They’re one of the busiest workshops in the scene, and they’re known for wild builds, and yet somehow they manage to thrive in their downtime too. For St Petersburg’s Drive-in Workshop, that lull became the starting point for something far more playful than expected. After a run of serious projects, Leonid Skakunov found himself with time, a fresh perspective, and a chance meeting that would shape what came next. The result is ‘Mario’: a compact, pit-bike-powered and sharp-edged custom that blends raw fabrication with a sense of humour you don’t often see at this level.
The story really begins on the show circuit. At a St Petersburg exhibition, Leonid crossed paths with Ulyana Tkachenko, a very young designer whose curiosity cut through the usual small talk. She wasn’t just admiring the work, she wanted to understand it. Every weld, every bracket, every decision. A second meeting in Moscow flipped the dynamic, and suddenly it was Leonid asking the questions. Her background in industrial design, time spent studying in China, experience in video game development, and ongoing engineering studies made for an unusual mix. Plenty of theory, but not much hands-on time in the workshop.
That was about to change. Once the exhibition season wrapped, Leonid brought Ulyana into the fold with a clear brief: design and build a small-capacity motorcycle for demonstration racing. Nothing overly precious, but nothing half-baked either. They started the way all good builds do, by digging through whatever was on hand. A pile of spare parts hit the bench, sketches turned into CAD, and the first pieces of the puzzle began to take shape. Leonid focused on the frame, while Ulyana tackled a surprisingly complex component: a lower engine bracket that would also house the footpegs, brake lever and gear selector.
Then came the reality check, laser-cut parts stacked up and waiting to be welded. It’s one thing to design on a screen; it’s another to fuse metal together in the real world. Watching Ulyana’s progress at the torch became part of the build itself. Each pass cleaner than the last, each joint more confident. The stainless-steel frame came together piece by piece, and before long, they were moving on to the front end, diving back into CAD to develop a distinctive banana-style fork, along with custom mounts for the upper shock and handlebars.
Back in the workshop, the growing pile of fabricated parts finally started to resemble a motorcycle. Momentum picked up when fellow builder Vitaly Balamutti stepped in with a set of Brembo wheels lifted from old Ducatis. By some stroke of luck, the dimensions were just right. Leonid adapted the bearings to suit their axles, while Ulyana continued refining the details, modelling brake discs, caliper brackets and a rear sprocket that all tied neatly into the evolving design.
Somewhere along the way, the tone shifted. Looking at the network of tubes and brackets, Leonid couldn’t help but notice a resemblance to a neatly arranged plumbing system. That observation sparked an idea that could have easily derailed the whole project, but instead gave it its identity. If it looked like plumbing, why not lean into it? And who are the most famous plumbers in the world? Mario and Luigi. The name stuck instantly. Decorative elements followed, with Leonid sketching playful details into key components, and Ulyana echoing the theme through her footpeg design. It meant retracing a few steps, but the payoff was worth it.
From there, things came together quickly. An aluminium fuel tank was fabricated in just two days, while a long-forgotten scooter handlebar, sitting on the shelf for over a decade, finally found its purpose. Leonid split it down the middle and reworked it to suit the bike’s layout, giving the controls a compact, purposeful feel. ISR brake and clutch levers added a final touch of character, their industrial look fitting neatly into the tongue-in-cheek “toolkit” aesthetic.
The final stage was all about refinement. The bike was stripped back down, polished, and reassembled with a sharp eye for detail. Subtle signature colours were added to the wheels, the Chinese single-cylinder engine was completely pimped out, and a rotary ignition system completed the package.
By the time ‘Mario’ rolled out under the lights at the 2026 Custom Tuning Show in Moscow, it had evolved from a simple training exercise into something far more complete, a collaboration that bridged experience and experimentation. The judges clearly saw it too, awarding the bike the ‘Kick Starter’ prize for Discovery of the Year. Not bad for a project that started with a box of spare parts, a new friendship with a young upstart and a joke about plumbing.
[ Drive-in Workshop | Images by Dmitry Media ]