Marco Moeller’s “Hind Ki Rani” has already been celebrated online, but it was Marco’s wife Antje that brought HKR to our attention on The Bike Shed, with her take on the build; “from Trash to Treasure” and a new set of photos taken in the parched dry desert by Colin Handy.
What really stands out on this Enfield 500 Bullet is the work that has gone into the metalwork with hundred of hours spend hand-chiseling patterns into the raw metal, but take a step back and she also has a superbly balanced silhouette. We can see how “she” has made her mark on Marco & Antje’s lives.
Marco is German and based in Dubai. Having not ridden a motorcycle for years he took pity on the bike when he came across her three years ago in a very distressed state in his boss’s backyard. The desert heat hadn’t been kind to the little Bullet but Marco could see beyond the filth & grease. He wanted to build something unique, that suited him as a person, but also helped reflect 60 years of Indian heritage.
The bike was initially fixed-up and rebuilt to a decent standard, so Marco entered her into a local competition in Dubai. The bike won the best customized European category trophy at the Gulf Bike Expo 2011, but this was only the beginning, as Marco’s vision was far from complete. This was when all the craft-work started in earnest and the bike began to take on a far more exotic temperament.
The donor was built in 1994, a bike pretty much unchanged for decades, and the principle work was all about restoring her to to working condition and with the stance he wanted. Just getting the bike running was a bit of a mission but with plenty of help from the Internet Marco struggled through and bought her back to life. From this point onwards the guys at Classic Motorcycles sorted the engine properly and allowed Marco to start thinking about the cosmetic side of his build.
The front 19′ wheel was swapped to 18″ and the rear was reduced to a 15-incher to wear a fat back tyre, while paint was taken care of by a friend. Much of the carved metalwork is made of brass, sourced in India and then hand engraved by Marco using a hammer and chisel. Doing the same to the aluminium pieces took “an insane amount of time”.
Marco: “…it’s by far and away not finished yet. I guess you cannot put my modified Bullet in any category like bobber, chopper, café or anything else. However it was very critical that I maintained the basic features of a typical Royal Enfield as those are indeed what make her special and remarkable. I do enjoy it when people are coming up to me, showing interest, asking questions about the bike whenever I stop. But if anyone asks me, she’s not a show bike! She’s pretty much more that! She’s loud and furious, she’s moody and temperamental…”
Anyone who’s ridden an Enfield Bullet will relate to the sentiment behind this bike (and it’s temperament). It’s great to see a motorcycle inspire so much passion and dare we say it ‘love’, and even better to read about a bike that seems to have brought a couple closer together. Antje is obviously fiercely proud of Marco’s work and wants the whole world to see what her man is capable of. See more on their Facebook Page.
Antje:“HKR is anything else, but just an ordinary bike. This stunning motorcycle is loud and furious like a yob, moody and temperamental like a woman and beautiful like a fairytale Queen.”
…and who doesn’t love a fairytale ending?
Posted by Dutch@TheBikeShed.cc
