Rusty Factory?s Beautiful ?White Angel? BMW R75
Written by Marlon Slack
For much of my time in Malaysia I looked like a German sex tourist. My bags had been lost in El Salvador on the trip over, so, smelling quite ripe after 36 hours in the air, I?d bought the first shirt I?d seen. It was pink and floral and not really the kind of thing you want to wear to a show like the Art of Speed. Or at all, really.
But I was stuck with it. And it was worth looking like an absolute cretin to see the amazing machines on show in Kuala Lumpur. The Art of Speed is a relatively new event, one that?s expanded from a side note in a shopping centre to an all-consuming, all-singing and all-dancing display of everything custom in Malaysia.
It?s now two enormous halls filled with cars, art, apparel, stalls from all the major motorcycle manufacturers and most importantly, a whole bunch of custom motorcycles. The place was heaving, with tens of thousands of people dropping in over two days. The outside carpark overflowed with motorcycles of every vintage and description. More disturbingly, a nearby food hall offered nothing but Durian-based food stuffs. The less said about that the better.
THE MALAYSIAN MOTO SCENE
But what I can ramble at length about is the motorcycle scene in Malaysia. It?s not like many of its neighbours in South East Asia. Motorcycles are used as everyday transport by many, but there?s still huge amounts of cars on the road. The traffic is relatively sensible and you won?t see...