/////////////////////////////// Text and photos: Laurent Scavone /////////////////////////////
For brands in search of notoriety, motorsports are vectors of expression that advertisers or "marketing people" recommend in their strategic recommendations. The values conveyed by sport, adventure, and surpassing oneself nourish brands by giving them a panache haloed with virility, nobility, performance, and robustness. Heroic content must be created! A solid gold storytelling is needed to gain market share, says the communication strategist. In recent years, we have seen prestigious "bon chic bon genre" brands flirt with motorcycles, slumming it with custom culture, and reclaiming the symbol of freedom that motorcycles still embody.
Steve McQueen is a Tag Heuer watch for those under thirty!
This cynical but true intro aims to distinguish between opportunism and a brand's DNA. The watchmaker TW Steel, headquartered in Amsterdam, has placed motorsports at the heart of its business! TW Steel makes watches for those who push their limits, for modern adventurers who do not cross borders but transgress them! The watches are strapped to the wrists of performers who brave the elements and the most hostile terrains on the planet. Participating in the adventure is not just asking a pilot to be an ambassador; it's especially accompanying them on their playground and making oneself useful. TW Steel accompanies the Coronel brothers, car drivers in the Dakar, alongside Guerlain Chicherit with his GC Kompetition team in rallycross, and David Coulthard. The Australian driver Mick Doohan, five-time 500cc world champion from 1994 to 1998, for those who remember? Recently, TW Steel sponsored the Dakar darling, official Yamaha rider Adrien Van Beveren, and frankly, it's understandable.
It was a sunny Monday in March, in the North of France, on Adrien Van Beveren's (VBA) land, and ultimately not so far from Amsterdam, that the meeting was set to take some shots where GF dressed Adrien from head to toe for an advertising campaign that will travel the world... An opportunity for us to test our products in extreme conditions!
Checked shirts with removable protectors, jeans made in France or this suede jacket that you can find on this link.
It took an elegant and sleek motorcycle, a clever blend of tradition and performance, while also being in tune with the times. It's thanks to Philippe Canapa, a Lille native who is a lover and collector of beautiful machines, and prepared by Vincent Dhalluin Doolish Racing Parts that we can enjoy this 2006 Yamaha 450 WRF. Completely restyled in a vintage sauce with its Cheney Engineering (USA) frame + seat, like a 70s BSA flat tracker, this motorcycle adopts the architecture of an old motorcycle, but until now, nothing revolutionary! Featuring a design inherited from the best flat bikes, streamlined, compact with that pretty 70s Yamaha DT tank in Candy color, ready to pounce, it's powered by modern, reliable, and powerful mechanics, which is original... And believe me, it sends it.
Adrien arrives with his usual smile, that of a kid who celebrates Christmas every day as soon as a motorcycle is in sight, yet he must ride motorcycles every day, and it's when he gets dressed for the photos that we realize how much the motorcycle has battered him; scars, burns, and other bruises bear witness to the risks this rider takes as soon as he gets on a bike. Riding at 160 km/h on gravel alone, on the roads of Pisco in Peru, is like skateboarding downhill on gravel in your underwear!
Adrien is champing at the bit in front of the bike, the TW Steel staff ask me for some close-ups of the watches, but I can tell everyone wants to see Adrien ride; knowing him well, I know what this new "king of cool" is capable of as soon as he has handlebars in his hands. After a few instructions, I warn Adrien that this bike has just been prepared and is destined to be sold, and that it would be good to return it to Philippe Canapa in the condition he gave it to us! Adrien smiles because the last time we took photos, we bent a Yamaha XSR prepared by the Portuguese from Maria Riding Company. I also warn Adrien that some spots are not suitable for the bike's tires, "I got stuck in the sand there," I tell him, "where you get stuck in the sand, I fly over," he tells me. It's true that I attack like a virgin, with too much delicacy, while he is a "harder" one, he is not afraid to mistreat the "Yam"! The photos speak for themselves, it's too easy for him, one can only feel admiration for Adrien's ease and style... "hey, you know what, it's frustrating not to be able to ride like him!"
So, I can tell you that the bike responds well to all demands and that you feel safe because it's Easy! We also know that you can ask it anything, it's reliable machinery, and the Cheney equipment isn't for show, it's designed to go, the bike is balanced, it goes where it needs to go, it doesn't take you away... it brakes hard!
Adrien finds it nice, just a problem of not enough steering angle and maybe wider tires to take it even further in the slide!
This bike is for sale, I don't have the money, I think I would have cracked, why? First, because it's beautiful, and that would be enough for me, and then this preparation takes the codes of 70s Flat Track bikes, the era when races became impressive, the Flat Trackers of that time were never so beautiful, pure, sexy, and light. That's not the case today, mastering an Indian FTR requires professional riding skills, and me... well, I'm a log.
So for all these reasons and for its price (around 11,000 euros), I would have bought this bike to show off at red lights and beat most things on the road, because before they realize that this "collector's bike" hides modern propulsion, I would have put 10 meters on the guy on the GS 1200 with his big panniers who acts like a tough guy every lunchtime near my canteen!!
