The Quail Gathering is the motorcycle equivalent of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance: a world-class display of rarified exotica and immaculate restorations, plus a few jaw-dropping customs to spice up the mix.
To win an award at The Quail is no easy achievement. But this year, Niki Smart?s incredible Honda XL500-based special won not one, but two trophies: the Custom/Modified category, plus the ?Design and Style? award presented by Arch Motorcycles.

Niki is well known in the automobile world: he?s a British car designer now working in the USA. He first hit the headlines as the lead designer on the Ariel Atom sportscar, and followed that up with concept cars for Cadillac.
Today, he?s a design manager for General Motors, working with the Advanced Design team in Los Angeles.
Niki?s bike, built around the engine of a 1981 XL500, was not your typical after-hours project?it took over a decade to finish and involved an army of specialists.
?There?s a long list of people who helped me a little, and a few people who helped me a lot,? says Niki.

Inspiration came from images of boardtrack racers that Niki saw at an exhibition. ?I had never seen anything like the near-50 degree banking of the American board tracks.?
?The beautiful bikes of that era were legitimate 100mph machines,? Niki enthuses. ?For me, the tall skinny wheels and tires balanced nicely with the pure open lines of the frame and engine.?

A second source of inspiration came from experimental Euro...