A UNIQUE motorcycle maker has closed its shop to concentrate on selling online.


Battistinis custom-made motorbikes can cost more than £100,000 and one famous example is in the British Museum. Its large shop on Christchurch Road at the bottom of Pokesdown Hill in Bournemouth included a tattoo parlour and café.


Owner Cllr Mark Battistini said the firm now plans to concentrate on its core business, making and distributing specialist parts. It will only make one or two bikes a year in the higher £80,000 to £120,000 bracket.


Mr Battistini told the Echo: “The financial element is obviously tough. When I decided to move here about two years ago I imagined it would be really good to have a proper retail unit.


“But what I didn’t realise is that it would take our focus from the main business, and that’s why I decided to close the shop.


“In the long term, concentrating on the core business can only be good for us.”


He told the Echo the firm would concentrate on its important American and European markets through its centres in Los Angeles and Rome.


The firm, which is 22 years old, has seven staff in Bournemouth and it is not yet known if it will open another site.


Its famous creations included a pink motorbike for the Turner prize-winning artist Grayson Perry, which was then exhibited for his show on craftsmen at the British Museum.


The shop is a large and prominent unit and Clyde Piercy, owner of Promotors, also on Christchurch Road, said: “It’s a real shame. It was a unique shop to the area that brought in customers from all over the country. It was iconic and will be sadly missed.”


Jordan Mooney, owner of the tattooing business, said his three staff were moving back into their home office at The Gallery on Charminster Road, which will be refurbished.


He said: “I am gutted it’s closing.


“I spent a lot of time on it and it was working for us, it was getting well known, and it was the only tattoo parlour based in a motorbike workshop in the world.”