It's that time of year again when all of the biker events start filling up every weekend on the calendar. Some of these are great events and have a long and great heritage in the biker community. Others unfortunately really are just money makers for the promoters putting them on. Laconia, Sturgis, Daytona Bike Week, Hollister and Myrtle Beach are some of those long time events. I'm not saying all of those aren't promoter oriented and I'm also not saying all of the others aren't great events either but let's face it, a lot of them are just money makers.
Laughlin, Street Vibrations and Vegas Bike Week are a few good examples of this. Their sole purpose really is to lure you to their event and get you to spend your money. In the old days the events were started because their was some sort of other event going, usually racing. Sturgis, Hollister, Laconia and Daytona Bike Week were all sprouted from racing events. Some like Hollister no longer have racing and the others have taken on a life of their own where racing really isn't the focal point of the event but at least there are other things to do besides just bake in the sun while shopping for your next chrome bolt on do-dad.
To me the best events are those that have some other things to do and go see besides just shopping at the vendor areas. Being a vendor/display person one would think I'd be all about vendors and displays but to me those events with nothing else to do will eventually run their course and attendance will suffer as the economy and boredom take their toll.
Hollister is a good example of an event that really would flourish if there was something else to do besides fight downtown traffic and shop at the vendors. I've been one that has said this over and over again but so far nothing has really been done. Even if there is some nice scenery to ride though most of these events would benefit. Let's face it, how many times can you ride through the same barren scenery to get to and from an event before it starts to wear on ya?
I used to do a lot of major and regional events but between the extreme high cost for trailer space to display, the high cost of hotel rooms and the time away from my family it really started to become a huge drag. I actually took a few years off and didn't do any events at all. The past couple of years have seen me start to do more events though. I'm still only doing a few here and there and those are regional ones but those are probably events that have caught my eye and make sense for me to do. Some I'd like to do again and some I'll probably never go back to. Some I miss doing like Daytona, Biketoberfest, and Sturgis.
Most of these promoter events have become really expensive for vendors to attend and the trailer space alone has become really expensive. I'd like to see others besides the promoters get rich on these deals for a change too.
Next time you're at an event remember to support your vendors, they've probably put out some serious cash to be there.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
CUSTOM BIKE INDUSTRY AND INTEGRITY
Today I'm going to post some information about the latest news in the custom motorcycle industry and the integrity of our peers.
BIG BEAR CHOPPERS
Last month it became public knowledge that Big Bear Choppers (BBC) was going to have to issue a safety recall for a number of their models with regards to bad frame welds. This is obviously a huge issue since the frame is the foundation for the entire motorcycle. The internet has been buzzing about this issue with posts on numerous forums about how they planned to fix this problem for their customers that have motorcycles on the road and could be in danger of serious injury or even death. Their proposed solution and repair has now been published by NHTSA. At this moment I am unclear if it has been approved but I'm assuming it has been. In my opinion it's not an ideal solution from the customer's standpoint. It leaves their frame with a patch job done, the work is done without using a frame jig and the customer is supposed to be okay with their frame being painted as a "patch" job to their finish. Most people I know use powdercoating for their frame finishes and this can't be patched the way BBC is describing. I even know of a few people that have gone to the expense of chroming or nickel plating their frame. What's that customer supposed to do with a frame with the plating ground off for the repair?
From BBC's standpoint I can see how this is viable. It's tons of money cheaper than replacing all of these frames so I'm sure they feel they're fulfilling their obligations to their customers that have supported their company with their hard earned dollars. Personally I couldn't do this.
BBC marketed themselves as being a top notch custom motorcycle manufacturer using high quality parts and their prices reflected this. Somewhere along the line they decided to start making their frames inhouse. I'm sure in the long run it makes sense financially to do so. So they lowered their cost per bike by doing this but it also looks like they lowered the quality of the parts by doing the work inhouse. Did they lower their pricing when they started using lower quality parts? Nope. Personally I use a frame made by only the best frame makers I know of. Sure, I could hire a local welding shop to make my frames and lower my cost per bike by a lot but I also know the people I buy frames from have done a lot of research and only offer the best parts possible. To date we have had no frame problems.
