Steve + Leo: Ellaspede – Handcrafted Motorcycle documentary

Steve + Leo – Ellaspede : Handcrafted, Australian Motorcycle Documentary

Steve + Leo were a couple of the only guys I hadn’t met before filming Handcrafted. I had known of Ellaspede and met a few of the front of house retail and marketing guys, but the people behind the bike design I hadn’t run into as yet.

Building a good name for themselves in Brisbane for 10 years now, Ellaspede is the brain behind some great local riders events, which is why we had chose them to be involved in the motorcycle documentary project. Having the drive to put themselves as the centre of a community was a move that really intrigued me.

Although the bikes Ellaspede build aren’t the wild, and outlandish customs like a lot of our other builders. They are consistently well thought out, and carefully finished. I think because of that they appeal to a wider audience than a ridiculous and more often devisive custom machine. That speaks to their experience in design.

As we learned during the Handcrafted interview Leo + Steve met in University studying desing, and build a friendship over there love of design and interest in old motorcycles. As I understand it they started to see the growing café racer scene and decided to get involved by building a café racer between the 2 of them, and Ellaspede was born.

Ellaspede being the only motorcycle builder in our film to come from a “design first” approach, I feel they bought a new light in terms of process and creativity to the mix of custom builders in Handcrafted. With the bikes rolling out of their garage being more carefully planned, and designed. Rather than shaping organically from the mind of the builder as the process progresses.

The interview and ride with Leo + Steve proved to be a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to attending one of their events if I ever get a minute outside the garage.