Tucked away in their backyard garage amidst the smell of hot metal and motor oil, two small city Moncton boys are in a race against the big guys.
Tyler Bridges and Joey Landry have entered an international custom bike building competition called “Operation Octane.”
“There is a lot of competition, but I like our chances,” said Bridges, while polishing up their custom ride.
Inside Landry’s garage, which has been turned into a bike shop, the pair overhauled a stock Victory Octane 1200cc, 104-horsepower bike into what they see as a thing of beauty.
“I love everything about it, I love the colour, I love the stance, I love the sound everything,” said Landry.
Bridges says they are competing against some of the biggest custom bike builders in the world hoping to bring home a victory.
“We did this in this little shop behind my house and a lot of these guys are full blown custom shops that do this full time and have unlimited time and unlimited money,” he said.
But not these guys. Their shop may be small but their hearts and ideas are big.
The pair have been tinkering to turn stock bikes into custom rides since high school.
“I started wrenching on my own bikes and it started from there. I started doing custom peddle bikes and moved to custom motorcycles,” said Bridges.
“There is no after-market parts for it so you can’t just buy parts and put them on everything has to be custom fit that was probably the most challenging part,” said Landry who is the details guy with bright ideas, hence the unconventional teal colour on the bike.
“We wanted something really flashy that would stick in people’s mind that you don’t see every day not just like a black bike that you typically see.”
Bridges, the expert fabricator and welder said they worked on the bike every night till the early hours of the morning for about two weeks.
“I like stepping back and looking at what you did and it is an unbelievable feeling and I am addicted to it,” said Bridges.
And he hopes that passion show through in the bike’s unique design and leads to votes.
The boys are competing against 25 other custom bikes from around the globe and are one of only three entries from Canada.
“Basically you go online and vote. you can vote every day until the 21st,” said Bridges.
People who want to check out all of the entries can go to the Victory Motorcycles website.
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