Bobfather Blog

STUPID PEOPLE, AKA TROPHY QUEEN

2010-02-24T14:06:00.000-08:00

So just when I think I've somehow managed to run into every dumbass in this world another one pops up. The newest dumbass I've encountered owns Trophy Queen, her name is Jenny Tanner. Some may know this company, most probably not. She makes purses, wallets, etc., mostly a woman's apparel type line. Her stuff has some retro style to it and as many know I tend to like that type of styling, i.e. the Retro Rockitt, Bob Job, etc. So after checking out her stuff I thought I'd look into offering her line to our customers. I swapped e-mail with her and she said there was a minimum stocking order, not uncommon amongst smaller suppliers. The size of the order wasn't unreasonable and she seemed nice enough to deal with. She faxed me her contract and application. Her only rule was we couldn't sell at shows she planned to sell at. Now let me say right here that she would be the only supplier I'd be buying from that is in direct competition with me, something I'm not a fan of. But since she did mostly car shows and we do mostly bike shows it seemed reasonable. We sent the contract back and placed our order. I then set up pages on my web site to offer her stuff to our web customers. I also was going to offer the items at a lower price than she charges. Makes sense to lower the price and move more volume to me, sort of Business 101. I thought her prices were too high to start with and she allowed plenty of margin so why not offer better pricing to my clients? Part of my credo is offer the best price possible to our clients. Well she wasn't at all happy that I was going to sell her stuff for less than she was or that I'd be under cutting her established dealers. This rings of communism to me. It's price fixing to say the least. The whole free enterprise system is based on moving more inventory and making more sales. I do this with our S&S motors. I sell them for much lower prices than my competition which makes me sell more motors, again, Business 101. And amazingly S&S couldn't give a rat's ass how much I charge for these motors. So after I get her stuff in stock I think she should hear how things are done in the business world. Obviously she's not too bright to start with. I mean if I had a dealer and by the way we have had dealers in the past, I really don't care what he sells the product to the end user for. As long as I'm getting paid and he's moving product I'm happy. It's really none of my business how the dealer wants to run their business. It is a free country after all and we live in a country where capitalism is king. As long as she's getting her money for the product from me and I'm not mis-representing myself in anyway by using her name to sell products that aren't hers she really shouldn't care how or for how much I sell the products.
So after I send her a nicely worded e-mail explaining how my business is MY business and she doesn't really have any right to tell me how to run MY business and also mention that she is directly in competition with her dealers, bad business altogether in my book, I send her orders for more of her products. I was also in the process of placing an order to stock up for the Arlen Ness motorcycle show in April. How does she react? She sends me an e-mail cutting us out as dealers. How stupid can one person be? You have a shop selling your products in a fucked up economy and also wants more of your products so let's stop selling to them. Her business tactics baffle me. I guess she got her money from us and stuck us with the inventory so maybe that's her goal all along. I think she's stupid as the day is long and her business tactics suck big time but I guess she has the Hot Rod Kulture so baffled by her bullshit that she can stay in business by fucking over her dealers and just selling retail direct. I'm no longer a fan of hers. I hope she can keep afloat screwing people out of their hard earned money for over priced purses, well actually I don't. If she goes out of business it makes room for someone with a fucking brain to run a real business.
I've cut the shit out of my prices to move her stuff out of my shop. It's listed on craigslist at a fraction of her inflated, demanded prices. Now they're in the range where they should be to start with.
My advice to anyone thinking about taking on her line is think twice. I wouldn't sell her shit if it were the last line of apparel left on the planet.
As always,
FTF
Ride Free.

