“Blue Baller,” a retro-styled motorcycle constructed by celebrated motorcycle builder Bill Steele took 2014 Bike of the Year honors at the Easyriders Grand National Invitational Finals held February 8-9 in Columbus, Ohio. The unique bike features a shovelhead motor, plenty of gleaming chrome and a stunning PPG silver-flake and candy-blue finish.

With Blue Baller, Steele and his team at Bill Steele’s Kustoms in Oakdale, Pennsylvania, chalked up their third win in the contest for this highly sought-after prize. This was Blue Baller’s first award. The bike was on display at the PPG SEMA exhibit last November. Steele won Bike of the Year in 2009 with “F-2” and in 2007 with “Fascinator”—two outstanding bikes in their own right, both sporting PPG paints.

“I was floored when I found out I won,” said Steele. “It was awesome. I was as excited this time as I was the first time, and I could not have done it without the entire team back at the shop.”

Well known for his creative use of parts and materials, attention to details and remarkably imaginative paint schemes, Steele stayed with his successful formula in building Blue Baller. The motorcycle was assembled with parts salvaged from other bikes. Shop metal master Josh Hart shaped the pieces while Steele and painter Phil Williams tackled the bike’s finish.

Steele uses PPG products exclusively in his work. To achieve the dazzling paint scheme he envisioned for Blue Baller, Steele used an array of PPG products.

At the same time that Blue Baller was winning at the Easyriders Grand National, another of Steele’s bikes, the “Honey Bagger”—with its one-of-a-kind gleaming gold finish—was drawing crowds at the annual V-Twin Expo in Cincinnati.