Banshee Howls at bike show

Oshawa/Whitby This Week
Written by by Jillian Follert
Wednesday, 07 February 2007

Oshawa – Mike Yurko is no stranger to winning big at bike shows - but this time he wasn't even trying. The Oshawa chopper shop owner headed to the North American International Motorcycle Show in Toronto earlier this month, hoping to sell a few T-Shirts emblazoned with the Yurko Custom Choppers logo. Instead, he walked away with a five-foot trophy for his latest creation, the Banshee. This isn't even a show bile, it's a personal bike built for everyday riding," he said this week. "But it won. I think they liked the attention to detail and the fact that this bike is really amazing, but also really functional. Some of the stuff you see is so off-the-wall, you wonder if people can even ride it."

The Banshee, a gleaming red and chrome chopper chock full of subtle details, took first place and best in show in the builder class, edging out about 30 other bikes for the honour. The annual event is the world's largest consumer motorcycle show, according to the American Motorcycle Industry Council. The Banshee came into being this fall, when Brooklin resident Tony Scott approached Mr. Yurko about building him a custom bike. He had a motorcycle already, but wanted something more unique that expressed his personality. "I'm Scottish, so we looked for ways to tie in my heritage," he explained. "We went through some Scottish and Irish mythology and when I saw the banshee I knew it was perfect." In Scottish folklore, the banshee is a ghostly woman who appears as an omen of death. The bike is painted a deep red to reflect the creature's fiery strength and seductive nature and features graphics of the mythological woman and a poem printed in faint script along the side.

Mr. Scott said allot of bike enthusiasts would be shocked to learn the Banshee was built in Durham and came in around $40,000. "There's this huge misconception out there that you have to go to the States to get bikes like this or that they're really, really expensive, like $100,000," he noted. Mr.Yurko said these myths can be largely attributed to popular reality shows like American Chopper and Biker Build-Off, but adds the shows are also good for the industry because they introduce the masses to the idea of unique, custom bikes. After taking the Banshee to a few other shows this spring, Mr. Yurko hopes to finish a vintage '63 Harley he affectionately refers to as "the Johnny Cash Special" and finds his next custom bike client. He also hopes to build another theme bike sponsored by a corporate partner, like the DeWalt Lightning that was the first place entry at last year's North American International Motorcycle Show.

 

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