Moscow Harley-Davidson wins Sturgis ticket

The winning bike features a hand-made one-off steel frame with variable rake and constant trail

Orekhovo Custom Art won the Modified Harley-Davidson class

Staged at Russia's largest motorcycle expo, Motopark, held in the Crocus Expo Centre, this year's Moscow Custom & Tuning Show (April 1-3) attracted a record turnout of 41 entries spread across the widest geographical area yet.

Motopark itself maintained the same number of exhibitors as last year, this year featuring booths from Harley-Davidson and Indian Motorcycles, and attracted an increased number of visitors.

After making a huge impact on the international stage last year, as Affiliate winners Yuri Shif and Fine Custom Mechanics achieved third and ninth place respectively at the World Championship in Sturgis, Russia will have a new representative in 2011 as the Best in Show title and ticket to Sturgis was won by local authorized dealer Moscow Harley-Davidson's Aleksander 'Fitil' Fitisov.

His bike, 'V-Glide', started life as a V-Rod but now features a hand-made one-off steel frame with variable rake and constant trail. The unique steering system operates via an on-board computer and activates by four actuators with feedback. All the aluminium bodywork is also by Fitil.

Runner-up was Sergey Levsha of Night Wolves MC with 'Nazgul', a skeleton-themed radical custom with sidecar, with T&V Custom third. Winner of the Modified Harley-Davidson class was Orekhovo Custom Art.

A second builder travelling to Sturgis (without his bike) will be Oleg Skvortsov of Demons of Calm, who won MOTO Magazine's sponsored travel expenses prize for the best 'budget' bike.