The Net

2009-09-17T14:50:00.001-07:00

So I have to say something about our society today. I think the internet has given us a whole lot of great stuff. Ways to advertise, disseminate information, e-mail, blogs like this, forums, social sites like Facebook, MySpace and chat rooms. Lots of good things have come about through our internet society. I'm glad we're living in an age where these things are possible.
But, I have one bitch about this new form of technology. Okay probably more than one bitch and I also know it's not quite so new anymore.
My bitch is this, we seem to be allowing more and more little fucking punks run their mouths on the net now. The total or semi anonymity of the net seems to make these little douchebags think it's okay to just say whatever they feel like, true or not. I'm sure you all have seen my other posts about integrity and my page on my site called Straight Talk. These pieces of shit that have no clue what it's like to run a business let alone be competitive in a field like I am seem to find ways to hide their true names and post things about others that they usually know little or nothing about. This pisses me off, more than a little. Why, you ask? Well anyone that really knows me, not just knows my name, knows that I have no problem whatsoever bringing any issue I may have with you to your face. That doesn't mean I'm confrontational, not unless you'd like me to be and you show this by your shitty attitude towards me. Then I'm more than happy to step up to that level. What it does mean is I am a grown man and behave as such. Not some snot nosed punk that goes around yapping my mouth through the net hiding behind some made up screen name.
Lately I've seen this type of behavior more and more, not always aimed at me but it's still out there. I'm a throwback, a dinosaur that still believes if you insult a man you had better do it to his face and then you had better be ready to get punched in the mouth or defend yourself. That's the way it used to be done for the youngsters in the crowd.
I guess then next worse thing in my book is those 2 faced fucks out there. They know who they are, if they don't then they're a dumb fuck 2 faced fuck. Sorry, gotta call 'em as I see 'em.

FTF
Ride Free

BEEN AWHILE..........

2009-07-17T16:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know it's been awhile since my last post. Lots of stuff going on this biz lately. Shops closing their doors, one we're especially sorry to see go is my friend Randy Simpson at Milwaukee Iron. Randy is a great guy and we wish him well. He was one of the very first builders I got to say yes to going on the USO tour we tried to get off the ground a few years back. He's a class act and this industry won't be the same without him and his great products.
BMC is looking for investors, now that's a shock. I don't know how they managed to stay afloat this long. Short on imagination and quality parts used while long on cookie cutter. Hasn't had an original idea, ever. Maybe he can try ripping off someone else's ideas in another industry and see how far he goes. Not a fan, guess you can tell.
Hollister was canceled this year. I guess the city took it in the shorts last year, are we shocked about that? I mean why in the world would you push the rally back to the weekend AFTER the 4th of July? Dumb and dumber. I can't believe these rocket scientists allowed this to happen. Last year the 4th was on a friday so it was a perfect 3 days weekend for the rally but NO, let's move it to the next weekend. I guess that's why they don't run businesses, they run a city. Dumbasses.
In Hollister's place we the Salute to America run in Tullelake, CA. I was invited to go at one point, then I looked at the map. Nope, sorry. Wasn't going to pull the trailer all the way to east bumfuck on a new event. It wasn't like this event was being held anywhere close to civilization. Guess we're still of the mindset that bikers must be off in the woods, the deeper, the better. I've seen shots of the event, looked a little quiet to me. They did have some decent music lined up for the event so that was cool.
In May we were at the Santa Maria event, Motorcycle Madness. It was a decent event. Great weather, good location. Not as many patrons as the year prior but it was also dwon to a 2 day event from the 3 days it used to be. Chica, Todd's Cycles, Cole Foster and us pretty much made up the bike builder's area. I like this event. I'd like to see more people come through the gates next year though. It's a great area for riding and pretty much less than a day's ride from both the Bay Area and SoCal.
Our next event will be the Dave Mann Chopperfest in Ventura. The date is set for Decmber 13.
Here in my shop I'm busy building a very cool project. It's somewhat of a surprise but let's just say it has a ton of one off parts and a motor that has to be seen to be believed. I may post some in progress pictures soon. Right now we're doing the pipes for the bike and then we're back to finishing up all of the mounts on the frame. This will be a feature for some magazine out there.
I was saddened to hear of the passing of Florida bike builder Brad "The Wrench" Ruel. I never got to meet Brad in person but always appreciated his work. He was much too young to leave this world. My condolescences to his friends and family.
Sturgis is around the corner. We won't be there. The cost to do these events has gotten out of hand in the past several years. The return on most events in this economy is miniscule at best so it really doesn't make sense to keep doing a huge number of them. The t-shirt and water guys make a killing while the builders spend their time answering questions about their bikes so others can "borrow" their ideas for their own bikes. Nothing like spending a ton of money to rent the space, spend days or weeks getting to the event, spending even more money to be at the event and then getting nothing out of the time and money spent. The people don't understand this, they think we're there for free somehow. Being at an event for a business costs a LOT of money people. Then think about how many times we're out for these events. I decided a few years ago that I was done doing the big huge events and now focus on the more regional events. Those people tend to have better deals on space plus they're in our home area for the most part.

Summer is here, get out and ride people.
Ride Free
FTF

INTERNATIONAL FEMALE RIDE DAY- MAY 1ST.

