How to build motorcycles for a living

[Rudemouthsky]

When I look at the cost of some of these custom builds, especially the ones that are basically all expensive bolt on parts with little to no custom fabrication I can't understand the mindset of the customers who buy them. $30,000 can take you so sooooo far even if you only do barely any of the wrenching yourself and "contract out" the stuff you're not comfortable doing. And so much more fun than just sitting there like a human ATM machine waiting on "your" bike. Being your own contractor isn't work...it's being in charge of what your bike ends up as and most of the fun. Rich people so often lack taste and imagination it's ridiculous.

[ChrisK]

+1 I agree.

[Speedbag]

+2

One-off parts are the shit.

[memper]

I think it's the bikes that bring the attention (these are moto companies after all), but it's the "side" stuff that keep the gears greased.
I wonder what the profit is on 15k after buying parts, paying overhead, and some kind of wage? Not much I'm guessing.

[Speeddog]

Can somebody name someone who *actually* just builds custom motorcycles for a living?

I don't mean builds a few bikes to sell for cost plus 1%, so that they can then sell $50 T-shirts and such.
Or builds bikes as fodder for a TV show.

Truly just builds custom bikes only, and makes a living at it.

[brad black]

i think the scene is such that if you can build bikes that are considered "cool" and therefore worth paying for then there's going to be some buzz around you and demand for stuff like t-shirts, etc.  just the nature of it. so you sell t-shirts because everyone else in that position does

does shinya kamura sell t shirts?  or maybe he still owns zero, or part of, and that bankrolls him?

what about greg hageman?  just looked at his website, t-shirts listed, but not able to buy them there it seems.

i must say, that bolt he did looks so much better than the typical tripe yamaha served up it's amazing.  no wonder he won.  you've have to hope someone at yamaha took the result seriously.  it needs a longer rear guard, some bigger indicators, legal air filter and a legal (if it's not now) muffler.  it looks like a bike you'd find in a dealership.  everyone else made customs of varying degrees, he made a production bike.

the guy who owns dues used to own mambo, a very successful australian street/surf clothing company with strong art/fringe themes.  he knows how to sell stuff.

[ducpainter]

Can somebody name someone who *actually* just builds custom motorcycles for a living?

I don't mean builds a few bikes to sell for cost plus 1%, so that they can then sell $50 T-shirts and such.
Or builds bikes as fodder for a TV show.

Truly just builds custom bikes only, and makes a living at it.

Walt Siegl.

He'd be happy to sell you a shirt too, but building bikes is what he does.

[Speedbag]

Oh yes. 

http://www.waltsiegl.com/sort/motorcycles/

[ChrisK]

Yeah I was going to say Shinya and Siegl also.

Hageman sells fabricated parts for people wanting to do their own virago and bolt builds. That's 'on the side' but he's still doing all the work himself.

If you go to vimeo and search Born-Free there are dozens of videos they've produced that feature the builders for their annual build-off. Most of those guys seem to only do bikes for a living, granted it's a much more modest living than some of the other names we've suggested.

[HotIce]

If I would be doing it, I'd be offering two kind of builds.
On one side, build custom, one off, motorcycles, with many custom made parts, priced like these guys typically price such kind of builds (which starts well north of $30K).
On the other wise I'd have a couple of lines, where the build is more of an assembly with minor customization, more than a full build from scratch.
I believe being able to offer the latter at around $20..25K can have a market, made by people which wants nicely designed motorcycles, w/out needing (or willing to spend) the former kind of money.

[ChrisK]

That's exactly what Orange County did, or does? Not sure if they're still in business.

[HotIce]

That's exactly what Orange County did, or does? Not sure if they're still in business.

Let's not put Walt Siegl, and Deus, on one side, and OCC on the other, in the same thread  

Here're some guys which offer a different price range, and they build nice bikes:

http://www.brassballscycles.com/bbc/bikes.aspx

And another one I like, though Russell seem to only have Expensive, and More Expensive 

http://www.exilecycles.com/index.php?section=1

[duccarlos]

It's incredible how some of the guys that were featured on the Discovery Bile Build-off shows are still in business considering what they charge.

[77south]

Thanks for posting that link to Walt Siegl's bikes.  If I were in the bike building business, those cafe racers are the kind I'd like to build.    Although, I'd see how some of them look with a Rickman fairing.  Also I'd try to build a Norton commando as a hub-center steering bike with some kind of double leading shoe front brake, because reasons.

[Rudemouthsky]

I'm not surprised....people are sheep, they do what the teevee tells em to do. Same goes for all the tattooers from the reality shows...decent artwork but nothing that isn't surpassed by hundreds of other artists. They charge outrageous prices now and ppl still flock to em.