Rudy Banny has a “bad habit.” That habit is building bikes. The habit is bad because as much as he loves wrenchin’ and ridin’, he’s the founder, CEO and creative director of Tattoo Projects, an advertising agency out of Charlotte, North Carolina, and has a business to run. His habit has infiltrated his day-to-day, tools, racks and bike stands taking up two corners of the shop. As habits often do, the bike-building bug has spread to other members of the Tattoo Projects team. But having custom motorcycles spread about the open layout of the work space fosters the creativity Banny seeks to encourage out of his advertising team and are wonderful conversation pieces that have become “part of the culture and space itself.” Having seven custom motorcycles at your disposal also means Banny and buddies can ride anytime he wants, something his assistant director never hesitates to take advantage of.
His habit works in Tattoo Projects favor, too. Being a gearhead helps when one of your accounts is Victory Motorcycles. For the last two years, Tattoo Project has emboldened Victory to embrace its modernness, to latch onto the American muscle moniker. With Harley-Davidson and Indian already entrenched as heritage American brands, Tattoo Projects felt Victory’s prior advertising campaigns were always like “chasing the big kid in school.”
Tattoo Projects not only does advertising for Victory Motorcycles, it put a pretty mean spin on a Victory Gunner, too.
“We’re like, screw that. We need to say, yeah we are the new guy on the block, but we don’t have a 100 years of heritage that have our hands shackled. We don’t have to hide from our modern technology.”
This new attitude was conveyed in the first marketing campaign Tattoo Projects devised for Victory, a TV brand spot. For the project, Tattoo Projects worked to change the public perception of a big bike by showcasing its performance capabilities, in this case the Victory Cross Country. The 30-second clip shows a lone rider drifting a Cross Country on a city street, rear tire smokin’ along the way. As the motorcycle comes closer into frame, the scene shifts to inside the rider’s mind, showing images associated with “what it feels like to ride” – a roller coaster drop, a rocket blasting off, skydiving, a rock concert.
“People typically think of baggers as ‘your dad’s bike’ or give it the typical 26-inch big-wheel treatment and slam the rear. After we rode them, we’re like f*ck that, these things are performance monsters. We started doing burnouts, pitching them sideways. We went back and forth pitching ideas to demonstrate that they can be ridden hard in a pretty aggressive way. The spot ran like crazy on ESPN,” said Banny.
The performance angle Tattoo Projects hoped to highlight fits right in with the direction Victory has taken as of late. Stunt riders Tony Carbajal and Joe Dryden have been poppin’ wheelies, drifting, and riding like hooligans on Vics in videos and at popular biker events like Sturgis and Daytona Beach. Victory recently raced up Pike’s Peak using a new proprietary engine on a bike built with the help of Roland Sands Design. It competed at the Isle of Man TT for the first-time ever on an electric motorcycle in 2015. Victory also fielded its first NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle team this year, further proof that the company is bent on showcasing the performance characteristics of its machines.
Tattoo Projects relationship with Victory also allowed Banny to get his hands on a Gunner and put his spin on it. He started by opening up the rear end, lopping off most of the subframe and throwing on a Nitrohead seat. A set of drilled-out aluminum gussets were mounted under the seat and in addition to supporting the seat they house a fuse box and ECU. Burly Firestone Deluxe Champions on 16-inch stainless steel spoke wheels add a bit of hot rod vibe. The stock fork was ditched for one from a Suzuki GSX-R. Biltwell tracker bars sit above custom triple trees, a tidy Motogadget MotoScope Mini LED speedometer mounted between the bars. The big Freedom 106 received a Lloydz Torque Tube Intake and is dialed thanks to a new ECU. The tank was fabricated in-house and left in its original state of patina except for a Tattoo Moto logo stamped on its side, Tattoo Moto the name Banny has delegated his “bad habit.”
Another product of his habit is a 1986 BMW R80RS called “Be Good or Be Gone.” Like a cat, the old Boxer seems to have nine lives as it’s already on its third one. First it lived a happy life in stock Bavarian form. Its second incarnation came after Banny got a hold of it and turned it into a stripped down, ratted-out, satin black BMW brat. Then one day Bob, a friend and frequent wrencher on Tattoo Moto projects, dumped it at 70 mph.
