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Click here for more photos…
This bike feature originally appeared in Barnett’s Magazine issue #55, May-June 2007.
SPECIFICATIONS: | |
---|---|
Year / Make: | 2006 Rigid Old Style |
Fab/ Assembly: | AQG |
Build time: | Two months |
Engine: | 93″ S&S Shovelhead |
Ignition: | S&S |
Carb: | S&S Super E |
Pipes: | AQG |
Air Cleaner: | S&S |
Transmission: | S&S |
Primary: | BDL open belt |
Clutch: | BDL |
Frame: | AQG rigid |
Rake: | 37-degrees |
Forks: | Harley-Davidson springer |
Front Wheel: | 21×2.15 PM Wrath |
Rear Wheel: | 18×8.5 PM Wrath |
Front Tire: | 90/90×21 Avon |
Rear Tire: | 250/35×18 Avon |
Brakes: | PM |
Fuel Tank: | AQG |
Oil Tank: | AQG billet |
Fenders: | AQG |
Handlebars: | AQG |
Risers: | AQG |
Headlight: | AQG |
Taillight: | 1930 Norton 500 |
Hand Controls: | AQG |
Grips: | AQG |
Foot Controls: | Kustom Tech/ AQG |
Seat: | Wild Hog/ AQG |
The Italian Anima Custom
Story by Sedrick C. Mitchell, Photos courtesy of AQG
Aldo Querio Gianetto, of AQG Custom Motorcycles, continues to create world-class custom motorcycles, and his latest bike, Anima, is another machine that can be added to the world’s custom motorcycle inventory. This bike is handmade with a highly-polished raw finish, which gives it a completely different appeal from other customs sporting the usual, outrageous paint jobs. Aldo joins a new wave of builders who are foregoing colorful paint schemes and complicated graphics, and are settling for a simple metallic finish instead. The bare metal look can be quite attractive, whether polished to a high gloss or left with a dull finish, in a world where the average person possibly expects that a custom should be loaded with layers of paint and wild graphics. There are many custom motorcycles available on today’s market with paintwork that is so similar (flames, tribal schemes, dragons, etc.) they can easily be mistaken for somebody else’s bike. After all, creating a machine that is different from all the others is one of the definitive reasons for building a one-off in the first place. “I like custom motorcycles with a nice paintjob, and a rare airbrush finish can add a personal touch to any particular bike. I built the Anima, because I wanted to provide something totally new for my customers. It would have been easier to design and put a nice paintjob on this bike, but the effects would not have been the same. Polishing a bike to achieve this type of end results is special and can require a few hours of hard labor,” said Aldo.
On the Anima there are also many details, small and large, that enhance and compliment the overall design. For example, the 2.5-gallon gas tank, the rear fender, and the frame were all handmade by AQG and polished in a manner that replicates an old-timey appearance and produces a style that makes it stand out in a crowd. Adding another touch of glamour and glitter are the chromed parts that compliment the highly-polished finish like the round oil tank, the matching Performance Machine Wrath wheels, the AQG wide pulled back handlebars and risers, and the H-D springer front-end. Be sure to have your shades on if you’re staring at this bike in bright sunlight.
The exhaust is an unusual setup from AQG where the header pipes are routed forward through the front spoiler. Aldo constructed this exhaust with the idea of having a relatively quiet end result, but with a good rumble to let people know it’s a healthy V-twin. “Everyone who saw my design and idea on how I would construct the pipes through the front spoiler were very curious to hear how it would sound. The sound of the exhaust system on a custom motorcycle is just as important as the appearance itself. This new exhaust also helps the engine to run cooler, especially in stop and go traffic. This is an extremely good feature for riding in hot weather conditions such as we have here in Italy during our hot summers,” said Aldo.
The headlight has AQG monogrammed in its center, and this custom uses only one taillight, located on the left side. For safety purposes, all turn signaling has to be done the old fashioned way, the old arm and hand method. This is no big deal, I have turn signals on the front and rear of my scooters, but I still use the arm and hand method in conjunction with the blinkers. It’s an additional safety step that I’ve found to work very well.
The handlebar end caps, the nuts on the oil tank, and a few other parts are finished in gold and some pieces have those familiar AQG letters engraved on them. Sometime I’ll have to count how many times Aldo puts his logo on one of his customs. Meanwhile, the soft brown leather bicycle-style seat and the matching leather rope handgrips tactilely contrast with all the hard metal, a reminder that this is where the rider makes his connection with all the bare metal. It’s a rigid frame, so those two small springs in the seat are the only form of butt comfort for the rider. “I’ve ridden the Anima custom bike for more than 1,200 miles over every type of Italian road condition and the ride and the handling is perfect. The ride is smooth,” stated Aldo. It’s quite obvious that Aldo Querio Gianetto is a prime candidate for the Iron Butt Award.
When Aldo drew up the plans to build Anima, he gave serious thought to using a newer-style engine like a Harley-Davidson Evo or a new S&S engine. He knew that a modern looking engine in a bike that resembled something from the past just wouldn’t look right. Kind of like Harley putting the electronic speedometer on a Heritage springer, to me, that took away from the nostalgia concept of the bike. Anyway, Aldo was able to get the best of both worlds. He used a new 2006 S&S Shovel motor with an S&S Super E carburetor, which enabled him to keep an old-style appearance yet maximized the newest technology from the re-issued and updated 93” power plant. It’s powerful, it’s fast, it’s reliable, and it looks old.
This retro custom bike has an old-style appearance that seems like it dates back to the times as old as the Italian location where these photos were taken. If the Romans would have had the technology to construct a few of these machines to insert into their arsenal, Italy, as we know it today might still be referred to as the Roman Empire. For more information on AQG machines, log on to www.aqg.it.