An interview with Continental’s Motorcycle Tire Ambassador: Sofi Tsingos

Daughter of an aircraft mechanic, Sofi Tsingos grew up smelling oil and rubber. Highly inspired by planes, Sofi builds motorcycles called “café racers”-lightweight, lightly powered motorcycles optimized for speed and handling rather than comfort.

Just like Continental’s careful attention to detail and commitment to quality, Sofi knows what it truly means to be a craftswomen. Turned entrepreneur, Tsingos opened her own shop GT-Moto in Plano, Texas and has since then crafted some beautiful and impressive rides. One of her latest creations has been the customization of a 2014 MV Agusta Brutale 800. This bike was donated to Sofi by MV Agusta Motorcycles for her second St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital charity fund raiser. She created a raffle in which participants all around the world could buy $25 tickets online in order to have a chance at winning the finished costumed bike.

Sofi’s costumed Brutale 800 includes various modifications, such as: costumed tail, gas tank, headlights, spoked wheels and a set of Continental’s TKC80 off-road motorcycle tires. Sofi said the hardest part about the project was creating the shape of the gas tank and making it fit around the frame and air box. She had to dismantle the entire bike in order to powder coat the frame black and take care of all the customized parts.  She is not only a certified Ducati technician, but also does all the welding, molding and painting herself. These skills came in handy when she had to cut a chunk of the sub-frame to make the bike shorter and achieve its tracker type of look. The only thing Sofi is not comfortable doing is dealing with the electric components and connections.

Tsingos always makes sure all her charity bikes are painted white. “White is the symbol of peace. It is a clear, neutral and universal color that allows the bike owners to customize the exterior to their liking”, she said when asked about the bike’s color.

It would be unfair to say that Sofi does all the work herself. As she pointed out, she is very grateful for everybody involved in the project but specially her dad and dear friend Alicia, a journalist, builder and owner of themotolady.com. Her dad has always been a big supporter and experienced craftsman, but her friend Alicia also played a major role in designing, building and attracting sponsors for the Brutale 800 build. “I couldn’t have done it without them”, Sofi said.

After a year of hard work, the bike went on to raise a record braking $25,000 for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; $10,000 more than her last fund raiser.

Always trusting Continental as her tire of choice, her bikes not only look good but handle as racy as they look as well. Her favorite Continental Tires include TKC80s for that mean off-road look, and the ContiClassicAttack, “They rock on the track and look good”, she said of the latter.

Continental is very happy to have Sofi as one of its ambassadors and reach all kinds of motorcycle enthusiasts that share the same passion. We are very proud on helping Sofi reach such a record braking fund racer and hope that we can keep braking records together. Support Sofi just like she supports Continental and follow her on Facebook and Instagram!

Until next week!

More info:

• Facebook: GTCafeForCause
• Instagram: @gt_moto

Photo credits:Alicia Mariah Elfving (themotoLady.com / www.facebook.com/motolady)