By Tim Huber, RideApart
Sam Nehme is a builder with quite the imagination. Nehme operates a Fort
Lauderdale-based motorcycle dealership called Broward MotorSports, as
well as BMS Choppers, the firm’s customs division. While we aren’t normally all that interested in the over-the-top gaudy, OCC-style choppers
that rose to prominence in the early aughts, there’s a build of Nehme’s
that we simply can’t overlook. But first, a little about the builder.
BMS Choppers first sprang up in 2003 as a part-time customization arm
of the wildly successful South Florida dealership. The side business
picked up quickly and before long became one of the State’s premier
chopper building outfits which was a particularly big deal in the
mid-2000s, during the height of the American Chopper craze. Nehme’s list of customers reportedly grew to include a handful of celebrity rappers like Ice T, Diddy, and Flo Rida.
Despite churning out high-end machines for his A-list clientele, it
was a bike that Nehme built for himself that he feels is his best work
to date and the focus of our story today. Dubbed the Nehmesis, the
unusual two-wheeler was built around 2007 after Nehme was invited to
participate in a televised build off broadcasted by ESPN2. The builder
was given only six-months to complete the project. He knew right then
what guidelines he planed to follow. The design needed to boast
uninterrupted flowing lines, bare a futuristic alien vibe, and be clad
in an obnoxious amount of actual gold.
The ambitious build started out as a Yamaha Road Star 1700, though all that remains of the almost 700-pound cruiser
is its massive 1.7-liter engine. Nehme and his team cooked up a one-off
chassis that uses the Yamaha mill as a stressed member, with a wild,
more-than-three-foot-long CNC’d aluminum front-end grabbing the skinny,
large-diameter single-sided wheel. Out back is another single-sided unit
attached to the comically large 360mm (14in) aft wheel. Shrouding the
over-sized rubber are a pair of fenders lined with LED lights that
tightly hug the wheels, illuminating the tires at night.
In place
of a kickstand of any kind, the Nehmesis instead utilizes a trick Air
Ride system that offers ten-inches of travel, enabling the
almost-11-foot-long bike to be raised and lowered to come to rest on the
custom chassis’ frame rails. The bike also sports a semi-automatic
clutch where the rider can select gears by twisting the left-hand grip,
very much like a twist grip shifter on a bicycle. Another nifty aspect
of the build is the way the brake calipers are discreetly hidden away,
highlighting the intricate elements left on display.
The front and
rear fenders, tank, powertrain covers, bars, rims, intake cover,
exhausts, and foot and hand controls have all been carefully designed
and then painstakingly brought to life. Nehme estimates that he put over
3,000 hours of labor into creating the extravagant two-wheeler. The
Nehmesis’ most noticeable trait is its abundant gold plating. Tired of
the (then) trend of basically utilizing as much chrome as possible,
whenever and wherever possible, Nehme decided to instead spring for the
use of gold. According to its maker, the Nehmesis boasts approximately
$25K only in gold plating. The custom deep 3D rims also reportedly cost
Nehme another $25K for the set. In total, the build is estimated to be
worth somewhere between $300,000 and $500,000, depending on who you ask.
It doesn’t really matter however as it’s not for sale.
Despite being powered by a Japanese motor,
the Nehmesis was permitted to compete in Daytona Beach’s Rats Hole Show
in the highly competitive American class, a first in the contest’s
near-four-decade history. Even more surprising was the fact that the
gold-plated Road Star reportedly won top prize in the coveted “Over 1,000cc
Super Radical” class. It’s definitely not our cup of tea, but it’s hard
to deny that Mr. Nehme has some pretty interesting ideas.
