Rat Style is a type of modification for both cars (Hot Rods) and motorcycles, although it originally comes from cars.
Hot Rods originated in the USA, more specifically in California in the mid-1940s, although the first customizations already began in the 1920s with the birth of the assembly-line car from Henry Ford. The idea was to give the car more engine power and modify certain components such as suspension or tires, as well as stripping it of superfluous "unnecessary" details such as fenders, lights, and hood.
The goal was to compete in illegal street races, which were always accompanied by large doses of alcohol and testosterone, a mixture more potent than nitroglycerin.
During the following decades, the Hot Rod phenomenon became popular, and with it came a range of trends within the style itself, as well as a number of workshops where they were almost mass-produced, losing the initial essence of personal fabrication. With the appearance of chrome and airbrushing, its original essence was gradually lost.
It was in the mid-80s when Rat Style was consolidated, a kind of return to the origins of the Hot Rod, stripping the vehicle of merely what was necessary and customizing it oneself, with the main objective of lightening it to obtain greater power or speed.
Here we present "La Guacha," a motorcycle created in the purest "Rat" style, a GS 500 that does not go unnoticed among the thousands of units sold.
It initially had a front fairing that unfortunately it lost when a tree fell on the motorcycle, completely destroying it. The gauges were also damaged in that terrible accident, but as Leandro (its owner and tattoo artist at "Mil Caminos") says, "This has made it even more Rat style."
Photography by Janite.
