Motorcycle Boutique LLC | MySpace Video
HAIL TO THE CHIEF
Raul Laureano was just trying to honor his Commander-in-Chief. He swears that putting the savior of the New Left (and demon of the Right) on this Hayabusa's fairing was just an old soldier's way of giving a tasteful tribute to the man who's large and in charge. Just so you know, Raul claims he's not some sort of Barack Obama fanboy. "Hail to the Chief," Raul says with a grin as he gestures to the airbrushed visage.
After 20 years in active service, the Army sergeant is retiring this year. The Obama Bike is a marketing plan for his new shop. "I'm only good at three things: jumping out of airplanes, blowing stuff up and building bikes. I just can't see myself working at WalMart, " Raul says. He toyed with the idea of displaying the first family on the bike, but instead opted for a counterfeit federal banknote in the $1,000 denomination.
Since he's still enlisted, Raul had to work nights and weekends on his retirement machine. He enthusiastically praises his wife for holding down the fort and giving him the necessary encouragement and aid to keep going on this monster build. Working out of his little Junction City, Kan., shop, Motorcycle Boutique (which is attached to his house), he would work on the bike in just about all of his spare time, even eating his meals (provided by his wife) with it.
While his shop has completed four bikes prior to this one, the Obama Bike was his first really extreme, show-quality machine. To this end, Raul pulled out all the stops, making sure to hit the little details that make a show-winner. Things like a molded-in iPod (that's inseparable from the tank), a chopper-style sprotor (to keep the right side clean), a one-off light-up swingarm, a full air system to drop it to the pavement at will and a full remote control system that controls both the air suspension and a motorized rear cowl that lifts. He even painted the gauges with the bike's theme.
Naturally, he got some static at Bike Week, including some from one of the lead judges of the Rat's Hole Bike Show – who incidentally is friends with Rush Limbaugh. But despite the theme, he voted it first place in its category. Raul insists that the bike is not a political statement, that he's just proud to be an American. He had an offer from the agent of a Dubai oil sheik to buy the bike for a tidy sum of money, but Raul insists that it's not done yet. What more could be done to this bike, you ask?
"I want to get the President's signature," Raul says. "Then the bike would be finished."
The President's Bike, Suzuki Hayabusa by Raul Laureano www.motorcycleboutique.net
No comments:
Post a Comment