46 turns 46
Valentino Rossi's Birthday Suit is up for sale...
Twice in my life I’ve lived in houses with the number 46 on the door. On both occasions my motorcycling friends complimented me on having the same number on my street as he did on his bike. “Was I fan?” they asked, “Possibly”, was usually my answer, “but not enough to put a 46 sticker on my front door”.
But now the old goat has, himself, turned 46. And he’s a well heeled 46, with a 26 year career where he won nine World Championships and made MotoGP his own. Until Marquez came along, that is, but the less said about that the better...
Nevertheless, he’s still a hero to many and a very successful business man. A business man who has a very special relationship with Dainese.
Gold leaf design on the details. Classy.
Meanwhile, the whole 46 thing is really important to him. He wouldn’t use the number 1 plate when he was champion and his dad, Graziano, raced it when he was on track back in the day. When Rossi retired and stopped racing number 46 was officially retired from MotoGP.
Now that 46 is 46 the team at Dainese and AGV, where he’s the president of the company, have put a very limited set of pieces together for uberfans. They’re all detailed with a gold leaf design.
Could you imagine scuffing the thing!
Top of the list is the Dainese Demone GP D-air 3x suit. It’s made from kangaroo leather. Combine this with an AGV Pista GP RR helmet which has that cooler than cool black and carbon base with the afore mentioned unique gold-leaf details as well as a splash of that good old fluorescent yellow.
Of course there are only 46 sets and they’re numbered, signed by the man himself and will be released throughout the year. While they’re obviously as rare as hens’ teeth the team at Bikeworld here in Dublin will have access to one. Others will be hung in museums, race circuits and one will be raffled for charity later in the year.
AGVs best yet
Prices haven’t been announced in a ‘if you have to ask then you can’t afford it’ kinda way. Give one of the team a shout and see how you get on. If you wear it to a trackday in Mondello bad things will happen to you. Very bad things indeed.