All language subtitles for Oil in the Blood (2019)2.CC

[MUSIC PLAYS IN BACKGROUND]

I remember the first time
that I got on a motorbike

I just had this incredible sense
that I could go anywhere

do anything and you just want to
ride and ride and ride.

If I have a bad day,
I go ride my motorbike,

if I'm pissed off,
I go ride my motorbike,

if I'm happy and it's a great day, I go
ride my motorbike.

I think motorcycles are
the most interesting

and curious
mechanical phenomenon

because you straddle it, you ride it,
it's a very intimate experience.

There's nothing like it. I think it
just makes the relationship

with this machine, this curious kind of
miracle of physics that is a motorcycle.

It makes that relationship a lot deeper.

It gets into your blood
in a very real way

but it literally becomes
part of who you are

as a human being and
it starts to change you

and I think it changes
people for the better.

When you can sit in a room with people who
have devoted this much of their life

to it and look at what they're doing,
you know they've got a screw loose

and they've got the same
loose screw that I have.

When you're truly
addicted to riding bikes,

like I am,
you can't have a bike in the

garage and not ride it. I'm not even
making the decision to be able to ride.

If there's a bike there, I'm already gone.

From a logical point of view,
there is no reason for a motorcycle

and yet we have these
infernal contraptions

which are difficult,
uncomfortable, dangerous

and we're fascinated with them.

That's what I connect to now,
that's what I feel passionate about,

that's what gets me up every morning and
keeps me up late at night.

This two wheeled transport device
that is the closest thing to flying.

It really is.

A custom motorcycle
really is a piece of

mechanical art in the
way that a car isn't

because you look at a car, everything is
hidden, it's a body and four wheels.

A motorcycle, you can see it.
You can see the engine,

everything is on display so that's a form
of art really and doing the custom thing

kind of amplifies that art.

There aren't many ways to express
who you are these days you know

it's an era of mass production.
Everybody had the same phone,

everybody had the same car. You know,
you live in a shoe box in a suburb.

But a bike is saying 'this is who I
am, this is me as an individual'.

So this bike here, that was found
in somebody's front garden.

It was the perfect
example of what we could

take and turn into
this bike over here.

The whole point is
to work on your own

thing and make it
individual to yourself

and not have something
that everyone else has got,

to have your character stamped
on something you've built.

Yeah there's bits that
I've had to make for it.

There's some Heath
Robinson stuff on there.

It doesn't function perfectly, it's not
the quickest bike in the world

but it's my bike.

Having something unique is far cooler
than having a mass-produced motorcycle.

Apparently.

It's about individuality and
going into a Triumph dealership,

a Ducati or Harley dealership,
and saying 'l want mine a bit like that'

it gives about as much individuality as
getting a different colour phone case

for your iPhone, your generic iPhone.

I love seeing people doing stuff
that no-one's seen before.

Good or bad, you just make the craziest
thing you can think of every time around.

You know, like when people
just go way outside the box.

Just throw the rule book out.

What we don't have enough of
is actual real individuals

and I think someone like David from
El Solitario is a great example

of someone who genuinely
is a fucking individual.

I love David as a human being,
he can be a total asshole

you know, but I love him to death.
He's so genuine.

He's definitely put himself
out there as far as bikes go.

His most hated bike was also, I think,
his most publicised bike by far.

That BMW Nine T, you know.
The thing looks like a shopping cart but

it photographed so awesome
and it had so much vibe to it.

When Paul designated this formula,
I know the world's most hated

motorcycle I found it really funny so I
adopted it because it just made fun of it.

It took some of my grief out.
We were a tiny company and suddenly

this huge monster calls us and says
‘hey we want to do a motorcycle with you,

we're going to pay you, you have creative
freedom'. I wanted to make them proud.

I thought everybody was going to love it.

I never in my life thought
everybody would hate it.

But I also understood, I knew enough that
I had done something really amazing.

I just embraced my personality and
tried to make a company out of it and

that's like a myth buster and I can...
OK let's fuck it up.

I think it's defined very much more
by the rider than the bike itself.

Everyone seems to be
riding different bikes,

their interests go
off in different areas

where there's some into choppers,
some into flat tracker, some into racing

is that it's much more of a level playing
field. It's less about money and budget

and what you can afford
and what you can do.

The people who have spent
their time doing stuff,

learning stuff, researching
stuff, living motorcycling.

Today if you look at really
what's happening in New York,

it's a bunch of $500 Hondas.

They throw the seat away and put a plank
of wood on there that's this size

and that's a custom bike. It's like
'yvou go for it dude' and if that's who's

riding by then he's using his
bike, that's cool.

I like the fact that people actually...
they'll buy a motorcycle and cut it up

and do something and people are always
asking 'how do you get started?' and

dude, just make the cut
and then you've started.

