Customization: What Is A Custom Motorcycle?
There are a lot of definitions on what a custom motorcycle really is, what it really means. To some, it’s the outlandish extreme of the bikes you see built on television shows like American Chopper and Biker Build-off. To others, it’s that personal touch you put on your stock motorcycle that sets it apart from the rest that once looked just like it.
Somewhere in that range, every biker finds the spot for his motorcycle. Most motorcycle enthusiasts are regular people. They don’t have a cash flow that allows them to have a custom bike built for $40,000 or $80,000 or even more. Those bikes are works of art. They’re beautiful. But most are not good for much more than casual riding. She might be great to look at, but she’ll take all your money and won’t do the hard riding for you.
Customized motorcycles as most of us know them are the stock bikes we buy and then add a few things to it that makes it personal. I had a customized Harley-Davidson Road King for awhile. I sold it because it just didn’t fit me, though I loved the bike. The guy that bought it said he was tired of going to a rally, parking his black Road King, and losing it in a sea of thousands that look exactly like it. While this bike had more customizing than most of us would do, you can see how it would be easy to find in a crowd.
Over the next few weeks I’ll take a look at some customizing features. There are so many things that we can do to our bikes to make them more comfortable, more flashy, and more personal. We’ll take the parts one step at a time and you can choose the items you like. We’ll look at fabrication vs accessorized stock. We’ll consider everything from fenders to handlebars to seats to engines to transmissions to just pretty stuff. Feel free to send suggestions on manufacturers, customizers, and anything else on this topic.