Never mind how fast they are, what really matters about this series of 10 wild custom bikes is how they look. This is one man's work for the last 30 years: if you're going to have an obsession, you might as well make it look good!

The Mortagua Fighter Series of Custom Builds

For every custom bike builder who is in the spotlight, there are many more who beaver away in their workshops without much in the way of public recognition, which seems all wrong when you see some of the creations.

Carlos Rodriguez lives in Mortagua, Portugal and, since 1995, has created ten utterly incredible custom bikes, each one more outrageous than the last.

The builds started as heavily aesthetically customised bikes, where the origin of the subject bike was still recognisable. Over the years, however, each new build has taken on a form of its own, to the point where virtually nothing of the original remains, other than the engine and perhaps some of the chassis components. Not that you'd think it, looking at them.

The latest in the series, Number 10, continues the theme of pushing the envelope to the absolute max. It looks like nothing else out there and there is the key: these are bikes to be looked at, not necessarily ridden. Yes, they can be ridden, but that is not the reason for their existence.

If mainstream motorcycle design was to head in this direction, would any of us complain? Of course, if they made it to production, then the impact would be lost: imagine riding through your local town on one of these! There's a good chance you might be eyed suspiciously, as if you'd just landed from Mars.

It's looking at bikes such as these that gives me faith that radical - but good - design is not dead: it's just been buried under years of corporate obsession with profits. Not every manufacturer is guilty: look at the Husqvarna Vitpilen and Svartpilen for evidence of that. Perhaps it's the consumer who is to blame? Maybe it's not the manufacturer that is conservative!

Whichever way you look at it, however, let's just revel in these incredible creations and hope that number 11 is not too far away.