LA Calendar Motorcycle Show spokesmodel "Rockin' Robin" Cunningham shot with the then nearly completed "Rapture" on Monday just 4 days before the 2005 Bike Show Weekend where Rapture would go on to take Best of Show.

Dreamcraft "Rapture"
Best of Show 2005 LA Calendar Motorcycle Show
by Jim Gianatsis

The winning Performance Machine Best of Show bike at our 2005 LA Calendar Motorcycle Show went to Larry Nagel and Paul Yang, partners at Dreamcraft Cycles with their newest creation "Rapture" which was built on schedule to make its world premier at our Calendar Bike Show. Rapture showcases the strong design elements of Paul's Art Center College of Design styling, and Larry's race car engineering design background.

The focal point of Rapture is the 1-piece billet aluminum frame which is certainly an industry first. The frame took a full 2 days on a CAD CAM machine to cut from a 900 pound block of solid aluminum. Incredible! More original design elements abound throughout the bike with one-off components like the quad-tube front forks, twin pannier aluminum fuel tanks above the forks, the unique disc wheels, and an exhaust system which flows into the underside and out through the right side tubes of the aluminum swingarm.

Larry Nagel's race car background shows itself in the high performance front forks, and the multi-link rear suspension linkage employing twin coil over race car shocks. Right now Dreamcraft spends much of its time designing exotic bikes and other machinery for Hollywood movies, but if and when they get around to producing some of their exotic components for the custom bike market, we're sure they will continue to set the industry on its head as they continue to think, design and build out of the box.

I photographed the Best of Show inner winner for the 2007 Iron & Lace Calendar with Calendar Angel and Miss Texas, Miss Hawaiian Tropic International, Miss Harley-Davidson and 2005 Bike Show hostess "Rockin' Robin" Cunningham.

 



Zero Retro Hot Rod

Best of Show 2004 Los Angeles Calendar Motorcycle Show

Jim Gianatsis photographed the Dreamcraft Rapture bike for the FastDates.com Iron & Lace Calendar and Website in July 2005 with Calendar Angel, actress and model Robin Cunningham.

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Dreamcraft Studios
One day during the summer of 2002, designer Paul Young found himself visiting his friend at his alma mater, the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena California (The Art Center is responsible for having produced half of all the current auto designers in the world). The fresh smell of fiberglass and modeling clay caused Paul to begin reminiscing about the good 'ole days when he noticed the school bulletin board and decided to stop and see what's been happening. After a few seconds of scanning through roommates wanted and such, he cam across an ad that read, "Wanted: designer to help design a concept motorcycle, call Larry Nagel:.

Larry Nagel had been building race cars and show vehicles, as well as restoring exotic cars for over 3 decades. His list of cars, and inventions include the amazing 'Volan' a jet powered drag car that transforms into a 40 foot tall fire breathing robot., and the world's first virtual reality gaming machine called the 'Cyber sphere.' But after almost 30 years of building cars and other inventions, Larry decided the timing was right to build some ultra exclusive, one-off concept motorcycles.

Although Paul was not a motorcycle guy, he wrote down Larry's number and called him. Larry remembers, "I talked to other designers, but one look at his portfolio blew me away. I told paul, I want you to design my next project bike"

Paul was speechless, excited, but also worried. "I've never designed a motorcycle before, " Paul countered apprehensively.

But Larry just smiled and said, "Don't worry. You just design the most outrageous bike you can imagine, and I'll figure out how to build it."

So, they set out to build a motorcycle to change the future, a partnership was formed, and Dreamcraft Studios was born.

Dreamcaft Studios
2036 East Francis Street
Ontario, CA 91761 USA
ph: 909.673.1588
www.DreamcraftStudios.com