chapter · i
2011
l'atelier opens.
Walid sets up a one-man workshop in the 11th. A welder, a lift, a Suzuki GN125 and a Honda CB500, and a vow that nothing leaves the shop unless it rides better than it arrived.
Bad Winners is a design and engineering studio specializing in motorcycle accessories and electronics.
bad Winners started in a small Parisian workshop in 2011 — a couple of bikes, a welder, a stubborn refusal to ride anything that wasn't built right. Walid wanted a motorcycle that didn't exist, so he made one. Then another. Then friends started asking. Then strangers.
Fifteen years on, l'atelier still sits in Paris. The volume has grown — the discipline hasn't. Every build still leaves the shop signed and numbered. Every part we sell is one we'd bolt to our own bike.
Today Bad Winners designs, engineers and manufactures three things — custom bikes, MotoKits, and instruments. The mission has never moved: unleash the full potential of the bike you already love, without compromise.
We don't build motorcycles to follow taste — we build them so the bike you already love can finally ride the way it should. Bolt-on, ride out. No compromise.
How one welder in the 11th arrondissement became a small design and engineering studio shipping kits, parts and instruments to riders in 38 countries. Year by year.
Walid sets up a one-man workshop in the 11th. A welder, a lift, a Suzuki GN125 and a Honda CB500, and a vow that nothing leaves the shop unless it rides better than it arrived.
Build #012 — a Kawasaki W650 — leaves the workshop. The first piece of full custom build with frame fabrication and so many fabrications. "Skin Milk" was featured worldwide.
A frustrated SCR800 Ducati owner asks for "the BW look — but bolt-on". Three months later The MotoKit category — DIY, plug-and-ride, no welding — was born.
Ducati commissioned us to build two custom Scrambler flat-trackers, a race-spec 800 and a road-going 1100, both fully clad in carbon bodywork. Showcased on Ducati's official stand at Wheels & Waves, then raced in real conditions. The collaboration that sparked our first flat-track conversion kits.
F1 driver Charles Leclerc reached out to us directly on Instagram, commissioning a custom Husqvarna Vitpilen 701 inspired by his favorite build, our Yamaha Fazer "The Apex." Full carbon bodywork, Dymag carbon wheels, and an in-house-developed digital dash system. The result: 27 kg lighter and 10 hp stronger than stock.
Yamaha selected us to bring "The Disruptive" to life, the winning concept from the 2020 Yard Built competition. Custom carbon fiber bodywork, a titanium Akrapovič exhaust, and an in-house-developed digital dash, built on the XSR700 platform. The project went on to become a commercially available conversion kit.
Royal Enfield commissioned us to build a one-off custom Interceptor 650 — a collaboration that laid the groundwork for our dedicated 650 Twins MotoKit. Developed in partnership with Royal Enfield Europe.
Royal Enfield Europe commissioned us to build a full race Continental GT 650 for the Sultans of Sprint sprint series. Dubbed "Pegasus l'Étalon Noir," the bike packs an S&S Cycle 865cc big bore kit, a nitrous system, fully in-house CAD-designed carbon bodywork, and a stretched swingarm. Completed just eight hours before its debut run up the legendary Punk's Peak at Wheels & Waves.
15 years of Custom Bikes, MotoKits and Instruments — engineered under one roof, shipped worldwide. Still few selected builds a year. Still hand-signed. Still in the Paris.
Bad Winners has always been one person's project. A small crew turns the wrenches, but every build, every kit, every part is signed off by the same hand.
I started Bad Winners in 2011 with a welder, a lift and a Yamaha SR125, SR400 and a Honda CB500, I couldn't stop modifying. No co-founder, no business plan — few bikes I wanted to exist, then another. Fifteen years later the workshop is bigger, but the rule hasn't moved: every build that leaves the workshop has my hand on it.
I lead the design direction on every custom commission, the engineering on every MotoKit, and the visual identity of the brand. The people around me are extraordinary — but the call, and the responsibility, stays with me.
“I never wanted to run a factory. I wanted to build the one bike that didn't exist yet. Fifteen years in, I'm still building that bike.”
Bad Winners is not a parts catalogue, not a boutique. It's an integrated design and engineering studio. Everything we ship has rolled out of the same workshop door.
One-off motorcycles designed and engineered in the atelier. From a brief and a base bike to a signed, numbered build.
Bolt-on transformation kits — for Husqvarna 701, Royal Enfield 650, Yamaha XSR700, Triumph Thruxton 1200, Honda CB1100R, Ducati SCR800 & 1100.
Plug-and-ride. No welding.
Carbon bodywork, leather seats, CNC plates, brackets, push-buttons — the parts catalogue we use on our own builds.
The BW 701 Dashboard — a plug-and-play touchscreen instrument cluster engineered in-house. Two years of R&D, glove-friendly.
We work with manufacturers we ride, and suppliers we'd recommend with our own name on the bike. No paid placements, ever.
“The new bodywork is even more angular and futuristic than the shapes crafted by Husqvarna's design studio Kiska, and from the KTM Duke 790 headlight backwards, it's all in carbon.”
“Even though no cutting or welding was allowed on this build, it still feels like a full custom.”
“Most of the changes take place at the rear of the bike, with a 5cm shorter subframe that supports a new custom-style leather seat, mudguard, plate holder and rear light.”
“"Plug and play" bolt-on kits for the Royal Enfield Continental GT and Interceptor models developed through a collaboration between Royal Enfield and the Parisian custom house.”
“Walid doesn't attempt to reinvent the wheel with his builds but instead concentrates on quality and craftsmanship.”
“A bantamweight Thrux that's so light and sexy you'd think it just eats salad.”
We never wrote a mission statement. After fifteen years there are still only three things we won't compromise on. They are written here for the first time.
Every build, every part follows the same five-stage process — brief, qualification, design, production, delivery. Quality is a calendar, not a feeling.
We make the hard engineering invisible. If you have a torque wrench and a Sunday, you can install what we ship. No welding. No re-mapping. No surprises.
Custom build, MotoKit, dashboard — same hands, same room, same bar. We don't white-label and we don't outsource the parts we put our seal on.
Commission a one-off. Bolt on a MotoKit. Same workshop.