Breathing life back into a dead
engine is creativity by essence.

You breathe life back, you created
life where there was no more life.

I didn't expect it
to be a culture that

had so much depth on
the engineering side

and the artistry
and the community.

I think that trifecta
is very relevant today.

It's like it doesn't matter if you're a
race bike guy or a drag bike guy

or a street bike guy.
Nobody judges.

Or some people do but
who cares about them.

It's cool when people,
they do what they want

and that's when the
purest stuff comes out.

This cool thing that's happening, I think
we're just really lucky to be around it

while it's actually happening.

The motorcycling world is becoming like
an estuary where it's all mixing and

I think all these cultures
are coming together

and there's going to
be a lot of clashing

and a lot of people
are going to hate that

that's happening get over
it, it's happening.

The motorcycle world is
changing and honestly

I think it's changing
for the better.

The new, sort of, custom scene
has empowered a lot of people,

it's democratised people to feel
like they can make a motorcycle

which is huge because, from the 90s
onwards, motorcycles had become appliances

they'd become so good, you didn't need
to know how to do anything because

there was nothing to do.
If it broke, you couldn't fix it anyway.

If you want to call it a new wave scene,
then fine but I would just call it

an evolution of motorcycling.

Originally it was a conversation that John
Copeland had with Jeffrey Shad.

There wasn't really
a show that showcased

builders in the aesthetic
quality that they appreciated.

So just giving a platform and opportunity
to have people show off their work.

It's the invitational because we go out of
our way to invite someone to showcase

something that they've created,
that we really appreciate.

I think good work speaks for itself and
it doesn't need to be a certain style,

a certain era, a certain period, you
know, amazing work is amazing work

no matter what kind of bike it is.

A lot of people ask that we should get
a bigger space, more bike and what not

but I think it's good to have that small
amount of bikes, more exclusive,

and also you get to spend more time
with each bike to just enjoy.

We want to kind of create the event
that we can bridge those gaps,

celebrate the whole
culture of motorcycles.

You'll see your
Fortune 500 CEO sitting

right next to a
Hell's Angel guy and

both of them are
appreciating the same thing.

I mean, I never see them
in any other context

other than that, things like these shows,
like the invitational, do that.

It just forces people to participate
in each other's world.

But there's no awards. There's no
1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place.

That's another
thing that's cool.

You can't really judge these
bikes against each other.

Because they're all so different
so to me just being on the list and

having that recognition is just enough.
It's all you really want. It's cool.

I think motorcycles themselves
are counter-cultural.

They're intimidating, they're aggressive,
they're fast, they're dangerous.

Ever since the first bike came, someone
wanted to pull it apart, individualise it,

make it faster, tweak it, and
put their own personality into it.

Motorcycles are cool, they've always been
cool and if you had been alive in 1910,

you would have thought
motorcycles were cool

because they were
cool and guess what?

they still are cool.
We're on this little

tip of the present
and there's 150 years

of interesting stuff that's every bit
as cool as what's happening today.

There's a history of bike that you
need to understand and be aware of

but at the end of the day, you're a free
person, you can do whatever you want.

But I think you need an understanding of
what's gone on before you in some respect

and then you can make a
judgement call on certain things

but if you just ignore
everything, you're just a prick.

The historical roots in this, you could go
back to after the second world war

in America where all
the soldiers came back

and they chopped up
Harleys and that's

where the bobber scene came from.
In the UK it was from the 60s,

from the Cafe Racers, the Ton Up boys,
trying to make their bikes lighter.

It wasn't about aesthetics then, it was
making it as fast as possible.

It was back in the 50s/60s where, when
there was no surf going on in California

they would get on their Triumphs and BSAs
and Nortons and head off into the hills

so that culture moved on and then changing
their bikes, adapting their bikes.

In the late 50s,
California motorcycle clubs,

especially started to
alter their motorcycles

to make them lighter and longer and more
elegant and eventually these became

painted wildly and
chromed as the 50s went

into the 60s they began
to alter the frames

and they became choppers
by the early 1960s

as we know them.
And the ultimate expression

of the chopper were the bikes
that you see in Easy Rider.

Exposure on television in the early
2000s really grew the awareness

for the general public to custom bikes.
The Jesse James stuff,

Orange County Choppers,
and people like that but 2008,

economic depression, and
killed a lot of the custom bike world.

You know, same thing with us, I mean at
a point, we're building huge ZX14 or

a Busa stretched thing,
they're expensive

machines and then
the market collapses,

I remember the photo shoot we were on when
the market collapsed. It was a reset.

Customs had become kind of
grotesque and then the reset happens

and you have a $1000 motorcycle
with $500 worth of money put into it

from a guy who just
learned how to weld two

weeks ago and you're
looking at it going

... it's compelling. It may not ride
for shit but it's a cool looking bike.