2009-05-01T08:24:00.000-07:00

Today is International Female Ride Day. I've always been a huge supporter of women riders and think we need to get more women out on their own bikes. To be honest most women are safer and better riders than most of these ass clown male riders I see weaving in and out of traffic every day. Don't get me wrong, I like to twist the grip too but c'mon guys, some of the shit I see you doing is just f-ing stupid. Wheelies at 85mph? Lane splitting and lane sharing at over 70mph? Both would fall into the dumb ass category to me. And what most of these dumbshits don't realize is their actions and lack of knowledge about how to ride a motorcycle properly have resulted in me being forced by law to strap a helmet to my skull every time I want to go for a ride. I don't appreciate that. Hey, if you wanna go wreck your motorcycle then do it on a race track somewhere and if you wanna skid across the pavement do it off the highway so we don't have to see it. It's called natural selection or survival of the fittest.
But I digress.
Women on bikes is the subject and it's one of my favorite subjects to be honest. I personally would like to see a whole lot more women riding their own bikes. Usually once they feel what it's like to be the pilot instead of the passenger they don't want to get on the backseat anymore. It's freedom. They can go where they want, when they want on their own terms and on their own motorcycle, nothing better. My wife rides her own bike. I've built her two bikes now and have plans for her next one already.
I'm often asked how women can get started in riding. My suggestion is to take a rider safety course. I know here in California the CHP has courses women can take to learn how to ride. They have them at numerous locations and they do a great job. If you're a woman that wants to ride your own bike, go for it. Call and sign up for the course. They provide the bikes and if you pass the course it makes it a whole lot easier to get your M1 endorsement.
Support the female riders guys, after all it is the 21st century.

FTF
Ride free.

FRIENDSHIP

2009-04-29T09:46:00.000-07:00

It's a funny thing isn't it? Friendship. Being new to things like Facebook it took me awhile to get used to people using the term "friend" when in reality most of those people barely know me. Some of my Facebook "friends" don't even know what I do for a living it seems. Others are people that I would consider friends in the more conventional sense of the word, at least my definition. To me a friend is someone that's part of your life. Share some common interests, hobbies, etc. Someone you can talk to when you need to vent or need some advice. Someone you can lean on if you need to, or can lean on you when the going gets tough. Someone that has your back so to speak. So I guess looking at the term "friend" in those terms I really have a very small circle of those types of friends.
I have some friends through my shop, people that are in my industry and we have a common bond being in the motorcycle biz. Those friends I am very loyal to and always try to help and support whenever I can. In most cases they have been my friends for a long time, some even before I actually started my first shop.
I used to think I had a lot of "friends" that were our customers too. I think I still do in some cases but I realized most of them really aren't "friends" as much as just true customers, different relationship in most cases. Those people tend to be less loyal I've found. I remember back before I started in this biz and I had some friends that owned shops. I would never even think about taking my money to anyone else, these people were my friends. Not the case anymore. Too bad. Building a relationship with your local shop guy has it's advantages. The issue is when the local shop guy realizes you're not very loyal with him, then the relationship can become tough to deal with. I mean this is how some of us feed our families, pay our car payments and mortgages so when we find out people we thought were our "friends" have been supporting our competitors in a very highly competitive business, well, it's not so good.
See to me friendship requires a few things. It needs to be a two way street. You need to be supportive and should expect the same in return from a friend. I go out of my way to help my friends. I'll make calls or send e-mail on their behalf for numerous reasons. If possible I'll do whatever I can to ease my friend's burdens. I don't keep score about how many times, when I did it or how things turned out. I do that for people dozens of times a week and I guess I expect it to go both ways. I don't ask for anything in return either, a thank you is more than sufficient for me. It's not a huge inconvenience for me to help them out.
If I had a friend say in the tattoo biz and I wanted a tattoo done. I'd never even think about going to anyone except my friend as long as he could do the work I require. Now if he happened to own a motorcycle then I'd probably be within reason to think he'd support my shop just as I had done for him. Seems my thinking is out of date anymore I guess.
Another example, if I had friend in the body shop biz and my car had been clipped or needed to be fixed. I'd support my friend before supporting anyone else's shop, right? I mean if he's a friend he'll look out for me and maybe go that extra step to make sure my car or truck or whatever is fixed properly. Makes sense to me. Maybe not to others.
I have "friends" from outside the motorcycle biz too. They come from various walks of life. Funny thing about them. One that I thought was somewhat of a close friend just reamed me because she thought I was somehow disrespecting her and trying to make her look stupid. This after she went out of her way to make a phone call on my behalf one day. First, I am a smart ass, 100%, always have been. The things she thought make her look stupid were a joke, nothing mean spirited about them at all but I guess she took them the wrong way. That or she just has no sense of humor. This person says I am mean to her and never thanked her for that phone call she made for me. Well now I have thanked her and told her we don't need to be "friends" any longer. I have better things to do with my day than get bitched at by a woman I don't have to wake up next to in the morning.
Recently someone that I never considered to be an especially close "friend" said she thought I was a good example of a friend and someone who lived his life by a certain set of ethics. I thought that was a very nice thing to say. So someone that I knew, liked and work with although I never thought noticed how I conducted my life made a difference to me. That's a friend.
If you have a true friend, let them know about it. Support them and let them support you when you need it.

