In the ‘lifestyle’ section I’ll try to describe the world of motorcycle from my point of view, naturally a woman point of view, and probably some of you will find it a little superficial, but I can tell you that it’s absolutely instinctive and passionate. The emotional response identifying us women, sometimes makes us see the world of motorcycle, followers and supporters in a completely different way from what men are accustomed to consider and understand, maybe because they are prone to understand more technical aspects and highlight male factors, where garages and dirty hands are, and probably will be always a male thing. Up to now, to us women was reserved an aspect that is considered the most important anyway: I’m talking about using a motorcycles… but the curiosity of what goes on in the backstage bring us to find out aspects and very interesting people you absolutely need to know!
In this sector where everything go round taste and pleasure for customising motorcycles, being these precious like jewelleries, today I decided to talk about Mr Martini’s secrets. Nicola and I have known each other for some time, and with the right confidence I can say that we’ve become friends. One day in Verona while dealing with few issues, including going to visit and greet Nicola and his staff, a curious situation arose. All happened during lunch time, where I had the pleasure to know the real story of Mr Martini, from his first dreams to the present situation and the future prospect, as we have to remember that we’re never old enough to carry on dreaming! His story starts about twenty years ago when together with his father Mario they were managing a small petrol station and car wash and where after met with Mr Carlo Talamo – inspirer and creator of many situations still alive in many of us, as well as his passion for American and English motorcycles and their distribution in our country, it right there that he started to sell the first motorcycles. Talamo had great trust in Nicola and believed in his willing to make the Triumph brand a real icon in Verona. In the first year of his retail business he sold just a few examples of English motorcycles. It was that time in which he was dealing with the car-wash business and the motorcycles retailing. But already the year after that was the one of the challenge, and the numbers started to get interesting indeed. At that point Talamo asked Nicola to choose between carry on with the car-wash business or find a situation where to give life to what it has become today a reference point for the Triumph brand retailing and the customisation of their motorcycles. It would have been unpleasant to talk about the customisation only mantioning Triumph motorcycles, as Mr Martini has customised many other motorcycles brand such as Ducati, Bmw and Honda, but that are not the only bikes to be part of Nicola’s culture, as a matter of fact the chats I had with him made me understand that he is a very open-mind man and he has a lot of knowledge on the two-wheels sector. What’s more, he excels in aptitude for style, furniture and clothes, he loves to dress and dress up, the showroom that is in front of his authorized retailer, and the trade show stands that until now show us to be proof that the motorcycle is a lifestyle, but in this case it marries also with a style philosophy. At lunch time has gone so quick! When you’re listening to such beautiful stories full of unknown details, you are just trapped in an aura of passion. So after having known that his current authorised retail shop “Triumph Verona” was Verona number three, and having listened to his stories, Nicola took me to visit the inside of his retailer’s workshop, and where with kindness Fabio explained to me that it’s right there that they deal with the mechanical and engine jobs on motorcycles going out of selling and pass there again to be serviced, elaborated and customized. Then, we went through some details of his amazing showroom, as for the ones who didn’t read my previous article, I already had the pleasure to meet him and shoot some pictures of what I consider ‘the style’s shop’. And now, ladies and gentlemen here comes his workshop, or even better what I’d most define as a setting of high design and which he jealously guards. The location was open to the public just a few times and sure enough only the ones who participated to some cool parties organised in the shop, had the pleasure to see him; but surely in those occasions he wasn’t working as I had the pleasure to assist. I’d say that seeing the concern for tidiness and neatness, more than a workshop it’s a ‘design’ shop. Here I had the pleasure to meet Claudio, one of his trustworthy men under his direct and careful guide, carrying out a customisation work, and it’s right here that they manage to make each motorcycle coming out of this atelier a ‘exclusive piece’. The clients having their bike customised by Mr Martini, leave him to interpretation, and the success saw during these years are the many and various interpretations. It doesn’t matter if they are new style or old style, street or racing, on or off-road, the important thing is that they are customised by his magical inspiration. Although Nicola can sometimes look introvert and shy, he shows an natural inclination for this job. Jealousy guards his tools in what turns into the box of ideas and the place where real works of art on two wheels are created. Here we can also see one of his motorcycles, the Harley Davidson XLCR 1000 Café Racer, we also see other bikes belonging to some clients, among them there are some with the number plates from far away. But these clients are willing to invest in time and transports just to have a motorcycle customised by Mr Martini. No detail has left to chance, rather the implementation of details has become a ‘must’, the Zard exhaust pipe is an example as the Scrambler Kit. I could talk even more about Nicola but I wouldn’t like to sound too boring but, for the ones who didn’t know that, here is where the tailor made special ones come to life. Than why not try to have a little ride in a private little square with the Mr Martini equipped Triumph Scrambler, only as a taste for a next thrilling test, that might be a get together with friends all strictly on a saddle of a tessellated Triumph, ready for mud and loss of grip, but without forgetting the leather jacket and a great dose of style! See you soon guys…
| T-shirt RAUR shoponline | jeans RA-RE | belt RA-RE | boots WALKER | leather jacket SPYKE ICON | photo by ALBI |
