When an Eddie Va Halen fan contacted WyndyMilla to create a bike in tribute to his rock hero, they were only too happy to oblige.
The result is this stunning riff on Van Halen's own custom-built and hand-painted "Frankenstrat" guitar.
WyndyMilla (WM) is a UK-based custom bike company, specialising in high-end custom made carbon bikes. The brand has been through some changes since it merged with Spoon Customs last year, with a new focus on their bikes, customers and process. But as this build shows, there's no change to their ambition to continue to make stand out custom bikes.
The new team has spent the winter working on this one-off tribute to Eddie Van Halen, commissioned by a devoted Van Halen fan, moved to action by the star's untimely passing in October 2020.
The devoted fan who ordered the one off bike is Pablo from Mexico City. Pablo contacted WyndyMilla through their dealer (cuadro.cc) in Mexico City, who asked them to design and produce this mind-blowing bike.
The bike is based on WM's acclaimed Massive Attack road race bike, which uses a blend of TorayCA T1000 fibres laid up into monocoque parts which are then handmade into bikes using more traditional tube to tube construction techniques to produce performance bikes one at a time, fitted to the millimetre.
The bike is finished with custom painted Enve wheels (painted by Gun Control Custom Paint) and Enve contact points with Campagnolo Super Record EPS, for a genuinely super bike set up.
Eddie Van Halen famously designed and customised his own equipment too and one of his most eye-catching and famous pieces was his iconic 'Frankenstrat' guitar.
Following news of his death on October 6th last year a huge illuminated guitar carrying a version of his now iconic pattern was constructed at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood. It led hundreds of similar tributes from fans all over the world.
Eddie's original guitar only had one control, not the usual three. The one remaining control in his new design adjusted the volume of the custom guitar, but as Eddie only had a 'tone' control knob available to use, it became an identifying feature of the guitar. The top cap on the bike pays homage to this detail, laser engraved to mimic the tone control knob on Eddie's original guitar.
The paint Eddie used was, the team discovered, a red from Schwinn bikes in Chicago so they based the colour choice on that.
Commenting on the build, new WM owner Andy said, "The bike is really bold. It's tricky to nail that without overdoing it and that takes time skill. I love Van Halen (who doesn't) so it was a dream brief and lovely to be able to pay our respects in a meaningful way. The whole team have been involved and we've been really excited about sharing it with people."
Since the merger with Spoon Customs, the brand has a more detailed approach to design, where the designer works closely with paint team (in house brand, Gun Control Custom Paint) to make sure concepts like this really work visually. It seems to be working too, given how busy they've been since the first lockdown.
With this bike, and such a strong idea everyone who needed to be was involved in the project from the start. Making it a fitting tribute was top of the list but in the unlikely event the viewer had never heard of Eddie Van Halen the new team wanted it to work as a great looking bike too.
Despite the changes to the focus and generally cleaner approach to their bikes, they've been keen to retain some of that WM boldness. And, with this commission, they've proved that you can mix a serious approach to engineering and good ideas with some of that traditional WyndyMilla playfulness.
If you'd like to start your own custom build with WyndyMilla, or Spoon Customs, get in touch with the team now on [email protected]
WyndyMilla is about to launch a crowd funding campaign via Spoon Customs, so head over to their website to sign up for updates and be the first to find out how to get involved.
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