| Motorcycles and Twowheelers: Motorcycle hobby and interest - "So you want to be a custom bike builder? Start with a motorcycle kit!" Wednesday, 20 August, 2008 | Home | Suggest a Link |
Formula 1 Fantasy LeagueThe step from reading about building motorcycle kits and watching bike builds on television to the real thing is a little more difficult than it looks…
So you want to be a custom bike builder? Well, friend, before you rush out and buy that motorcycle kit, the one that will set you on the road to riches and fame, stop and think about the level of expertise and artistry the top builders have attained. More importantly think about how long it has taken them to attain it! Let’s look at a few key issues…
You’d be surprised how well educated a lot of today’s top bike builders are. Several of them have degrees (some more than one!) ranging from mechanical engineering to business and marketing management. Billy Lane, the founder of Chopper Inc, has several patents relating to motorcycle technology in his name for example. What about someone a little more “old school” like Dave Perewitz? Dave has accumulated close to forty years of mechanical, metalworking and painting experience. Not theoretical, but genuine hands on, early morning late night kind of experience. Could you put that kind of time in? Matt Hotch is still only young, but has gained an incredible amount of practical experience customizing first bicycles, then VW’s before moving on to custom bike building.
These guys are building choppers and custom bikes that are state of the art. They don’t get thrown together in the yard; the motorcycle shops have all the tools and equipment required to produce almost anything out of metal, not just bikes. Just as important are the other services these builders use; the local chrome platers, machinists, painters and so on. These guys have just as important a part to play in the construction of these one-off bikes as the designer builders themselves.
All the top custom bike builders live for one thing; building the best bikes they can. They literally live, eat, even dream about custom bikes (and looking at some of the more way out creations you can totally believe this, from the designs they produce!) They are constantly striving to build bikes better. Its not about money for the top guys, I am convinced of that.
So where does that leave Average Joes like you and me? Actually, I don’t think we are too badly off; in fact if you want to build a custom bike, it has probably never been easier. Here’s my take on it….
There is an unbelievable amount of information for the guys who want to start down the road to custom bike building. Videos, books, websites, all of them help to flatten the learning curve for a novice. Most of the material out there relates to motorcycle kits, and for the beginner, building a motorcycle kit is definitely the best way to go if you want to get real hands on experience. After that there are motorcycle maintenance courses, which again will allow you to get up to speed as fast as possible in your quest to become the next Arlen Ness!
To put together a shop like the ones you see on television costs thousands of dollars. But you don’t need all that stuff if you start with a motorcycle kit. Motorcycle kits can be put together with some pretty basic tools, providing they are of good quality. Two things that are an absolute must in my opinion, though, are a torque wrench and a basic lift. With these two tools, you can tighten the motorcycle kit's fittings correctly, and not break your back while you are doing it!
Well this is one area where you can match the pros, no question. If you really want to be a custom bike builder, start doing it for fun and put your motorcycle kit together.
We can’t all be Billy Lane, Eddie Trotta or Russell Mitchell, but we can have a lot of fun trying!
Motorcycle chopper kits are a growth industry. But what does that mean to you and me? Well, one thing that we know is that we will have more choppers to ogle at. There is not a single day that goes by without more and more pictures of chopper bikes that have just been finished showing up in all the motorcycle magazines. Then at the weekends, when we are on our “hot” rides, we will see four or five show finish level bikes. There are more choppers around now than there have been in the last twenty five years.
Most of these
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Mini Motos have been around in the UK for around ten years now. The first bikes were cobbled together with parts that were already available. Small 2 stroke engines, mainly from garden machinery, were used. This type of engine is still used today for a few models and is referred to as an ‘industrial’ engine. But now the mini moto has been given an overhaul and has taken off in popularity.
Mini Motos are true miniatures of their larger Superbike cousins. All of the details that go into the high performance motorcycles of today are scaled down. The slick tires, the
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With bike week just around the corner, bikers from all over the country are pulling their motorcycles out of winter storage and cleaning up their leathers in anticipation of a motorcycle rally like no other. While Daytona is definitely the place to be the week of March 5th, Florida offers some great stretches of road through pristine landscapes to some great biker destinations.
About an hour and a half north of Daytona on A1A lies the bustling beach community of Jacksonville Beach, which is where we will meet for the start of our road trip- because, well, that's where I'm
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Weeks before I'm ready to leave on a long motorcycle trip, I start getting excited. Often I get to the point where I can't think of anything else.
Unfortunately, this doesn't mean that I spend the time getting prepared for it. I usually put this off to the very end. I've learned, however, over the years that this means that my packing never matches what I will really need for the trip. Proof: last year I was in Sturgis with nothing more than a sweatshirt and leather vest riding around in 45 to 55 degree weather. DUMB MOVE.
Anyway, to
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One of the key parts of motorcycling is making your ride unique to your taste. Motorcycling is all about the shared passion and individual style. Motorcycle customization has become big business driven by this need to take a showroom stock motorcycle and "pimp" it out if you will. The demand for aftermarket parts has created a huge startup with ma and pa stores. Small time fabricators are designing custom pieces for their favorite motorcycles and offering them to the masses.
This is not to say that the major motorcycle corporations have
not taken notice. Honda offers their very popular VTX motorcycle
models in 13 different customization styles. You can mix
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