Custom: Icon Magnificent Bastard

One of the stars at last weekend’s The One Motorcycle Show in Portland was this 1986 Honda VFR1000R built by the guys at Icon. Sort of a post-apocalyptic, comic book take on a police interceptor — the Main Force Patrol would feel right at home — the Magnificent Bastard is at once reminiscent of extreme function while being relatively functionless. That’s a continental knobby designed for a dirt bike’s rear wheel mounted on the Bastard’s front.

Urban Dictionary defines a “Magnificent Bastard” as “a certain type of character that defies such definitions as hero or villain, good or evil, friend or enemy. Love him or loathe him, you have to admire him.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJXKVOxqkWM

You’re probably more familiar with the term from a movie about an eccentric general.

To make it, Icon started with an old Interceptor, adding an Airtech Streamlining tail section, LeoVince SBK pipes, an AltRider skid plat, PIAA flood lights, those crazy crash bars, then wrapped the whole thing in matte white vinyl.

Sort of sports tourer/adventure tourer hybrid capable of crossing nuclear waste lands at high speed, the Bastard combines the weather protection and riding position of the former with some of the dirt capability of the latter. But rather than trying to pigeonhole the build based on function, think of it as more of a fantasy. This is the kind of bike we could see a Mad Max-esque anti-hero riding in some SciFi B-movie, running from hoards of flesh eating zombies on the way to save some babe in a fur bikini. In fact, maybe that should be Icon’s next film project.