Black Nightmare

A typical home-grown custom scooter will be nothing more than a fancy paint job and a few engine mods and maybe a bit of polishing. In the rest of Europe paintwork is secondary to a host of well thought out and carefully executed modifications. Time trouble and money are spent creating eye-catching details rather than simply relying on the talents of a sprayer to provide the eye candy.
Twenty-one-year-old Barrie Bone may only be a youngster, but the Belgian lad has built this show-stopping MBK Nitro - a scooter with more details to feast your eyes over than most British custom autos put together. Barrie's English is about as good as my Dutch, so bear with me because things might get lost in the translation...
Barrie started to mod his scoot pretty soon after buying it from new. The police in Belgium weren't too keen on the trick-looking tuned scooter though, and after getting pulled for the third time, he decided it was time to take the MBK off the road and really go to town on it.

The list of modifications is almost endless and the best way to appreciate them is to look at the photographs, but they include a home-made subframe and jacked-up rear end with twin Fournales shocks, which are almost hidden under the scooter. The rear end sets the style for the scooter and helps it to really stand out, like it needs any help! The bodywork has been extensively modified and includes plenty of carefully cut out sections filled with mesh; even areas like the rear mudguard have been treated and you'll see the Malossi logo if you look closely.



The engine has also had some extensive work, including (among many other goodies) a 2F4R kit, V Force reed block, Malossi va rial or, clutch and gearing, Koso carb and, of course, that cheeky little nitrous oxide kit which pokes from the centre of the floorboards to let you know that this ain't no ordinary ped. The engine hasn't been fully run in yet so we can't give you any top speeds, but suffice to say it will go just as good as it looks! The brakes and discs have been modified, as you'd expect on a scooter with the potential to hit some pretty decent speeds, the floating discs are 220mm with beefy callipers to suit.
The paintwork is just as stunning as the rest of the scooter, but is understated enough so that it doesn't detract from the clever little touches that make this particular MBK look so damn sexy. Perhaps it's about time us Brits started customising other models of scooter instead of the monotonous Dragsters and Runners.
The scooter is finished off with black chameleon effect paint that changes colour in the right light and gives the scooter a purple, green or blue appearance and reflects in the well-polished metalwork. In my opinion, it's as near to perfection as you can get. You can't argue with the fact that Barrie has created something very special with 'Black Nightmare', as he calls the scooter. His skills seem endless and I'm sure this won't be the last scooter he creates; hopefully he'll let us know when his next machine is ready.