Written by Marlon Slack.
I was in Colombia for twelve hours when a man yelled at me and shoved a pistol in my face. I panicked, reverted to German and cried ?Nich schiessen!? before he laughed, lowered the gun and ran out of the shopping centre. Security guards in Bogotá don?t f*ck. He and his two camarada were bounding their way through the mall, pistols in hand, when I rounded a corner and startled them. Later, Gustavo from the custom shop Pasquale Motorcycles told me I?d stuffed up. You should give security guards a wide berth. And police. And soldiers. ?Pretty much anyone with a gun,? he laughed.
It was the only blip I had in my time at Colombia for the Custom Built Show. Colombia?s not the wild west of Latin America as it was ten years ago. The place is safe, the people, without exception, are welcoming and the food and booze terrific. I could wax lyrical about the country for hours. But you?re here for the bikes.
THE COLOMBIAN BIKE SCENE
For those of you who missed last year?s writeup, it?s hard being a bike builder in Colombia. Damn hard. It?s not just the lack of high-quality aluminum or the huge expense of importing parts. Or the complete dearth of classic motorcycles to start a build with. Wracked by years of internal strife fuelled by organised crime and terrorist organisations with vaguely rude sounding names, Colombian bike builders have had to start the custom scene from scratch.
The biggest hurdle they?ve had to overcome is where a motorcycle sits in the m...