John Holt is a self-taught metal bender who, 13 years ago, designed and built suits of armor that were sold at Sotheby’s auction house in New York City. He also makes custom metal parts, including weights for tractors and decorative items for tables. So why would Holt want to create the Bone Bike, which tops a rider out at 90 miles an hour on an aluminum seat that (mercifully) has springs but that doesn’t contain padding?

“I wanted something different”, he said.

The virtually all-handmade bike he built in the basement shop of his Boone County, Illinois, home looks like a human skeleton, but bigger. It would be 9 feet, 2 inches tall if it stood erect. The skeleton has a giant skull in front with one headlight in each eye socket, and 32 teeth in its awesome jaws. Unbelievably, this is the first motorcycle that Holt’s built. It took him all of 22 months to do so, fashioning it after a plastic model of a skeleton he bought at a hobby shop.

A tombstone on the front of the "Bone Bike" a tentative name, holds hydraulic fluid that flows through tubes in the removable spine. The fork on the motorcycle that holds the front wheel are the skeleton's arms. The bike is practically all sheet metal, finished with a clear coat. And, although the seat isn’t padded, Holt rode it to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota in August 2006, where he won third place in a “Rat's Hole” competition.

Now that the bike is complete, he's showing it off (currently at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles).

But, will he sell it? Maybe…

If Jay Leno catches a drift of these bare bones at a hefty price.

 

hot..........................

 

... so you're literally on someone's ***?

 

Would look wrong when someone is riding it...but this is one of the best choppers ever. More of a showpiece than a riding bike. Headlights in the eyeballs, looks so nice.

 

IMO, one of the ugliest customs that I've seen.

 

I never thought of that, I guess it would look wierd.

I LOVE the bike though. Money not an option...Jay Leno style, I would own it, hands down!

 

I love the craftsmanship of the bike. Weird, but cool.

 

That should have been in the Ghost Rider movie!

 

Yes, better than the motorcycle used in the movie.

 

wow how could it only have gotten 3rd place. I want to see #1 and #2, that is the sickest vehicle I have ever seen!

 

I agree but definitely cool indeed

You're blocking the "exhaust" then if you're riding it

 

cool idea and well done

 

well executed. I am impressed at the accuracy physiologically as well

 

Looks very cool, but I probably won't ride on it It will look stupid !! Anyone with a pic of this bike with a person riding on it ??

 

ugh i hate bones... but then again imagine the reaction when people see you riding on this =] priceless...