From scrap to showcase

Bike built from junkyard scrap.

On a sunny Sunday morning “Shagi” a friend of mine appeared in my home with a bag weighed heavy that expressed through his face. After a warm hug of welcome, I pushed myself to kitchen, while preparing, I could hear the sound of metal falling on ground I asked my friend what was the sound but didn’t get any reply.

Holding the tea cups I entered the study room to see the things that filled my ears while preparing tea. To my shock I found Shagi sitting on the floor, lost in the junkyard metal scrap and trying to arrange the metal in the shape of a cruiser bike. With all my curiosity, I asked “what is wrong with you, where did you get this scrap from?” Humbly he replayed “I am building a miniature cruiser bike with this scrap”.  I was so thrilled by seeing the metal scrap crudely arranged like a bike on the floor. And the story behind this scene began to unwind…

My friend had got an order by a coffee shop to build a miniature cruiser bike to display in there shop. So he had been to a junk yard in the morning and picked up the scrap that suite to build a bike. Well this is the most important stage in the process of bike building. One must have strong visualizing skill to think and build the bike in mind with the 100s of scrap hanging in front of you. It coasted him 1000 bugs to buy the scrap that matched his needs. On his way back to home, he visited my place since it’s near to the junkyard.

I sat next to him looking at the scattered junk and visualizing the fully built bike. It took us one hour to analyze which scrap will match the actual parts of the bike and started to arrange the bike on the floor.  With lots of arguments and compromises we finally had a model that is ready to go for final welding. Before the model is dissembled I took some pictures of the arranged scrap. Before leaving, shagi took the photos with him saying, it will help him to arrange scrap in right place and position during the welding process. I told my friend to join him in the welding process tomorrow.
 Next morning I got a call from my friend but unfortunately I could not join him due to heavy work load from office. But I really wanted to see the scrap getting shape of a bike. So he alone took the scrap to a gas welding work shop and guided the welding guy to build a nice bike. It took him half a day to get the final bike done.

Since we come from the same visual art background, we both are very eager to show our work and share our bouquets and brick bats. Finally I rushed to his room to see the cruiser bike. O My Gosh...! what a piece of art it was. I really didn’t get words to appreciate the beauty of this junkyard bike. We really wished we could take a ride on it. Since we couldn’t do so we took a lot of pictures in countless angles. Since it was made for a client of my friend I could only offered the photos of this junkyard beauty. That day my friend promised to build one for me. Hope I get it soon…!

Text and Pic: Nagz