In these modern times, custom bikes are virtually everywhere. You can see them on the street or parked in front of your favourite restaurant (Bikers Café maybe?). But “custom” by today’s standards has become a rather flexible term. Somebody puts a different style of handlebars and his bike is custom. Change the seat for the H-D catalogue one, and the bike is, again, customized. Although this is in fact technically correct, it doesn’t do justice to the “real” custom bikes, you know, the ones that literally take your breath away with their aesthetics, attention to detail, amount of work, and of course, the overall result. Some would say “not everything that glitters is gold”. We say “it is” with Lycan Customs’ “Golden Bike”.

Sometime in 2010, Omar Al Tameemi wanted to take on a challenge. He wanted a bike for himself that he could be proud of and a custom project to compete in the Stock Harley-Davidson category around the world. He chose the Dyna as the base and, from that moment, the bike has never looked the same, with the whole build taking close to an incredible three long years! And when you see this piece of art in the flesh (from afar or close-up) you immediately know why. It’s probably easier to talk about what wasn’t changed or customized on a bike than what it is.

The wheels are now fat spoke units measuring 21×3.5” in front and 18×5.5” in the rear, shod in sweet old school-reminiscent white wall rubber. The rear end has been redesigned to resemble the clean look of the Forties. The stock fender mounts were cut all the way to the shock mounts, and new custom mounts were fabricated. The battery box is held in its original place, but has a new custom fabricated casing. The front fork was changed for an aftermarket springer one, tying the vintage look nicely with the spoked rims. The shifter is a suicide piece with a hand-operated clutch, and let us tell you this, the “Golden Bike” is a rider, not a show bike – although it has won every show that it’s been on. The air filter and the exhaust come from well-known US manufacturer Vance & Hines. The handlebars are mounted high and the controls are minimal. All the wiring is hidden, adding to the clean look of this winner. But wait, we hear you ask, is that really gold?

Yes, this bike is in fact gold plated, and this treatment alone cost Omar in excess of USD 15,000. And anyone who has worked with gold plating knows how hard it is to match paint with the same golden tone. So Omar and his painter did the only logical thing – they bought some more gold, only this time in powder form, and mixed it with the paint to get the proper glitter effect. So the bike is gold plated and gold painted! The real golden bike then.

The paint scheme is an incredibly creative one, and by Omar’s words, something that kept him awake for days and nights for a while until it looked to his satisfaction. An old Japanese flag (only in black and gold), pinstripes, geometric lines, shadows and red accents – it’s all there, combined with passion and taste, thus resulting in the stunning end result.

As you would imagine, the bike has taken home numerous awards, both locally and internationally. Have you heard about the AMD Championship? The “Golden Bike” came in second in the prestige European competition. And as far as local GCC competitions are concerned, Omar’s bike usually comes first. He even showed us the official Harley-Davidson Calendar for 2013 and, you guessed it, “Golden Bike” is there, making up for about a quarter of the page.

The “Golden Bike” is exceptional and it’s what we call a “real” custom bike. The people behind it are also exceptional, real custom builders. If you want any kind of custom bike, be it a superbike, chopper, bobber or cruiser, Omar and his brother Ahmed will gladly help you out. At the moment, their garage is chock full of commissioned 300 and 360mm rear tyre monsters heading to Oman, Kuwait and other GCC countries, but that doesn’t mean one of them cannot become your golden bike.

Thanks to Omar and Ahmed Al Tameemi

www.lycancustoms.com
www.facebook.com/lycan-customs