Issue #255 Survival of the Wildest
Written by John Molony   
Tuesday, 06 October 2009
We went a little wild with this issue. The Wild Bunch referenced on the cover is a collection of custom bikes brought together for our “Dog” days of summer issue. They represent a great cross-section of the industry.
There’s Big Dog, which has been in business for 15 years and is one of the major established players on the production custom scene. We have OCC Motorcycles, a company trying to establish an identity independent of the television show and Teutel family drama.
Also inside is a custom from Barnes Harley-Davidson, a one-off, or likely a custom order, hotrod based on a stock Harley-Davidson platform.
Look for the high-end customs from within the Harley factory, the 2010 CVO line-up. It is an elite and expensive group that comprises our 2009 Wild Bunch. The name is a tribute to one of John Campbell’s favourite movies of the same title, the 1969 Sam Peckinpah western. Anyone familiar with Peckinpah’s work knows it usually involves a lot of mayhem of the unpleasant variety. The Wild Bunch on our hands might appear to be a group of motorcycles that would ride into town and stir up trouble. However, the most trouble they cause is traffic jams, excitement and perhaps a little envy.
It was a lot of fun to have the opportunity to ride these bikes and one of the reasons is that they always brought out a comment in people. To a person, everyone likes them, or at least all the people who voiced their opinions seemed to—though there may have been a few silent curmudgeons. It’s an odd dichotomy. The chopper theoretically represents an independent and, to many, a rebellious spirit. Yet for every guy in his 40s or 50s who came to take a serious critical look at the design and components, there was bound to be a mother or father with a son and daughter in tow wanting to show their children the “pretty bikes.” Perhaps it was because there aren’t any tortured souls with snakes sliding through their eye sockets in any of the paint schemes that the bikes appealed to the family element. They brought smiles to the faces of all.
I don’t think we could have spread more cheer nor received more thumbs up across the country had we been driving the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile
All the above manufacturers would acknowledge that times are tough in the custom bike business, particularly south of the border. A custom bike is the ultimate motorcycle toy, and in this economy toys are the first items to be cut. But the challenges are going to be temporary as the strongest companies with the best products are going to survive.
Some have suggested that the huge popularity of customs bikes is a trend fueled by television and media exposure. This is true to some degree. There was a time you couldn’t turn on the TV without seeing someone banging out a custom bike. That level of television exposure has begun to fade. Even the Teutels have to acknowledge that American Choppers, unlike Gunsmoke or The Simpsons, isn’t going to run 20 years—if you are building custom bikes for the “stars” of John and Kate Plus 8 you have to realize the end must be coming.
That being said, the popularity of custom bikes among the riding and non-riding public doesn’t seem to be waning. When the opportunity arises to see one of these extreme bikes up close, very few give it a pass.
Certainly, trends will change. The traditional chopper with a long raked front end seems less in favour now than the Pro-Street bikes. At Big Dog, for example, there are five Pro-Street bikes, as opposed to choppers, in the lineup. But one effect of saturation in the custom bike business is that companies have been forced to expand their horizons in terms of styling. On offer now are increasingly varied, and higher quality, paint finishes, and motor choices. The products continue to improve and that, along with the eternal questing of the independent spirit, will keep custom bikes on the road.
Ride on custom chopper, ride on.
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