Is this Dubai bike a world-beater?

"WE'RE IN WITH a shot, definitely," said Roland Seiderer, part of the team behind 'Shamal', the UAE's entry into the Battle of the Kings, Harley-Davidson's global bike customisation competition, which was unveiled at the Sheikh Zayed Road showroom on Saturday. A full-time Harley Dubai employee, South-African Roland has seen a few of the other 200 enhanced entries from as far afield as Italy and the UK and believes the unique sand dune charm of his modified Roadster will prove victorious.
"Those bikes are very nice, but ours is different.
"We as a team knew we needed to think 'desert'. We're in the UAE and a drag desert bike brings out elements of what it means to ride here. It's our desert warrior."
A Shamal is a very strong prevailing wind and, Roland told us, was chosen as a name to evoke the feelings one experiences when riding in the Middle East. Long stretches of tarmac traversing the red sand, complete with the warm air in blowing in your face as you fly along, are elements unique to this region.
Taking only six weeks to plan and construct, Roland said the process illustrates anything is possible when it comes to customising your motorbike.
"People here don't usually think about customisation because they don't know what they want," he said. "We can show that we can help bring out their ideas and put them into practice. Nothing is really impossible.
"Even if they have a semi-thought out plan, we can slap something together and then go from there. It is a really creative process."
Turning a Roadster into 'Shamal'
"We tune the engine. We chop and change where we can. We had to follow guidelines. We had to use a specific amount of Harley parts, but then we can also be inventive with the rest. That's where we came up with extending it and putting in a mono shock instead of twin shocks. We gave it a low feel," said Roland.
The Specs
Armed with six thousand euros worth of parts, the belt drive was replaced by a chain and sprocket. The genuine parts range used included the air filter, hand grips, derby and timer cover that is from the Rail collection.
david@khaleejtimes.com