Moto Movie Review: Oil In The Blood
Los Angeles, California, United States
How do you condense a seismic shift in the motorcycle industry and convey years of BikeExif and Pipeburn goodness over the span of a few hours? You make a documentary
The rise of the current custom motorcycle scene has been thoroughly documented over the last decade, however this has primarily taken the form of online writeups and magazine features. Aside from random promo videos here and there, custom machines have largely stayed off the silver screen. One man however has recently changed that, releasing the first full-length documentary centered on the custom moto scene.
Oil In The Blood
The Bikes & Those That Build Them
Dubbed, “Oil In The Blood”, the 2019 flick was produced and directed by Gareth Maxwell Roberts, and has been described by BikeExif as “The definitive movie about the custom moto scene.” Roberts — who has a string of writing, producing, and directing credits on various projects – began planning the film back in 2014, spent more than half-a-decade, interviewing just shy of 300 individuals connected to the scene across more than a dozen countries around the world.
Though the movie is clearly heavily focused on motorcycles, it wouldn’t be fair to say that they’re the true subjects of the film, as the focus here is really on the builders and those within the scene that enable it to thrive and progress. Consequently, the movie has been marketed via the slogan, “This isn’t a film about motorcycles. It’s about motorcycle people”.
The film's official poster
While filming an interview-heavy, point-and-shoot-style documentary wouldn’t seem like it’d cost an arm and a leg, expenses quickly add up, especially when you’re jet-setting around the world to capture desired interviews and events. In a recent interview, Roberts explained that, to him, the lowest point during the entire process of making the movie was running out of funding, though you’d seriously never know it from watching the damn thing. I can’t think of a single high-profile builder that didn’t appear in the new full-length moto flick.
A Who’s Who Of Customs Icons
A shortlist of those featured included Chris Hunter of BikeExif, Roland Sands, Ian Barry, Craig Rodsmith, Shinya Kimura, Max Hazan, Hugo Eccles, Paul D’Orleans, Kurt Walter, Ola Stenegard, Winston Yeh, Walt Siegl, and many, many more.
We recently came across one of the film's two-wheeled stars IRL at the Petersen
How the scene has transformed over time into what is often referred to as “The BikeExif Generation” of customs, aka, the current bespoke bike movement. The film goes through the story of motorcycle customization as it branched away from choppers and into the café racer, tracker, and scrambler-centric world we know today. Roberts’ movie touches on the financial crash of 2008 and how that impacted the movement, and more importantly shines a light on how the current scene is now driving factory trends and giving rise to entire model ranges built on the backs of customs (think BMW R nineT, Ducati Scrambler, etc).
A Film About Motorcycle People
Of course, a film about “bike people” is bound to have a whole hell of a lot of bikes in it. Over the course of the roughly hour-and-a-half-long documentary, the audience is treated to some of the most noteworthy one-off two-wheelers created over the last decade or so. We also get to know many of the names and faces behind these insta-famous scoots, with builders being interviewed on everything from technique and inspiration, to how they deal with shit-talking in comment sections.
We were lucky enough to get invited to a private screening of the film
The creation of Oil In The Blood was only possible to Roberts’ beyond extensive network of high-profile contacts in the custom moto scene, enabling the Londoner — who was a co-founder of TheBikeShedMC —to not only sit down with a who’s who of today’s best builders, but also to tag along on some seriously cool custom-moto-focused adventures, like when Roberts and his film crew follow around El Solitario Motorcycles on its “Desert Wolf” mission in Morocco.
For Moto-Fan & Non-Moto-Fan Alike
Just like a great Mark Neale racing documentary, enjoying Oil In The Blood isn’t dependant on you already being a fan or follower of the moto scene. The film educates and informs its audience on the significance of different elements of motorcycles (both custom and not), and does a superb job of answering the question, “Why do we customize motorcycles?”. (Though Winston Yeh of Rough Crafts was quick to answer that, bluntly and honestly, stating, “We like to show off”.)
El Solitario's
Our Take
Overall we really enjoyed the film, though we can’t say it’s perfect. Though we recognize how hard it is to tell such a large story that’s developed over more than a decade, the run time felt long at some points, and it seems like some parts were a little padded with funny or interesting, though ultimately superfluous scenes. Having said that, it’s impossible to deny Roberts’ ability to capture raw enthusiasm that translates onto the screen, and that’s one skill that proved invaluable during the creation of 2019’s Oil In The Blood.
Checkout the Oil In The Blood website to find an upcoming screening near you.
2019's Oil In The Blood
