Hollywood

Hey guys put the blame where it belongs. Whoever sets up the show should put the customs in two classes. The ones that are home built in one class, the pro built bikes in another.

I agree that there are posers that ride out of the show room customs, but there are also a bunch riding Harleys, Hondas and whatever else. But not everyone that buys a custom is a poser, I think that is a pretty big generalization. I have a couple friends who I consider real bikers (whatever the hellthat means anymore) who just happen to have the money to buy a bike that they really admire. So what if it's a Big Bear, or Big Dog Chopper, if that's what they like, then what is the difference of them buying that, or me buying a Road King.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they should remove the logos and put it in a show claiming they built it, but if they like the way it looks, then buy it, ride it, and be proud of it. If they want to enter it in a show, under the fact that is is a factory made bike, then that is no different then me entering my Road King in a show as a stock bike.

Guess I'm just one of those really out there people that believes everyone has the right to buy, ride, and be proud of what ever THEY like. 

I have to agree with Hollywood and Lucky has a good point too. I am to the point that I will not enter my bikes, that I built in shows that do not have a class for garage builds. It has been nice in the past to come in second to someone that has spent big bucks on there bike knowing how little I got in mine.

Ok, let's reaaly drill into it.

If you buy one off the show room floor you are paying for all the labor and skill put into the bike.  You are a collector entering a piece that someone else created. 

A basket case you tear down, clean and reassemble is a production bike you restore.  Now if you didn't paint the restoration yourself, you are still paying for someone else's labor and skill, but at a much smaller percentage than the one bought off the floor. 

If you buy all your parts from aftermarket and assemble them, you have taken over the choice factor of what to put together. But the design and compatability for each component with the next was determined by the Mfg of each part and so you have paid for someone else to do the compatability research for you and they just posted this info on a fitment guide for you to choose from.  Still just assembling production parts from seperate Mfg's, following torque/lube/alignment/etc. guidlines.  However, if you do the sheetmetal and paint yourself, you now have some actual creative input other than just selecting what looks good or meets your personal specs from a preprinted guide or brochure.

Now if you create a frame jig and weld it yourself. Purchase the individual frame components and weld them together, depending on the integrity of your jig design, and do the ciphering for rake/trail, etc. and get your motormounts positioned correctly. Build your own wiring harness, assembling the connectors with pins yourself. Cut your fenders from blanks and design their mounts. Purchase and English wheel and fashion your own one-off fuel tank. Buyt some one inch tube and a tube bender and create your own one-off handlebar. Buy a hub and rims and spokes and assemble each wheel with the care necessary to lace them up one spoke at a time. Assemble the entire engine yourself with what ever combination of parts you choose for the kind of riding you want to do.  I could go on but I think you get my drift.

What we're talking about here is sweat equity.  Unless you are creating casts and have done all the engineering work and are casting engine parts yourself, you are paying for someone else to do some of the work to make your creation.  How much thinking, designing, fabricating, assembling, preserving/painting, attention to detail, etc. you put into a bike is sweat equity and is about as measurable as asking someone how much they love you.  IT'S Impossible to measure.

There will always be excuses made for why this bike is more of a custom than that one. And, the more sweat equity, the more custom the machine is considered to be.  Maybe we should create a class for "all aftermarket Mfg but owner assembled" and call it "best aftermarket ensemble".  Wiktionary defines enseble as a group of separate things that contribute to a  coordinated whole. maybe we could then assign a metric for assigning a point structure for attention to detail items such as tooling gouges or the lack thereof.  This one may be better because they chose to use stainless hdw rather than mild steel that will corrode.  This one has copper oil lines, but that has POLISHED copper oil lines.....

Holy Sh*t ........I have too much caffiene and too much time on my hands this morning..........

If you want to get your props, your gonna have to figure a way to measure and disply the percentage of sweat equity you have put into it.  And if the judges or attendees like the way the storebought chopper looks and makes them feel better than your "10 years to build, cast the engine case yourself, customed mixed the paint pigments and shot it yourself" super homebuilt chopper....sweat equity won't matter and the show room chopper will get the vote..........

More's the pity......


Damn Brother!!!....Leave the freakin coffe alone will ya?

Well ya didn't think I was going to just sit here forever.........

Let's just talk about shows in general, not just bikes but cars, trucks whatever. I've seen brand new cars in shows as well. Why do car / bike shows exist well, for many reasons... for example
(1. People like to showcase there skills in the building of a car / bike (ususlly have pictures of before and after)
(2. People love to feel like a part of something like a car club that has several cars in a show
(3. People can make friends easyer when they have something in common
(4. yes it does feel very nice for a stranger to tell you "nice bike or nice car"

For me I've had the Dragon in a couple of shows...I just love to sit drink beer and BS with all the people, and I've met some really nice people at these shows.

I understand why some people get upset at off the show room floor bikes in shows. Maybe these types of people just can't make a friend, and are trying hard to fit in somewhere.

If you think about it....you don't have to know how to make a watch to enjoy the fact you can tell time.

Dragon


badinfluence1968wrote 9 minutes ago