, the same ladies were already there with the pictures they shot and mounted, “Photo, photo, Sir? 5 dollars.” Wow! Their speed was even more impressive than their enterprising spirit!
However, the locals (without DSLRs) had also come out en masse to greet us. Well, more like to witness this group of bikers on big bikes attached with all sorts of space-aged equipment visiting their kampong.
It was heartwarming to see the children smiling in all their innocence when we waved at them.
Later, we watched as a mini bus unloaded a crowd of loud tourists (no prizes for correctly guessing where they’re from) before commencing with our own photography and drone video session of the convoy crossing the bridge.
We then continued on our way riding on a wet dirt road. I love offroad riding.
Image courtesy of GIVI Explorer
The GIVI Golden Triangle Adventure continued on its way after lunch. It was a great break from the Cambodian humidity, that’s for sure, as we gulped down jugs of water. Credit also need to be given to the Thai support guys as they would invariably bring in hot water and coffee for the Explorers.
We were greeted by heavy traffic in the form of mopeds and scooters, a few with more than two occupants onboard. The riders tend to overtake each other without checking what’s behind them, and I noticed none of them actually looked in their rearview mirrors, not once. So why do they have mirrors…? Well, nevermind.
We maneuvered around them as best as we could, but we were just as unaccustomed to them as they were to us. They’d cut pass our front wheels as if we weren’t there. On the other hand, we were worried about them being unaware of us having side cases and panniers – the local riders may think we’ve passed them and end up being hit by a box.
The Explorers got away safely and arrived at Phnom Penh Hotel, but a few of us went back out to shoot pictures for GIVI. With just four riders in the group, we rode in a super tight four-ship formation, preventing ourselves from being cut off.
We stopped at a beautifully opulent temple complex, all the main buildings seemingly encased in gold, starting from the gate itself.
Image courtesy of GIVI Explorer
But the best thing was watching Pietro Ambrioso, GIVI’s Official Photographer at work, shooting the photos for GIVI’s official catalogs and website.
We rode back to the hotel, witnessing how luxury SUVs cut into traffic, pushing plebs aside. But we were told that the traffic in Cambodia so far is only a warm up for the main event: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
It was here that I saw how the GIVI cases looked like after riding through the weather. They were more or less encased in mud, but no water nor soil got in. Thank God, ‘cos my laptop’s in there!
A few Explorers took to the riverside for some nightlife while many chose to rest for tomorrow’s ride into Vietnam.