FTF
Ride free.

INTEGRITY PT. 2

2009-04-26T13:24:00.000-07:00

As most of you have probably read, I am a pretty outspoken person and tend to speak my mind. One of my issues has been the lack of integrity in my industry. I think it's become a very short sighted industry where everyone is out to screw everyone else, in most cases. Not always though. I always try to support those people that I think still have high standards for quality as well as integrity. The people I buy parts from and have do work for me all fall into this category in my opinion. I'm a loyal person and wil support those that have supported me. I feel friendship and support are both two way streets so I always try to remember those that have supported me in the past. For those I feel have somehow done me wrong I do tend to hold a grudge and will remember that in kind.
This brings me to one person that I have dealt with in the past. I won't bother to give his name, he doesn't need to get any free press. He actually contacted me as a potential customer. He wanted me to do design work to build a custom bike for him. He spoke to me numerous times and seemed like he was actually serious about the project. I have started to weed out the real customers from the tire kickers so I hopefully won't be wasting my time if the project isn't really going to move forward. This person asked me to put together design ideas for what would be a very expensive, one off project. I did as he asked and spent countless hours tracking down his requests and working out designs that would actually work in the real world. Some of the items he wanted were very high dollar and in some cases we would have had to make one off pieces for the project. After doing the design work and showing him our ideas he suddenly disappeared and wasn't answering our inquiries about moving forward with the project. This happens, it doesn't make me happy to have so many hours wasted but it does happen. I've tried to minimize the times it happens but every once in awhile someone sounds serious when they really aren't.
Several months goes by and this person calls me. He wants to know if I'd be interested in joining his team for some project he has cooking. I'm not. Basically what he's done is taken my design ideas and is having someone else use them. He also plans to try for some speed record at Bonneville and since I started that idea almost two years ago he seems to have tapped into the same sponsors I have. So while this isn't plagiarsim in it's truest sense it is close to me. He's using a lot of my ideas and design ideas that he got from my spec sheet, cost to him, nothing. He's also managed to talk some really good people into donating their parts to this project when in reality it looks like he's building his personal bike. I guess if you can talk people into "sponsoring" your personal bike build then all the power to you. It does piss me off when it effects my friends though.
Yesterday this person sends me an e-mail saying he doesn't think I like him much. I don't. I don't care for people that waste my time just to get a spec sheet from me. If he wanted me to do the design work I would have but not for free. Time is money to any business owner so this guy wasted my time and money not to mention has "borrowed" my design ideas. I spoke with one of his sponsors that happens to be a good friend of mine. My friend says this person has told him he wants him to build parts for his production bikes. This guy doesn't have the capability to produce bikes nor is he really going to be building more than this one bike. Again, wasting people's time and money. The bike he wants to build isn't something that will set a speed record anyway and I'm not going to tell him where he went wrong. He can spend his own money to try and figure it out. Not sure who his builder is but he doesn't know much about speed record bikes. I hope to be there if and when he does get there to try though, it should be interesting.
Some people really don't get it.

