What makes it Custom?

[RetroSBK]

HB, It wasnt started in defense or otherwise.. It was a question.. I don't often have a lot of time to play around on the net. My bikes aren't posted here for your approval rating, the backlog of work at Retro tells me I have plenty. Never said I was better than you, tragic if you take things that way. Glad you like my bikes tho, come ride one sometime.

I haven't built a bike this inexpensive before, so its a new area for me.

What this thread HAS done is told me a bit about what people think about custom and how it plays. My clients come to me either with an idea or with a budget... I always pretty much figured that I was a custom bike builder. Maybe Im a custom bike builder that modifies bikes too..

Thank you to all that have posted an opinion. It still blows me away that some people think that having an opinion differing from theirs requires defense (or offense), but thats what makes the internet fun.


Cool - Like I said, thats easy.. You cant BUY it, you just HAVE it...

McQueen = Cool
Sinatra = Cool
Dean = Cool

[junior varsity]

There's a guy nearby me that "tricks out" Ducatis - primarily superbikes.


He simply bolts on various performance parts, changes the paint slightly, and viola - "custom" bike. But I could do that too, so I'm not really impressed or in aww that somebody is willing to pay him to do it. Cool that he can take lazy people's money, but pulling things apart to have them powdercoated... yawn-a-thon.

There are a few elements to the bikes that are eye catching - perhaps a different, unexpected swingarm. Tasteful paint.

But, it doesn't wow me.

There was a shop in another city, not too far from here, that did this and sold the bikes quite marked up. With bad paint. I wouldn't boo at them in person, but I'd never have an envy-attack over the owner of one of their creations.





To me, Stuart Rust's latest Triumph, which was just built purely for fun, that's custom. Taking a Ducati engine and making your own frame, doing something wild, like Radical Ducati - to me, that's custom. Pierobon framed F042's, out of the box, yet custom to me.

I've got the clutch bolt-ons, and sprocket covers, etc. None of that is custom to me, its just adornments. There comes a point, however, when things change. When the bike has a good theme of "adornments" in such a volume that its more than just a collection of bolt ons, that's custom.

[hbliam]

HB, It wasnt started in defense or otherwise.. It was a question.. I don't often have a lot of time to play around on the net. My bikes aren't posted here for your approval rating, the backlog of work at Retro tells me I have plenty. Never said I was better than you, tragic if you take things that way. Glad you like my bikes tho, come ride one sometime.

I didn't take specific offense. I could give two sh1ts what some guy from Camarillo thinks. (My sis lives there ) Your posts are directed at all of us. If I have to explain to you that you come off as condescending then, as you would say, "If you have to ask, you don't get it, wont get it, and cant appreciate it." Read through your posts if you care.

You certainly don't need our approval rating. I was just pointing out that it seems whenever you post up a bike you get upset with ANY negative comments. We aren't Cycle World, we know more then they do about these bikes. As such, we will be more critical then a bunch of goofs slobbering over something that relieves them from having to look at another CBRRRXX600900 whatever.

Again, I like your stuff. It's more my style then most of the modifiers/customizers/builders/whatever out there. Keep it up, keep posting up, just grow a thicker skin.

[junior varsity]

Things that wow me, typically involve going to some next level, like

machining the clutch case (cheap - you could be "different" by making the windows 'plus-signs' or something), building up the motor a bit, redesigning the radiator to be different either in location or shape, adjusting geometry for some specific goal, hiding the ugly/necessary bits like rad-tank, electronics, wires/hoses, etc.

Those are things that set a bike apart from a simple color change. I like a tasteful paint job or powdercoated bit here or there, but that's just to clean things up - that doesn't change the bike in any meaningful way. A custom is that, to me, a meaningful change. (whatever a meaningful change is).

[Duck-Stew]

   
Custom is an adjective in the English language  http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/custom

It isn't my definition, the powers that be have come up with a definition.

Wow.  Really?!?  There's such a thing as a book filled with descriptions of what words mean?!?  Damn...I wonder if Al Gore is to credit for that?  Will wonders ever cease....

[NorDog]

McQueen = Cool
Sinatra = Cool
Dean = Cool

Anyone mention?...

Lee Marvin
Sean Connery
Bogart

[foggy123]

Custom bike to me means: Handbuilt and picked major components (frame,engine etc) or modifying a bike to accept another brands motor (triton, norvil, etc). 

Customized bike to me means: Cleaning up bike (wiring, colors, etc), adding accessories (catalog or otherwise), upgrading existing parts (wheels, forks,brakes, engine)

[NorDog]

Nothing screams "custom" like a bunch of stickers and some of those red LED strips under the gas tank!

[sbrguy]

but remember some people here have made "custom" clutch covers and belt covers, by modifying or cutting the old stock ones themselves.

can this be done by anyone? of course they even showed us how with a dremel or drill press,

but that in some ways could be considered "the ultimate custom" because they are taking a stock part and modifying it themselves so that it can't be turned back to original and the process of making it is done purely by their own skill thus making it a truly "one off" piece.

[RichD]

but that in some ways could be considered "the ultimate custom" because they are taking a stock part and modifying it...

The ultimate custom would be fabricating one out of something that was never was one...

[pennyrobber]

The ultimate custom would be fabricating one out of something that was never was one...

Maybe some maple wood clutch covers are in order.

[Spidey]

Wood, you say?

[arai_speed]

Wood, you say?

That's the strangest thing I've ever seen.

[Speeddog]

That's the strangest thing I've ever seen.

Eh, you've been here longer than that. 

[RetroSBK]

Caveat - Custom is custom, but doesnt mean you SHOULD do it... lol