Finding a live motorcycle from the second world war isn’t easy. Neither is restoring the old beast and customizing it into a “reborn vintage soldier.” For Panjloh Handmade Motorcycles, it was worth every drop of sweat spent over an 8 month struggle in the hottest workshop in north India.
The concept of BOMBARD was wrapped around the idea of being “Bulletproof.” This bike shared the fate of many motorcycles. It survived a war only to get worn out, broken, laid to rest and laid to rust. This particular bike (make and model to be confirmed) was then rescued and brought back to life and freedom by the people. This particular war motorcycle got what Panjloh calls a steam punk-yet-classy style.
Tarun at Panjloh says that this custom world war two bobber has some unique firsts in any custom motorcycle built in India or the sub-continent.
It is the first motorcycle to be treated as a canvas for the paintings otherwise done on 2D surfaces to be exhibited on walls (…) It is the first motorcycle to have transparency in engine vaults and circuit spheres (…) It is again one of the first motorcycles to have a 1 litre oil filter (…) The muscles of this beast have all the proteins in it: it is one of the first motorcycles to have all the 5 vintage metals in it: Iron, Steel, Copper, Brass and Gold.
In the eyes of its maker, it’s the closest thing to art on wheels.
The use of the various metals was interesting. Panjloh’s name itself is related to the use of metals. Panjloh in Punjabi means Five (panjloh) metals (loh).
Tarun’s own words describing the paint and finish:
The final coats of lustrous lacquer depict the moistly-waxed oil spills of a war environment and the paintings depict the battle scenes which are etched as reminders as what the beast had went through. The painting/finishing methodology used in this bike is very unique in itself being a multi-tier process. We started with rusting and aging the metals first that took several days to bring the effect.
This was followed by conceptualizing and painting the bike by hand having various war memories. The paint jobs were then again aged over a large period of time. Furthermore, we wanted the custom world war two bobber to be as war exposed as we could. Also, as the theme is war, we wanted to make a custom accessory to weapon-ise the bike. So, we casted a solid 4 kg brass barrel and infused it into centuries old reclaimed wood and finally tightened with a copper wire, thus giving an effect of the canons (bombard) used in ancient eras.
Several controlled fireworks were shot on the body of the bike to amplify the effects of brutality the machine was exposed to.
The motorcycle is customized to be as raw as possible, with solidified tough metal and heavy machine geometry including the inverted levers, solid cast copper handle grips, custom made front and rear lights.
Tarun says “Riding this custom world war two bobber is even manlier than taming a bull.” To quote Captain America…
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