THE RAT BIKES

Rat bikes seemed to appear in the late '70s to early '80s, before the term was even invented. The essence of a true rat bike is keeping a motorbike on the road for the maximum amount of time while spending as little as possible on it.This calls for adaptation of parts that were not designed to fit the model of bike in question. The term 'rat bike' was invented by custom motorbike magazines and retrospectively applied. Rat bikes do not have to be matte black, however the vast majority of rats seem to be so these days in what may be a cross over from survival bikes. These two kinds of "customized" motorcycles may appear similar but are a vastly different species. More recently, there has been a trend of deliberately customising bikes into rats, but this defies the organic growth into a rat bike that characterized them originally and led to their uniqueness. Bikes deliberately distressed to look like a rat bike are sometimes derisively referred to as fake rats. Currently the "rat style" is also gaining popularity in car customizing circles, though again in a somewhat misunderstood manner where vehicles are carefully decorated or modified to look worn with age. It is much like the distressing of furniture