The Recidivist by Game Over Cycles

The Recidivist is the world’s first tattooed motorcycle, and is based on the Harley-Davidson Heritage model. From the original machine only the engine - a Twin Cam 96” - and part of frame are left. All other construction elements and mechanisms are original solutions created by Game Over Cycles based in Poland.

The bike's unveiling took place in 2014, at the London International Tattoo Convention, the most prestigious body adornment convention in the world, and the Recidivist's sidecar was created in 2017, and had its world premiere for the first time in the USA at the 77th Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally as well as the Labor Day Weekend Rally at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee.

The Recidivist won 1st place in the „PRO Class” in the H-D Museum Custom Bike Show, one of the largest custom bike shows in the US.
During the Sturgis rally the bike won 1st place in the “Most Unusual” class in the Rat’s Hole Custom Bike Show - world's oldest and most prestigious custom bike show.

The Recidivist is a machine inspired by the art of permanent body adornment. Motorbikes are commonly adorned with tattoo motifs using an airbrush, however the uniqueness of The Recidivist lies in the fact that the bike's entire construction is covered in tattooed skin branded directly onto the bike's tires, tanks, seat, rear fender, lamp and many other smaller elements. Light colored cow hide leather - similar to the color of human skin - is engineered onto the bike. Artists from Polish tattoo studios applied traditional works of tattoo art onto the bike. All of that makes The Recidivist world's first tattooed motorcycle.

References to the traditions are expressed not only in bike's theme, but also in its construction. The motorcycle's construction include elements that draw from the look of tattoo machines. All of these parts are fully operational elements of bike's construction, and the mechanisms of these elements operate in the same way as they do in the original tattoo machines:

- bike's front suspension has the look of a traditional coil tattoo machine
- the exhaust pipe looks exactly like a modern tattoo machine, including the tattooing needles which when you start the bike, move exactly as they do when the tattoo machine applies ink under the skin.

Further more, the machine's design is based on a number of technical solutions drawing from the turbulent lifestyles of post-war bikers.

- the lever starting the bike has a shape of a bomb detonator lever.
- the rear light indicators look like brass knuckle-dusters
- front wheel caliper brakes have the appearance of handcuffs
- front clutch and brake handles are formed in the shape of "butterfly" knives
- the break pump lever is shaped in the form of a section sign.

The sidecar is fully tattooed, both outside and inside and also on the tires. In terms of the construction the sidecar relates to the bike, mainly it's fuel tank, as it has similar construction made of two sheets of metal joined with tubes, which imitates the look of a human spine. Sidecar tattoos also relate to motifs present on the bike, but as it is with tattoos on a human body, with time they change together with the person they are tattooed on. Given elements get bigger, change colors, shapes and meanings. That is why on the sidecar there are tattoos paralleled with the ones on the motorcycle, such as the Themis or handcuffs, but it also includes new motifs in the form of relations to the abstract art of  H.R. Giger and Polish artist Zdzisław Beksiński, as well as inspiration taken form the real life, such as selected images from the history of Harley-Davidson company.

Construction of the motorcycle and sidecar took 3000 hours. Tattooing of the bike and sidecar took over 2500 hours.

The Recidivist current awards:
Best Paint/Airbrush at Custombike-Show, the world’s biggest trade fair for modified bikes (Bad Salzuflen, Germany).
Best Painting at Custom Bikes Championships (Wrocław, Poland).
Bike of The Year, Chopper Magazine (Wrocław, Poland).
Three awards at Custom Festival, Polish Custom Bikes Championship: 1st place in Best Paint; 3rd place in Free Style; Best Bike of the Show from Custom Chrome Europe.
Two awards at European Bike Week, Europe’s biggest bike rally (Faaker-See, Austria): 1st place in the Custom category; People’s Choice Award.

Game Over Cycles is a Polish custom motorcycles manufacturer formed in 2012. The company is known for its original creations such as The Recidivst, the world’s first tattooed motorcycle, and Behemoth Bike, a custom motorcycle created in collaboration with global Polish metal music legends Behemoth.

Machines created by Game Over Cycles have won awards at some of the world’s biggest custom bike competitions. In just four years, the company received eight awards at European Bike Week, having won the prestigious People’s Choice Award no less than four times. European Bike Week is Europe’s largest open and free bike festival and one of the biggest in the world. The event has been organised annually in the Austrian village of Faaker-See and according to the organisers, the event sees an attendance of more than 120,000 visitors and 70,000 bikes from around the world each year.

In June 2016 Game Over Cycles became the official dealer of legendary motorcycle brand Harley-Davidson. It is the biggest Harley-Davidson dealership in Poland and Central-Eastern Europe.

Source Game Over Cycles