Seibertron.com recently sat down with Will Kenefick, owner of RetroSBK, the company responsible for the Arcee (Ducati 848), Chromia (Suzki B-king), and Flareup (MV Augusta F4 - name revealed at San Diego Comic-Con) motorcycles in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

The interview doesn't reveal any new details about the film, but it gives a different perspective by Mr. Kenefick and his experience with the film.

Highlights:

How long have you been building custom bikes?

I built my first custom bike at 7 years old with the help of my father, but my first REAL custom bike was named Isabella, in 1996. She was a Ducati Monster 900, and won the Del Mar Concours d’elegance.

How and when were you approached about working on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen?

RetroSBK: Early in 2008, with a phone call. I spent the first five minutes of the call trying to figure out who was pulling my leg. They had seen my work in a magazine.

We know you and your team worked long hours to get the bikes finished on time. How difficult was this project compared to your usual work?

RetroSBK: These bikes are more of a styling exercise, where the normal bikes we build are much more performance oriented. Our last bike was built in 4 weeks for my television series, taking more than 400 man hours to complete. The unique thing for me was these really were the first bikes with such unreal paint, and so much graphic detail. Our painter, Chris Wood, from AirTrix came up with new techniques just to do these bikes.

Were you disappointed by the little amount of screen time your motorcycles had in the movie?

RetroSBK: Actually, I was quite happy with it. Knowing where the movie was shot, and where it takes place, the bikes play a pivotal role in the opening sequence, and have the most beautiful shot in the entire movie, the dolly around the newly introduced characters. That shot really showed just how beautiful the bikes came out. Motorcycles don’t go to well on the desert sand, so I knew the time would be limited, but there is always TF3!

We heard Michael Bay say he wanted to kill-off the bike characters because he didn't like them - how did that make you feel?

RetroSBK: I thought it was awesome! I knew how much he liked the bikes, he really went out of his way to tell me how pleased he was with the bikes in person, so I knew he was doing his thing about keeping the fans on their toes.

I got to hang our with Bay, under his canopy in Bethlehem, and it was a great experience. He actually inspired me to direct, and produce, both of which I have started to do in film and television. Despite his reputation, he is a genuine guy, and a perfectionist. Bring him perfection and he is thrilled, anything less doesn’t meet with his approval, and you suffer the wrath of Bay!

We've seen plenty of the other new Transformers vehicles (Trax, Beat, Volt, Stingray concept) in car shows and photo ops leading up the film's release - but we never saw the bikes anywhere, why is that?

RetroSBK: We worked VERY hard to keep it that way. The ONLY thing that wasn’t leaked in the movie, the ONLY real surprise was Arcee. It was great! In that part of it, reading the forums, and the speculation about the bikes and some of the plot lines about them was awesome, I loved it. The best part was the huge amount of mis-information that was out there about the bikes. Honestly, they generated such an enormous amount of press pre-release that it made it really hard to hide.

We are dedicated to being to be the best resource for all your Transformers news and reviews every day. Keep your browser dialed to Tformers.com for updates as they happen.