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customization they are getting with the price level Rocky Balboa! In any business you come across
they are willing to pay! unscrupulous people but you gave to pick up the
pieces and move on. We don’t work on older bikes so
“Club Black #02” custom motorcycle by the much any more, but one thing I always strongly
WrenchmonkeesFull Size recommend is an engine rebuild, particularly on a
Yeh: Don’t consider the customer’s opinion to be the newly owned bike, especially if it has just had a
top priority over your own style—building a bike for restoration by an enthusiastic amateur!
a customer without your own style and taste is only
making quick money and not helping you as a Pollock: Don’t be in a hurry when designing or
builder, or your brand, grow. Most of the time you’ll drawing a blueprint. Getting 20 hubs made that are
end up hating the bike, and the customer might not slightly off, or triple clamps, or a frame design, or
be happy either. anything where you get a large quantity of parts
made, and when you
Hageman: Oh man, get deeper in you find
too many lessons to the mistake—that’s
list. All I can say is: costly. For 15-18
once you find good, years or so I was
reliable vendors, doing one-offs, so it
treat them right and didn’t matter as
be loyal. If you much—mistakes are
actually come across gonna happen, right?
a kick-ass painter, Multiply it times 20 or
powder coater or 50 and you’ll be
upholsterer— stayin’ awake at night,
remember there are but you have to come
too many out there up with a work-
that aren’t so “kick- around and keep
ass.” I’ve flushed a moving forward.
lot of money down
the toilet getting If you had to
things redone, over customize a brand
and over to get them right. new (2014/2015 spec) motorcycle—what would you
pick, and what would you do with it?
Stulberg: Picking the wrong people to work with has
always been the most expensive thing for me—I try Yeh: Rough Crafts is all about late model Harleys at
to surround myself with people that I want to this point, so this is easy, and I’m doing it right now:
emulate for the right reasons. In my experience, I a 2014 Harley-Davidson Dyna Street Bob. But a BMW
can’t lose if I trust people that have earned collective R NineT build sounds fun too. For the Dyna I’m
respect in true and genuine ways rather than those running all the trick performance suspension and
that simply appear to be so from afar, or dare I say brake packages, blending them with a ‘special ops’
‘on the internet’. If they don’t stand on their own as edgy look, while still keeping the Rough Crafts style
someone genuinely and consistently impressive in intact.
their own right, then they aren’t likely going become
amazing at anything with or without your influence. Pollock: The less complex a bike is, the more fun it is
to start modifying. So many bikes you see new
Also, if you’re looking for something crazy simple or builders start out with are 70’s air-cooled singles,
mechanical, then I’d say that communicating twins or in-line fours—they are simple mechanically
DIRECTLY what you want or feel about something is and you can get your head around them while
the ONLY way to live. I’ve learned time and time making huge upgrades or improvements. I still think
again that the more vague I am, the more that way. Though I would like to do the new Yamaha
opportunity and money I lose and the more FZ7 or the FZ9, and I think many of the current
disappointed I stand to be. sport-bikes could look really good as well if you
remove all the plastic and get back to motorcycle
Custom Ducati SportClassic motorcycle by Revival basics. That’s why I like street trackers: no B.S. to
CyclesFull Size muddy up the waters.
Rogers: In the early days we had more knocks than