This 1986 BMW R80RS is on its third life, this time as Rudy Banny’s “psycho-nasty” custom Boxer.
“Bob took it out, was barreling down the highway, got cut-off by a pick-up truck at an off-ramp and went down. Luckily he was fine, but the bike was pretty much totaled. Tank was bent to shit, bars were tweaked, pegs pitched up, seat was crushed. The engine was in pretty good shape, valve covers scraped up’ but that was pretty much it,” said Banny.
Instead of wallowing in sorrow, Banny sensed opportunity, a chance to take the old R80 in a new direction. That direction resulted in “Be Good or Be Gone.”
The direction of the fresh redesign started when he was taking it apart. By chance Banny lifted the tank and left it propped up two or three inches while he was doing something else. When he glanced back at the tank in that position he noticed how it changed the bike’s whole stance and attitude. This got the gears churning in his head as he envisioned something with a lower-profile, a little more squat than the original build.
French artist David Vicente took Rudy Banny’s vision and converted it into the original artwork on the tank of his BMW R80.
So he fabbed up a new mount for the tank. Once he did that, Banny decided “It’s going to be a balls-out, café racer, psycho-nasty bike.” He built a new subframe to come off the bottom line of the tank and left plenty of open space “because I love the air over the back tire.” He filled the space with an Ohlins mono-shock and did something he’s been wanting to do for a long time, run a high exhaust shooting out the back right under the seat. He fabbed up the exhaust, added twin shorties from Cone Engineering and boom, one stripped down, lean and mean Beemer. The bulk of the bike is its BMW Boxer engine and tank. Beyond that, it’s pared to essentials, a set of clip-ons to hold on tight to, dual front rotors and Brembo calipers to scrub off speed, and Pirelli Sport Demon tires so at least one patch of rubber stays on the ground.
Banny decided that since the original had already been ridden to death, the third go-round would be more of a showpiece. He wanted to have some fun with its design so he opted for an old racer vibe, decaled and stickered up like vintage NHRA drag racers ala “The Snake” and “The Mongoose.” First he found a classic wolf motif that was popular back in the ‘50s, then found a comparable piece of clip art of a wolf with his tongue hanging out. He mocked it up with “Be Good or Be Gone,” a phrase thrown around frequently at Tattoo Projects, then shipped the tank to artist David Vicente out of France to convert Banny’s vision into original artwork.
Banny’s passion for building bikes dates back to his high school days. In the late ‘70s, he used to run with Jay, Joe and Jack Gensen, “three of the craziest brothers” from a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. The Gensens were amateur dirt trackers who frequented Chicago-area amateur circuits and Banny loved to hang out with them in their garage because they were constantly wrenching on bikes like a Yamaha TT500 or a stripped-down XL350.
Tattoo Moto’s Banny had always wanted to twist up some high pipes and sling them under the seat. Now he has.
“Jay, the most bad-ass, went pro-am and got into Bultacos. That was our life in high school,” said Banny.
He added that there was a short attempt to follow in their footsteps, but “those guys are nuts.” Busting his hand and arm up pretty bad helped Banny decide he liked building and wrenching on bikes more.
Asked if he’s thought about opening a full-time bike shop, he dismissed the idea.
“I don’t want to take it away from being a passion and turning it into a business. Then you start compromising.”
So instead of commissioned bikes, he’ll continue to build what he wants simply for the love of it. So when he’s not devising “kick-ass creative marketing solutions” for his avant-garde advertising agency, look for him in his shop or garage feeding his “bad habit.”
- This 1986 BMW R80RS is on its third life, this time as Rudy Banny’s “psycho-nasty” custom Boxer.
- You can tell by the graphics on this custom Beemer that the Tattoo Projects team has a sense of humor.
- Meaty Firestone Deluxe Champions and the lack of a front fender totally change the disposition of this Victory Gunner.
- Fabbing up a new tank was a challenge, but leaving it in its natural state of patina definitely gives Tattoo Moto’s Gunner a new identity.
Tattoo Projects" Ad-Man Banny Lives Double Life as Bike Builder
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