I guess to me this sort of smacks of doing the bare minimum to pull your ass out of the fire. Anyone who knows me knows I'm not a fan of BBC and I'll be honest when I say I wasn't shocked to hear they're having a safety recall. Hopefully BBC feels they're doing the right thing with their fix, from what I've seen most of their customers don't.
To see the entire filing for the recall go here: http://nhthqnwws111.odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/acms/docservlet/Artemis/Public/Recalls/2008/V/RCDNN-08V129-1984.pdf
MORE ON INTEGRITY
Recently I posted a page on my web site about integrity and how I feel it has been thrown under the bus in our industry. When I started in this business I was impressed by how many people worked with a handshake as a contract and most people lived up to their word. I've always tried to do this and at the time felt our industry was one of the few that seemed to have high amounts of personal integrity involved. Some of the people I found with these same traits were Mike Corbin of Corbin seat fame, Duncan Keller of Yankee Engineuity, Mike Chase of Mike Chase photography, Keith R. Ball and Scott McCool both with Easyriders magazine at the time, Harold Pontarelli of HD Performance and Arlen Ness.
Over the past several years I've noticed the level of integrity seems to have dropped as the desire to make more money seems to have risen accordingly. I've been an eye witness to this with people like Big Mike of BMC basically ripping off a company he was partners in, American Eagle and starting BMC. Along the way he also copied frames by Daytec and went so far as to rip off the ideas of my personal friend Duncan Keller and copied his proprietary motor mounts, gauge mounts, coil mounts and coil covers. I had already seen other larger companies doing this with his parts, Pro-One was the first I believe and now Midwest Motorcycle parts has done the same thing. While I always thought those people were pretty low minded by doing this they didn't take the actual part made by someone else and put their name to it. Until recently I hadn't seen that done, remember I said until recently.
In October 2007 we were at the Grand National Motorcycle show at the Cow Palace. I happened to notice a bike entered in the show that looked amazingly like a bike I had built for a client a few months earlier. As I looked closer I realized it was indeed the same bike. It had a different set of handlebars, a front fender mounted to it and a new seat but other than those parts it was basically the same bike. The thing that really caught my eye was another shop had it posted that they had built the bike. Funny but I don't remember them being there when I designed the bike and did all the work to create the motorcycle. I wasn't happy about this but I wasn't going to really make anything more out of it unless I happened to see the owner of the bike. Had that happened I would have had something to say to him. A few months later my painter calls me and tells me to look at the current issue of Easyriders magazine. I was really shocked to see this other shop had the balls to get the bike featured in a national magazine with their name as the builders and creators. This is the epitome of plagiarism. The shop's name is U.S. Kustoms from Concord California. These jerk offs swapped a few parts and are calling it their creation. They even had the balls to steal the name we gave the bike, Rootbeer Float. I guess I'm from the Old School of Bikers because to me this offense would warrant some serious retribution. I think they're just about as low as a shop can be. It's one thing to "borrow" other people's ideas but to actually put your name on another person's work is just fucking scum bag material to me. Since posting my web page we have also sent out press releases to all of our media contacts informing them of how this low life shop operates. Not too much later I received an e-mail from U.S. Kustoms. They were apologetic and mentioned they thought it was more of a collaboration. Bullshit, it was nothing of the sort, it was plagiarism and they know it. Looking at their web site it looks like that's about all they do anyway. I'm not apologizing for calling them as I see them and it wasn't a collaboration. People like these jerk offs need to be run out of our industry. We have enough to deal with having to compete against cyber only "shops" selling parts at cut rate prices because they don't have a brick and mortar shop to support without having to worry about other shops ripping off our work and calling it theirs. I give U.S. Kustoms the big middle finger salute.
Unfortunately this type of behavior seems to be more prevalent lately, I think a lot of it has to do with people getting into this business that really don't belong. They've watched TV and figure they can do what they see these other guys doing and making money doing it. In most cases these people fail for various reasons and with a vastly shifting motorcycle market we're seeing more and more of these people disappearing. Maybe someday our industry will be back to where it once was. I hope so.
