My opinion of the Custom Motorcycle industry.

At one point in time if you wanted a custom bike, you usually went out to your garage and with a welder and cutting torch you did what most saw at the time as insane, you "chopped" your stock motorcycle. Stretching the frame, lowering the back end usually with a rigid rear section, adding length to the forks, you created a true custom motorcycle. Cut to today where with enough money you can go to any state or large city in the nation and buy a ready made chopper.

I can see where some of the old school purist might have a problem with this, and I do think that the bike is not truly custom unless it has some of the owners own personal touches in it, but I also have a different take on the subject. I’ve been riding and loving these two wheeled machines for years and have always wondered why so few other people did not see things as I did. So if a person has worked hard all their life and wants to spend some of his or her money on a custom bike, why not pay someone to provide them with it?

Now not everyone is handy with a cutting torch or has the geometry skills needed to lay out a custom frame, but I also feel that so many bike shops are just taking someone else’s ideas, parts, and designs, putting them together and slapping on a flashy paint job and calling it a custom.

The Softail frame
Take for example the Softail frame. The softail frame was designed to give a stock motorcycle a custom look. By giving the bike the stance and lines of a rigid frame with the added comfort of shocks, Harley Davidson hit upon a brainstorm. It was so popular that Harley Davidson has built about half of its’ models using the softail frame. Soon the custom shops fell in line. Now it seems that almost every custom bike is not complete unless it is sitting in one of those frames. So much so that IMHO they have lost appeal that made them so popular in the first place.

If everyone decided to string Christmas lights on their homes year round, just how special would it be at Christmas? Now a days, if you see a motorcycle with a standard swing arm frame you think to yourself that it is either an antique bike, or maybe that it just looks wrong.

Please don’t take it the wrong way. I love the softail frame and think it has a place in custom bike design, but if you’re thinking about one for your next custom also think about why. It’s no longer unique by any standard, they are not as comfy (or soft) as their name implies, and if you have the back for it, and you love the lines, why not go with a rigid frame? Most of these bikes are not daily or long distance drivers any way and speaking as someone who put over 15,000 miles on their rigid framed sportster in one year, they are not as uncomfortable as their name implies either.

The mag rim
There are other items on custom bikes that seem to be highly over used. Mag rims. Personally I love, and plan on using spoke rims on my custom. Call me old fashioned or old school, but mag rims no matter how well designed take away from the overall look. Sure spoke rims involve more work, harder to clean, and true than the mag, but if you want to stand out in the crowd which seems to be what folks are looking for why not give it some thought.

The wide tire
Everyone is building bikes with wider and wider rear tires. The 250mm seems to be the standard. Now again it’s something I really love the looks of and plan on using, but to put them on your bike and have that as one of your main selling points rubs me slightly wrong. Yes it gives the bike a meaner look but don’t think by any stretch that, that is unique.

Large V-Twin engines
Back in the 70s people who wanted a custom bike took the Honda CB750 power plant and mated it with a rigid frame, and IMHO made some of the most radical bikes to hit the streets at the time. Since there was no huge aftermarket catalogs for these metric machines, when you saw one you knew it was a one of a kind (one off) hand built bike. Now it seems that you are almost thought of as less than unless you have a large cubic inch Harley style motor. S&S, Revtech, TP Engineering, Merch, etc. have produced millions of these engines and like the soft tail frame, have become highly over used.

Most of them are larger in size than the engines that once powered the VW microbus (1600cc). Is it really necessary to have that much power on two wheels? I don’t think so.

Long front ends and stretched tanks
The long front forks on today’s customs hearken back to the old rigids of the past. They make the bike un-stable in the curves, and almost impossible to turn around, but damn, don’t they look good? But like everything else it is becoming par for the course. Raking out the neck and slipping in some long front forks is really starting to be over done.

The same goes for the stretched gas tank. When frame designers started adding a couple of inches to the frame’s backbone, bike builders thought they needed to fill that space with longer tanks. One thing they fail to mention is that most of these tanks actually hold less gas than the standard tank. It is merely cosmetic.

So taking everything we’ve learned here today and I can blindly describe what you will see at most custom bike shops.

A large cubic inch V-Twin engine tucked into a softail frame with rather long front forks. Stretched fuel tanks, and mag rims with a large rear tire. I can tell you further that they will also have an open primary belt drive, bright almost over the top paint scheme, and a small black leather seat.

You think that is accurate? Go out and see for yourself. So if I can describe almost every custom bike you see today in the last paragraph, are they really that custom?

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