Plan B Motorcycles: From the family's old Ténéré to the Eternal City Moto Show
Rome is preparing to become the capital of two-wheeled motorcycling with the Eternal City Moto Show , taking place on September 27th and 28th . This event combines passion, entertainment, and motorcycle culture, transforming the city into a true open-air stage.
InMoto will be the event's official partner and will be covering every moment, with live updates from the Show and the latest news. Among the most anticipated areas will be the Workshop Legends , the space curated by customizer Andrea "Dopz" dedicated to Café Racers, Scramblers, and Specials: an unmissable hub for those who love artisanal builds and the authentic soul of custom bikes. Here, you'll find unique motorcycles, born from the creativity and hard work of Italian workshops that have made custom a way of life. To get a taste of the event's atmosphere, we met some of the protagonists . From his father's old Ténéré to his creations for Plan B Motorcycles, Christian Moretti started out in the garage behind his house in Laveno Mombello. His art is transforming old motorcycles into asphalt-hungry creatures.
Tell us briefly about yourself for those who don't know you and how you started customizing motorcycles. "I started by chance, as often happens with things that change your life. I wanted a motorbike, but I couldn't afford one. So I thought: 'I'll take my dad's old Ténéré, fix it up a bit and make it the way I like it. I'll definitely spend less!'. Blessed naivety... I soon discovered that it wasn't like that at all. But by then it had become a challenge, and above all an obsession. I started dismantling, cutting, making mistakes, starting again . And I never stopped."
What does creating motorcycles mean for Plan B Motorcycles? For me, building motorcycles isn't the romanticism of posters with motivational quotes. It's a question of proportions. A motorcycle must look fast even when parked. If I can do that, then I've hit the mark. Everything else—comfort, fashion, gadgets—can be sacrificed. Each project starts with rules I set myself and a reference story: sometimes it's a detail taken from the world of vintage racing, other times a "ghost motorcycle," something that could have existed in a parallel universe. That story guides me and forces me to remain consistent. The final result must seem inevitable, as if that motorcycle had always been that way.
What will you show us at Eternal? I'm bringing two very different projects. The Yamaha TR-1 “Silver Arrow”: a low, clean café racer with a completely redesigned chassis and engine. It's not a souped-up bike: it's been redesigned to function better, not just to look good. And then there's the Zero FX “Blackbird”: an electric street bike. There, I wanted to experiment with the aesthetics of electric motorcycles, which in my opinion always fall victim to two extremes: either forced vintage or spaceship-like futurism. I tried to give it a contemporary language, something that makes sense today, without excuses or nostalgia.
What inspired you to design these bikes? "The Silver Arrow was born from London café racers. It's a Japanese bike disguised as an English bike, with a modified engine that gives a nod to the Vincents of the past. A mix of disciplines, as if a '59 rocker had gotten his hands on a Japanese bike from the '80s. The Blackbird, on the other hand, is inspired by emptiness. By what's missing on electric cars: no exhaust, no gearbox, no clutch. I wanted to fill that void with shapes and proportions, not with fake references to the past ."
What was the most challenging moment in creating the bikes you'll be bringing to Eternal? " On the Yamaha, without a doubt the engine part. I modified the rear cylinder head so that it could work in reverse, reversing the intake and exhaust. It wasn't technically possible to simply rotate it 180 degrees, so I had to improvise: trial and error, and solutions invented on the spot. On the Zero, however, the challenge was aesthetic: giving character to a bike without the "strong points" that define it. I had to build a new language and translate it into aluminum, without being able to hide anything under opaque paint. It was also the project in which I used 3D printing and printed or machined components the most: a mix of tradition and technology that pushed me out of my comfort zone .
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