BIG BEAR CHOPPERS
Last month it became public knowledge that Big Bear Choppers (BBC) was going to have to issue a safety recall for a number of their models with regards to bad frame welds. This is obviously a huge issue since the frame is the foundation for the entire motorcycle. The internet has been buzzing about this issue with posts on numerous forums about how they planned to fix this problem for their customers that have motorcycles on the road and could be in danger of serious injury or even death. Their proposed solution and repair has now been published by NHTSA. At this moment I am unclear if it has been approved but I'm assuming it has been. In my opinion it's not an ideal solution from the customer's standpoint. It leaves their frame with a patch job done, the work is done without using a frame jig and the customer is supposed to be okay with their frame being painted as a "patch" job to their finish. Most people I know use powdercoating for their frame finishes and this can't be patched the way BBC is describing. I even know of a few people that have gone to the expense of chroming or nickel plating their frame. What's that customer supposed to do with a frame with the plating ground off for the repair?
From BBC's standpoint I can see how this is viable. It's tons of money cheaper than replacing all of these frames so I'm sure they feel they're fulfilling their obligations to their customers that have supported their company with their hard earned dollars. Personally I couldn't do this.
BBC marketed themselves as being a top notch custom motorcycle manufacturer using high quality parts and their prices reflected this. Somewhere along the line they decided to start making their frames inhouse. I'm sure in the long run it makes sense financially to do so. So they lowered their cost per bike by doing this but it also looks like they lowered the quality of the parts by doing the work inhouse. Did they lower their pricing when they started using lower quality parts? Nope. Personally I use a frame made by only the best frame makers I know of. Sure, I could hire a local welding shop to make my frames and lower my cost per bike by a lot but I also know the people I buy frames from have done a lot of research and only offer the best parts possible. To date we have had no frame problems.
I guess to me this sort of smacks of doing the bare minimum to pull your ass out of the fire. Anyone who knows me knows I'm not a fan of BBC and I'll be honest when I say I wasn't shocked to hear they're having a safety recall. Hopefully BBC feels they're doing the right thing with their fix, from what I've seen most of their customers don't.
To see the entire filing for the recall go here: http://nhthqnwws111.odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/acms/docservlet/Artemis/Public/Recalls/2008/V/RCDNN-08V129-1984.pdf
MORE ON INTEGRITY
Recently I posted a page on my web site about integrity and how I feel it has been thrown under the bus in our industry. When I started in this business I was impressed by how many people worked with a handshake as a contract and most people lived up to their word. I've always tried to do this and at the time felt our industry was one of the few that seemed to have high amounts of personal integrity involved. Some of the people I found with these same traits were Mike Corbin of Corbin seat fame, Duncan Keller of Yankee Engineuity, Mike Chase of Mike Chase photography, Keith R. Ball and Scott McCool both with Easyriders magazine at the time, Harold Pontarelli of HD Performance and Arlen Ness.
Over the past several years I've noticed the level of integrity seems to have dropped as the desire to make more money seems to have risen accordingly. I've been an eye witness to this with people like Big Mike of BMC basically ripping off a company he was partners in, American Eagle and starting BMC. Along the way he also copied frames by Daytec and went so far as to rip off the ideas of my personal friend Duncan Keller and copied his proprietary motor mounts, gauge mounts, coil mounts and coil covers. I had already seen other larger companies doing this with his parts, Pro-One was the first I believe and now Midwest Motorcycle parts has done the same thing. While I always thought those people were pretty low minded by doing this they didn't take the actual part made by someone else and put their name to it. Until recently I hadn't seen that done, remember I said until recently.