FTF
Ride Free

NESS SHOW

2009-04-26T12:58:00.001-07:00

On April 18-19 the 3rd annual Arlen Ness show was held at the San Mateo Expo Center. This was a new venue for this show and in my opinion a better venue in most ways. It's much easier as an exhibitor to get your truck and trailer into the venue plus there was actually trailer parking available for the event. In past years there really wasn't any trailer parking and the load in and out was a nightmare to me. I did the first one and then skipped last year. I decided to give it another shot at the new venue so we had a space there. The other downside to this venue is they don't allow you to ride your bikes into the building. If I wanted to push bikes in and out of shows I'd be in the bicycle biz. It's a motorcycle show people, that means we want to or should want to ride our bikes into the building. I will say the vast majority of the bikes I saw coming in and going out of the building were never even started. Do they actually run? My guess is not very well. To me they should have to ride the bike up to the door or they can't compete. All of the hot rod shows I've ever done make you prove the bike runs and will move under it's own power. I guess the motorcycle biz has gotten to be too damn soft for that type of a show. I mean why would anyone want to build custom bikes that actually run, right? I actually watched numerous baggers being loaded onto trailers to be trailered home after this show, now that's really BS to me. No trailer queens. I guess I'm too old school for that shit. Ride the damn thing, especially a bagger.
My other issue with this show is the people that run it. It's not Arlen or the Ness family. They just license their name to the promoters of this show. The promoters are there to take your money but I never once saw anyone from the show for the rest of the weekend. They charge way too much for the patrons to come through the doors too. Over the course of this show I also realized that loud pipes are no longer the big deal anymore, it's loud stereos on these baggers. The entire weekend was peppered with bike show entrants blasting their various bike stereo systems. I'm a fan of music too but come on guys, that was bullshit. The problem here is the people trying to do business at this event like me really couldn't because we had to scream at our customers just to be heard over this noise. Did the promoters tell them to stop? Nope. They're allowing the show entrants to drown out the people that paid a lot of money for vendor booth spaces, again, bullshit people. I had to take off my bike builder's hat and put on my event security hat(I also do that as a second job by the way). I did my best to get these discourteous and rude people to shut down their loud stereos, something I shouldn't have to do as a vendor. The security company working for the venue is one of the worst in the industry so I knew they weren't gonna say anything. They were too busy telling people they couldn't bring in any outside food or beverages. Another downside to this venue. They want you to be forced to buy their over priced food and drinks, I won't even go into the quality of their food.
The attendance was barely worth being there by show's end. Most vendors I spoke with were extremely unhappy with the turnout. The people that did come in really weren't spending any money with the vendors either. They were there to see the bikes and kick tires, not buy anything. It's partly a sign of the times I guess. The economy is tough for everyone.
I will say the actual show part of this event hands out a truckload of trophies. That's probably the sole bright spot of this event to me. So now after doing this event a couple of times I'm thinking maybe I'll just enter bikes into the show to compete and save my money. It's a lot cheaper to compete in the show than buy a vendor space.

FTF
Ride Free

I'M BAAAACCCKKK!

2009-04-24T09:55:00.000-07:00

Okay so I know it's been a long ass time since I've posted to the blog. I was a little tired of it all and was just bored with everything in our industry and on the net. But I've been urged to go back to posting on here and will add this as a link to my web site for everyone to be able to read.
Since my last update last July a lot has happened in the motorcycle biz. Hollister for 2009 has been cancelled. Not s surpirse to me. The city wanted to get into the t-shirt biz and lost their collective ass on that idea. They also pulled the all time dumbest move for 2008 and moved the rally from the 3 day 4th of July weekend to the weekend of the 11th. That had to be the dumbest thing I've seen in all my years of going to rallies. Last year's attendance sucked ass. Friday was a total bust and Sunday is when everyone is going home so that left Saturday for everyone to try and make back the HUGE sum of money HP promotions was charging to be downtown. Luckily for us we are always at the Corbin facility where prices are reasonable. We had a barely tolerable rally to be honest. While the weather was good the attanedance overall was a total joke. I've been ciritcal of this event for years and will continue to do so. The city of Hollister is just fucking stupid to me. They are greedy and now don't want a rally anymore. This has happened in the past and may or may not be the end of this event. I know the promoters are basically belly up but to be honest I thought they needed a lot of help. This has the potential to be a huge event but between the city and lame promoters all wanting their share of the pie I doubt it will ever live up to it's potential. I have numerous ideas about how this could become as big as Sturgis and I've handed out those ideas but I've been told I don't know what I'm talking about. Yup, been doing rallies for well over 20 years and been to almost every event known to man but I don't know what I'm talking about. Okay, I'll keep them to myself from now on.
So that's my 2 cents on Hollister. With that and another $5 you can get a cup of coffee at the latest yuppie coffee shack.
More to come...............

HOLLISTER, ETC.

