Gasoline Motor Co Make Custom Bikes With A Character & A Story

Walking through the Gasoline Motor Co workshop is like stepping into a Hollywood showroom filled with the slickest, coolest looking bike props imaginable. But the difference here is that you can walk out owning one of these bad boys. Custom bikes line the walls two stories high, stand in glinting rows and are mounted regally on pedestals and platforms. There's a hot orange '67 Triumph Bonneville T120R Custom Chopper front and centre, a no-expenses spared 2014 Harley-Davidson Street Glide Special 1690 FLHXS, and at the back, an ancient red Heritage International fire truck that's been turned into a bar table. And then there's the Frankenstein bikes - custom models like the Rebellion that has the engine from a trail bike, the front end from a modern motorcycle, a Mercury frame, off-road wheels, a seat from a scrambler and a rear sprocket as the headlight surround.

Owner Jason Gasoline walks among his handiwork, enthusing about this bike and that, sharing the stories that accompany each machine. The business started in 1994 when Gasoline was just 21 years old, with five scooters imported from Italy and a coffee machine. More bikes came in and he jumped from space to space, growing out of small premises until he finally decided to go big - first moving into a warehouse in Alexandria then finally moving to their current location in Waterloo a few months ago. "Custom motorcycles is something I've been passionate about for many years, " he grins. "We've been able to create a bit of a dream job, when people go 'What do you do?' and you can say, 'Oh, I build motorcycles.'

"I was the coolest kid at school because I had a bike - I used to take girls for rides at lunchtime and it was great."

"The first bike I ever owned was a Vespa. I wasn't even legal to ride a Vespa back then, I used to hide it 'round the corner and tell mum I was walking to school and then I'd ride it there. I was the coolest kid at school because I had a bike - I used to take girls for rides at lunchtime and it was great. But that was back then when things were easier and there were less police around and you could get away with shit like that," he laughs.

"It all started with a simple Cafe Racer - that was quite big in London, then all of a sudden people started customising Yamaha SRXs in Australia, which is very much a stepping stone or a good starting model for a Cafe Racer, but that got thrashed out so much." His point of difference was to build Cafe Racers out of Ducatis and Harleys, "different types of machines that people never would think to transform like that".

"Now we get a brand new motorcycle that's straight out of the shop, like a new Triumph or a Kawasaki or whatever it may be, and we make a modern classic look like a vintage bike but it has all the workings of a modern motorcycle - keyless starts, ABS braking systems, things that are really modern in these custom bikes.

"Every single bike we build must have a name and must have a character and must have a story behind it - without a story, it's not a custom bike for us." Be it the brand new R nineT BMW ($23,000 straight from the showroom) which got a $75,000 custom overhaul and ended up with a scratch metal finish in an aircraft grade 6061 aluminium, or the custom bike they named the A15 after the owner's Staffy, Angel, who passed away at 15: "it makes it stand out, we make a statement, and set a few standards as well."