In October 2007 we were at the Grand National Motorcycle show at the Cow Palace. I happened to notice a bike entered in the show that looked amazingly like a bike I had built for a client a few months earlier. As I looked closer I realized it was indeed the same bike. It had a different set of handlebars, a front fender mounted to it and a new seat but other than those parts it was basically the same bike. The thing that really caught my eye was another shop had it posted that they had built the bike. Funny but I don't remember them being there when I designed the bike and did all the work to create the motorcycle. I wasn't happy about this but I wasn't going to really make anything more out of it unless I happened to see the owner of the bike. Had that happened I would have had something to say to him. A few months later my painter calls me and tells me to look at the current issue of Easyriders magazine. I was really shocked to see this other shop had the balls to get the bike featured in a national magazine with their name as the builders and creators. This is the epitome of plagiarism. The shop's name is U.S. Kustoms from Concord California. These jerk offs swapped a few parts and are calling it their creation. They even had the balls to steal the name we gave the bike, Rootbeer Float. I guess I'm from the Old School of Bikers because to me this offense would warrant some serious retribution. I think they're just about as low as a shop can be. It's one thing to "borrow" other people's ideas but to actually put your name on another person's work is just fucking scum bag material to me. Since posting my web page we have also sent out press releases to all of our media contacts informing them of how this low life shop operates. Not too much later I received an e-mail from U.S. Kustoms. They were apologetic and mentioned they thought it was more of a collaboration. Bullshit, it was nothing of the sort, it was plagiarism and they know it. Looking at their web site it looks like that's about all they do anyway. I'm not apologizing for calling them as I see them and it wasn't a collaboration. People like these jerk offs need to be run out of our industry. We have enough to deal with having to compete against cyber only "shops" selling parts at cut rate prices because they don't have a brick and mortar shop to support without having to worry about other shops ripping off our work and calling it theirs. I give U.S. Kustoms the big middle finger salute.
Unfortunately this type of behavior seems to be more prevalent lately, I think a lot of it has to do with people getting into this business that really don't belong. They've watched TV and figure they can do what they see these other guys doing and making money doing it. In most cases these people fail for various reasons and with a vastly shifting motorcycle market we're seeing more and more of these people disappearing. Maybe someday our industry will be back to where it once was. I hope so.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
RED FRIDAYS
Anyone that knows me knows I'm a huge supporter of our troops. That doesn't mean I support the war, I simply believe we need to suport our troops in any way we can. Last November California Customs sent a box of t-shirts to our troops for them to have something from home. Our web site has a section devoted to our troops and we offer discounts to all military personnel as well as police and fire personnel.
Last year we also tried to put together a USO tour with several custom bike builders to go over and do a handshake tour in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unfortunately the military powers didn't think we were important enough to send so we missed out on being able to meet our troops in person.
In an effort to do whatever small thing we can to show our support we have been promoting Red Fridays. This was actually something I read about on Curt Schilling's blog, 38pitches.com. The deal is this, every Friday we all wear something red to show our support. This isn't flag waving or loud protesting, just a silent vigile to show how we at home support the young men and women that have put themselves in harm's way to protect our way of life. My hope is that soon we'll see a sea of red every Friday until our troops are home. This doesn't mean you have to agree with or support the war, Americans need to start realizing there is a difference between supporting the war and supporting our troops.
So if you care about our troops and showing your support for them wear something red next Friday, if not then feel free to live free in our country and not show your support. That's the nice thing about living in a free society, you can do as you wish.
Last year we also tried to put together a USO tour with several custom bike builders to go over and do a handshake tour in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unfortunately the military powers didn't think we were important enough to send so we missed out on being able to meet our troops in person.
In an effort to do whatever small thing we can to show our support we have been promoting Red Fridays. This was actually something I read about on Curt Schilling's blog, 38pitches.com. The deal is this, every Friday we all wear something red to show our support. This isn't flag waving or loud protesting, just a silent vigile to show how we at home support the young men and women that have put themselves in harm's way to protect our way of life. My hope is that soon we'll see a sea of red every Friday until our troops are home. This doesn't mean you have to agree with or support the war, Americans need to start realizing there is a difference between supporting the war and supporting our troops.
So if you care about our troops and showing your support for them wear something red next Friday, if not then feel free to live free in our country and not show your support. That's the nice thing about living in a free society, you can do as you wish.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Welcome
Welcome to the first edition of the Bobfather Blog. If you're into custom motorcycles, especially Bobbers and Old School style bikes then I'm probably one of your bretheren. I build custom bikes at my shop, California Customs. I've been told I should be a blogger, mostly because I'm so opinionated on so many subjects, not just custom bikes. I've actually been a blogger for a long time by posting my rants on my web site over the past 12 years.
In my blog I'll try to post info and news relating to the custom bike world and I'll probably throw in some rants about other subjects, politics, support for our troops, sports and numerous other subjects as they pop up.
Jump in where you can and hold on.
In my blog I'll try to post info and news relating to the custom bike world and I'll probably throw in some rants about other subjects, politics, support for our troops, sports and numerous other subjects as they pop up.
Jump in where you can and hold on.
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