2008-07-18T13:43:00.000-07:00

I know it's been over a month since I last posted. Time flies when you're busy it seems.
So today I'm going to mention the Hollister Rally. It's always been the 4th of July weekend but for some reason not this year. It would have been a perfect time to do the rally with the 4th on a Friday this year and all. But hey, what do I know right?
We were again at Corbin's factory off San Felipe Rd. This is a good space for us, lots of room, nice parking lot, good people and above all the price is right. Sorry but the promoters of this rally are asking way too much for their space. Add in the city taxes, permits and fees and the basically one day rally would probably be the most expensive day of the year. I say it was a one day rally because Friday was really slow, Saturday was great. We had a great turn out but Sunday was nothing. That's the day everyone goes home so it was really a single day rally. Again, had they done the rally the weekend before it would have been better for everyone, vendors, attendees and the promoters as well. Also at Corbin's with us were Samson pipes, Barnett Tool and Engineering, you know the cats from Barnett cables and clutches. The cool thing about Corbin's is they're doing seats all weekend as well as doing an open house so you get to see how they make their seats and other parts. His showroom also usually has several interesting bikes from antiques to racing bikes. Overall I'd say the rally was okay, not great though and it has the potentail to be great. I'm hoping someday they get a promoter or somebody doing it that sees what's missing and how to make it the premier west coast rally it should be.
At the rally we unveiled my latest build, Destiny. This bike is really something cool to see. American Iron magazine is planning a feature on this bike so keep your eyes open for that.

Also on my ind today is Red Fridays. I've been a supporter of this idea for almost a year now and still support it. It's Friday and I'm wearing my red, are you? Today I get an e-mail saying we need to wear blue on Fridays now. Okay, this is ridiculous to me. I'm all for showing our support but we need to all get on the same page people. It doesn't show anything if we're going in twenty different directions.

Sturgis is right around the corner. I wish I could be there, always one of my favorite rallies. Maybe I'll make it back there again someday. I hope everyone that is going has a safe and fun rally week.

FTF
Ride Free

CHOPPER CHALLENGE

2008-05-29T22:46:00.000-07:00

So CMT has their new show, Chopper Challlenge where builders get a crate load of parts and are assigned a client to build a custom bike for. Not sure how many have seen this new show but I've seen a couple of episodes. I kind of like the format of 30 days to build the bike and they're told who their client is. Not sure about the parts being semi mandated although I understand them wanting to use parts from sponsors. I'd say if they want this to happen then it needs to be mandatory they use all of the parts supplied since the people sending their parts are sponsors of the show and should get their name mentioned and parts shown.
I saw the first episode where Kirk Taylor built a bike for Geico. Nice enough bike and it seemed to fit the theme. I was a little disappointed that Kirk seemed to think he needed to dress a certain way and portray some sort of a personna for the cameras.
I missed the second episode where Scott Long built the Incredible Hulk bike. I did however see the bike in person in Santa Maria a couple of weeks ago and I have to say I was very impressed. While it may not fit the whole Hulk theme with huge parts and beefy chunks of metal I did like the paint they did. The paint is really done nicely and the bike tends to fit Scott's building personality. I didn't see the show but I somehow doubt Scott did anything to play up to the cameras, just doesn't seem like that kind of guy to me.
The latest episode was Cole Foster building a bike for the Roadrunner internet services from Time Warner. I've always like Cole's style, understated and very clean. He, like myself likes to see the mechanics of the motorcycle. He's not one for massive body panels and tedious superfluous crap on a bike. He builds clean hot rod bikes and I've always liked that style, probably why I tend to build my bikes that way most of the time. The bike was done nicely although there were a couple of things that disappointed me.
First was that somehow Mike Rouse from BMC seemed to think he needed to be in the epsiode even though he didn't do a damn thing except take up oxygen but then again that's pretty much his specialty. I wonder if he's figured out what kind of oil goes in his bikes yet. I love the story I tell anyone that knows Big Mike about how he didn't know what kind of oil went in his bikes he was building when he was the "Master Builder and Designer" at American Eagle. I think most Master Builders would know what oil goes in the bikes they're building. Sorry Mike, you're not really a builder in my book, master or otherwise.
Second was the lack of color used on the bike. The Roadrunner's colors would be purple and grey and could have been done in a really clean paint scheme to add something to the bike. Instead they went with what looked like a black frame and oil tank while the sheetmetal was done in silver. It just didn't do much for me. The rest of the bike was really pretty cool, well the pipes could have been something a little better but the bike was more than decent. I'd have really liked to see something done in the color area though. A little color would have gone a long ways to add a little snap to the custom work Cole did.
That's enough for now.
FTF

