Wandering between a sea of custom motorcycles at the Handbuilt Show in Austin, Texas last month, our Stateside team had the arduous task of picking the best bikes in three categories. When it was time to dish out the award for the best paint job, this psychedelic BMW R80 was an easy choice. The story only got better when we discovered that the guy who built it, Eli Carver, is color-blind.
Based in Wimberley, Texas—a village about an hour south-east of Austin—Eli got into wrenching on BMW boxers after building his first, and only, custom Honda CB550. “I’ve built a few custom airheads over the years,” he tells us, “and had the honor of having three of them featured in the Handbuilt Show.…