Who needs design when you have a motorcycle to play with?

I happen to be in an extremely boring rut of projects at work now, so my creativity jumped ship and swam to my garage. About a month ago I bought an old Yamaha, a TX500 from 1973. My brother picked up a bike the same week and we live about 1250 miles apart so we’re doing a long distance “biker build off” online. Since my personal design content is suffering on here right now, I thought I’d share my hobby with you. Here’s the bike, as it sat when I picked it up:

After brainstorming, studying the bike, deciding what I wanted to ride, soaking in a LOT of other bikes, sketching, and photoshoping, here is what I’ve decided to build:

I’ve dubbed it “TX Massacre” which sort of explains the splatter on the gas tank, although not many things bleed orange. I want it to look like the bike just flew through something at 100mph and kept going. The fun part is going to be painting it. I think I’ll hang the tank facing up, dip a sponge in the paint, and throw it at the front of the gas tank. Should be crazy, Jackson Pollock style. Should be able to terrorize a few old ladies with this.