MOTORCYCLE MADNESS

2008-05-28T20:19:00.000-07:00

I know this is technically out order chronologically speaking but I wanted to post something about Motorcycle Madness. This is an event we just did a couple of weeks ago in Santa Maria. It's promoted by HP Productions, they do Hollister now as well as several other events on the west coast. I've done their Grand National Show in October a few times and always liked that event. We had been told how huge this event was and how we just had to do it. It's not a huge deal to pull our trailer down there so we decided to give it a try.
Well huge it ain't. It's maybe average to me but then again I like to see crowds like you see at Sturgis and Daytona. There were only 4 builders in the builder's plaza. There was Todd's Cycles from Huntington Beach. Santa Clarita Choppers, a fairly new operation from what we could tell was next to us. There was us and then Scott Long, our friend from Central Coast Cycles in Santa Cruz. There was a lot of indoor smaller vendors, some food people, Hoppe was there with their really cool bagger fairings and some exhaust guys I'd never heard of. That was really about it. Oh yeah, Meguiars had a huge ass trailer there for their products.
Apparently we were also at the same hotel with most of the builders as well as a bunch of others from the event. The weather was beautiful, we can't complain about that but the crowds really weren't there.
I'm still on the fence whether or not I'd do this event again. In a few months I may decide it wasn't too bad but then again I may decide with the ridiculous price of diesel fuel, high hotel and food bills that this event just wasn't worth it. Right now the jury is still out on this event.
We'll be at Corbin's place for the Hollitser Rally July 11-13 so stop on by and say howdy, aloha, hola or whatever you wanna say as long as it's civil.

FTF
Ride free

MEMORIAL DAY AND MORE.....

2008-05-28T19:57:00.001-07:00

I'll probably do more than one update tonight but I'll start with Memorial Day. To me it's a day to honor those vets that gave the ultimate sacrifice like my Unlce Ross. He fought with his three brothers in WW II and then re-enlisted for the Korean War. He was a flyer. He flew The P-51 Mustangs in both wars as a bomber escort. He managed to make it all the way through the first war and was shot down over Korea. He's techincally an MIA to this day. All of his brothers managed to come home safe from WW II. My grandfather was one of them, he was at the Battle of the Bulge. So with all four of the brothers being in service during WW II my family has a history of serving in the military. On Memorial Day we always fly the flag and try to remember those that have given their lives so that we can enjoy the American way of life and be safe at home.
During this latest war I have been a huge supporter of our men and women in service. We offer discounts to the military as well as police and fire personnel because we feel we should give back to those that protect our families at home and abroad. We're also big supporters of Red Fridays.
Just before Memorial Day weekend I got an e-mail from a person that had ordered a wheel from us for his Harley. He had an APO address so we knew he was in the military in some way. I now know he's in the Air Force stationed in Germany. Anyway, this gibblet head ordered the wrong wheel from us and didn't know any better that he needed to give us more information for us to get him the right part. He informed me of the wrong part and I researched what happened. As I suspected it was his fault. We sell a lot of wheels and this is the first problem we've run into because most customers give us all the info we need. I explained that even though it was way beyond our usual time of accepting a return I'd let him send it back so we could get him the right wheel. Well that wasn't good enough. He wanted a refund, something we never, ever do. He also wanted to be paid for shipping the wheel back as well as be paid for the original shipping to send him the wheel. We do not do that. If a return is needed we authorize a return to the customer but the shipping back to us is on them. That's how it is with every company I've ever ordered anything from on the net or otherwise. So even though I was willing to bend our return policy and get him the right wheel he wasn't happy with that. He started m-fing me about how I was ripping him off and saying how he would bad mouth our shop to everyone he's stationed with. He even went so far as to mock the Red Fridays we support and push on my site and everywhere we go. Gee whiz what will I do now? I'll lose all those sales that I've never gotten from his buddies. Sorry to bash a man in uniform but this guy is a jackass in the first degree. I don't take shit from people like this pencil neck was trying to throw and I let him know it. The customer is always right until he's fucking wrong and then he needs to know he's fucking wrong and in this case he was. I flunked customer ass kissing in business school.
I'm still a huge supporter of the military and what they're doing because I've been around enough to know you get assholes and jerk offs in any group when you get the group to be large enough.
I'll still wear my red shirt on Fridays but it won't be for Andres Koplaine or whatever his name is. He can kiss my ass.
Happy Memorial Day everyone.

