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Americans have always had an unnatural fondness for chrome and the disciples
of this new cult began by chroming the frames, swingarms and wheels on their
Jap race reps while also adding a few of the ubiquitous chopper parts like mirrors,
handlebar grips and footrests - along with a strange compulsion to fit a myriad of
flashing lights. And when the competition to see who could make a Harley-Davidson
completely unridable by fitting a rear tyre the width of a small house became the holy
grail for people with more money than sense, it was only a matter of time before such
a practice followed suit in the fledgling sport bike ‘industry’.
While Bob Fisher is a seasoned AMA Superbike racer and used to spend his time
preparing bikes to compete in gruelling events such as the Daytona 200, besides
running a motorcycle salvage business to pay the bills, the opportunity to make some
easy money came knocking on Bob’s door when punters from outside his usual world
of road racing started asking him to make parts for their bikes that would render
them slower and reduce their ability to function as the factory originally intended. And,
this being south Florida where the chopper ‘industry’ is as well established as the
importation of Columbian marching powder, getting the requisite parts such as long
swingarms and doo-dads like fancy grips, mirrors and spiky bolts made to measure
for Jap sport bikes was as easy as scoring a crack rock from a guy with too many gold
teeth cruising around in a knackered Buick with huge chrome wheels.
So alongside Custom Sportbike Concepts, Bob Fisher’s Roaring Toyz started the
sport bike industry, to cater for those who didn’t care about speed or razor-sharp
handling and were only interested in cool looks and having the ability to brag about how
much money they’d spent. Sensing a new market, mainstream manufacturers such
as RC Components were quick to offer variations of their billet aluminium wheels to
fit Jap sports bikes and all manner of dress-up parts followed to enable you to make
your ‘Busa look like the archetypical tart’s handbag. ‘Bling’ was in and, as far as custom
sport bikes were concerned, it started in South Florida.
As the televised chopper feeding frenzy of the unspeakable in search of the
unridable began to wane in the TV ratings a new primetime circus of two-wheeled
tattooed entertainment for the be-couched masses was delivered in the form of the
Metric Revolution. The latest in a bevy of biker TV programmes, the Metric Revolution is
a similar format to the Biker Build Off and American Chopper soap operas, but instead
of using American made V-twins as powerplants the contestants use imported bikes
- what the Americans refer to as ‘metric’ motorcycles. Split into two sections the Metric
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