FTF AND MORE

2008-05-12T23:21:00.000-07:00

I was talking to Sam from Rolling Thunder frames the other day and he mentioned how it seems like I don't really call it as I see it. It was sarcasm as anyone can plainly tell by reading my blog. I think it came about when the subject of the BBC recall came up and how I've seen some real nightmares. Their recall fix isn't going to fix their frame issue because their frames have inherent issues in their design. I won't bother to mention what those issues are, I know what they are so let's see if BBC can figure it out although I seriously doubt they will. They're too busy building what has to be the world's ugliest "bagger" or suing people that dare have some pointed parts on their bikes like BBC invented that whole gothic pointed swingarm look. Get a life guys, nobody is trying to copy your look, it's not that flattering to start with.

Mentioning suing people brings me to an old t-shirt I found in the back of my closet the other day. It has the letters FTF on the front. Those shirts were very popular back in the day, it means F**k The Factory. It's funny how some things never change. Back then The Factory, by the way it's the Harley factory we're talking about here kids, was running bike prices up, screwing retail customers by forcing them to buy extended warranties, keeping the production numbers low to intentionally manipulate the price of their products all the while threatening pretty much everyone with a lawsuit over trademark infringement. I got a letter from their lawyers way back when we used the word Harleez in our shop name. I thought it was funny at the time, we were a minuscule shop but somehow they felt threatened. We were in the process of changing the company name anyway but it was still funny.
So today Harley is still manipulating their production numbers to keep their pricing up. They've gone to pushing legislation that would kill off as many independent shops and small custom builders as possible. They feel threatened by custom builders because we can do what they never will be able to do, build really cool bikes to suit the riding public. They're just another cookie cutter production bike, actually the King of the cookie cutters to me. Others like Big Dog, the now defunct AIH, APC, the soon to be open new Indian, BMC, BBC et al are also cookie cutter "customs", just on a smaller scale. So even today, years later I find myself still having those old sentiments, F**k The Factory. I've got no respect for them anymore.
Lately we had a potential customer asking us to use Harley parts on a build for him. Sorry but we won't do that, mostly based on my principles. I refuse to support a huge ass company that's constantly trying to put me out of business, FTF. The other reason is because we can find parts that are made a lot better and in the U.S. so why would we use parts from an inferior manufacturer?
I remember talking to some jerk off at the local Harley stealership back in the mid 90's and he told me it was impossible to build a custom bike without using some Harley parts. I called that as I saw it and told him he was full of shit because he was. I had been building bikes for awhile and not using any of their shitty parts so here we are about 15 years later and I'm still building bikes without using their shitty parts. FTF.

This week we're headed to Santa Maria for the Motorcycle Madness event. If you're in the area stop by and have a bottled water on us.

I think that about does it for this installment. I hope I called them as I saw them this time around, was it good enough Sam? I wanna make sure I'm not holding back, you gotta say it the way it is. FTF.

NEW STUFF

2008-05-07T09:26:00.000-07:00

We here at California Customs have a few new things going on. First is the introduction of two new models. The new Nomad II and the Bagfather 250 are two new bagger models from our design shop. We are losing the venerable old Nomad Convertible RS model but we now have some new designs for the next generation of custom baggers.

We've also brought back a couple of past programs. The Buy & Fly program allows our customers to fly to San Jose, get picked up at the airport and be put up for a night in a local hotel so they can visit our shop in person and have their new bike or custom kit designed for them while they're here. They then get credits for the airfare and hotel when they place their order for their new bike.

Our new dealership programs also are new. We're accepting applications for a very limited number of dealerships throughout the country. We're looking for independent motorcycle dealerships that are pasionate about custom bikes. They can sell the complete bikes or our custom designed kits. When they get our kits we allow them to either assemble the kit and sell as a built bike or sell it to their customer as an unassembled kit. We allow the dealer to make the decision that makes sense to their business. We have some of the easiest terms for new dealerships in the industry but we will only allow a small number of shops to become dealers in order to assure the new dealers are what we want as representatives of our brand and we can keep our high level of quality that we're known for.

I'd like to thank Cyril Huze for posting our news in his blog at www.cyrilhuzeblog.com .

We're getting ready for our next event, Motorcycle Madness at the Santa Maria Fairplex so come on out and say hi if you're at the event.

EVENT SEASON AGAIN

2008-04-29T13:59:00.000-07:00

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.

CUSTOM BIKE INDUSTRY AND INTEGRITY

2008-04-21T09:42:00.000-07:00

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.

RED FRIDAYS

2008-04-20T12:31:00.000-07:00

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.

Welcome

2008-04-19T23:02:00.000-07:00

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.