It seems like 2008 was the
year, there was the big crash,

everybody had all those big bikes
and they couldn't sell them.

And it took the whole industry back
to square one and I think it made a lot

of us re-think what we were doing, what
was important, not to be corny but

I think it brought back
the soul of motorcycling.

People were buying cheap Japanese
bikes 300/500, whatever the money was

and making that vehicle your own because
you would do it still in an affordable way

something that was unique. And that
was, you know, a wake up call for me.

It was a wake-up call
for the whole company.

So Analog Motorcycles started in 2008.
I built a custom bike was kind of um...

on a whim. Did it. After the bike
was done it got a lot of press.

Started getting people randomly, all over
the country, asking me to build a custom.

It started to take off, build steam, then
in 2013 I started to quit my day job

and go full time and I
haven't looked back.

I grew up riding on the back of my
dad's Vincent and he grew up riding

on the back of his dad's Vincent. So
there's quite, family influences there.

I lost my bike license
through speeding so if I

couldn't ride a bike I
thought I'd build one.

I spent a few years as a flaming alcoholic
and when I got through all of that

I started working a lot to keep my mind
away from that so maybe I just transferred

one actual addiction to a new
one, I don't know.

I was in the foreign service for many
years and built motorcycles on the side

as a second job. I usually started my
evening at 7 o'clock in the workshop

and I worked until midnight, 1 o'clock
in the morning. Over time it just

became the focus of my life and now the
last 12 years it's a full time business.

Yeah I started out mainly in advertising,
I was in a big agency in Richmond

Virginia for about 11 years. I got laid
off. They came and told me and everything

kind of went in slow motion for a second
and like, oh I'm getting laid off.

But at the same time I felt like it was
actually liberating. I'm not going to

go back to advertising and do that stuff
when I could start building motorcycles

‘cause I'd already been
doing it for a while.

I had a great job with a start-up company
doing really cool work, getting patents,

designing the coolest stuff with
all the resources I could ever want,

an engineers dream job, with a great
group of guys and I was like, nah,

I'm going to leave, I'm going to move to
Texas, I'm going to start a

motorcycle shop and they're like
'you're nuts, you're out of your mind,

you're destined to be broke for
the rest of your life' which so far

is not that far off.
And I'm saying ‘no come be a broke dick

with me, let's have nothing.'

I didn't even get into motorcycles,
I didn't have a choice.

My whole family in Lebanon/Syria were
metal workers, tinsmiths and mechanics

and when they came here, they brought
tools. My father had 60/70 bikes

in the yard. I was 15, 16 where he told
me 'if you can fix one of those bikes

in the back, you can have it'.

I worked for a large bank for 6 years,
I was a manager there and I definitely

could have continued my career in
the bank but it just wasn't me.

We could feel that there was something
going on, when we did the blogging,

we see the number of visitors just...
so I think it was more accidental

that we just happened to do that
at the time when other people got

more or less the same idea.

Wheels & Waves started as
the Southsiders anniversary.

There was a party, they did in
Toulouse, and we were like, 20 guys

then the idea of making a bigger, better
show, more happening in Vincent's brain

and the Southsiders with Jerome. One
summer we said, OK we're going to do it.

We're going to do this event,
it's going to be called Wheels & Waves.

It was about bringing everything
that is cool about motorcycles

without looking at the different scenes
as independent entities.

It was something that had
never been done before.

We just, from a profound love of
motorcycles, especially Vincent

ahead of it, of the movement, he wanted
to build a really inclusive event.

This is really bigger than us. This is
much bigger than us and there is

not one Wheels & Waves, there are
thousands of Wheels & Waves.

It just depends of what yours
looks like. Wheels & Waves now is

just an excuse for motorcycle freaks
to travel, take a week off work,

and ride with your buddies.
That's the thing.

Yeah that's the thing, you live it.
You're not just a spectator,

you're an actor of the events. The surfing
competition, the punk's peak competition,

the dirt track competition, the
ridings with the people, even the

hanging out in the city with your
bikers, your crew. You are part of

it and you're there. I don't know so
many of us that have the same spirit.

For me we are in the middle of what
motorcycles should look like.

That's what's so cool
about this place.

Anything goes and the
rules are very loose.

And that's what's so inspiring.
People take whatever they find and

they build a cool custom out of it.
It's not all about money and

it's just a totally different thing. And
people ride it here. Everyone is riding.

The very cool thing about flat track
racing is that you can't go

to a factory and say 'can I have a dirt
track bike' 'cause it doesn't exist.

You have to build it and
after that you can race.

So that's why the custom scene,
building the bikes, and racing,

that's why I think they are, be the same.

It's like family but
it's racing on a track.

There is no bad elbow,
everything is fine.

Everybody is a friend but on the track
everybody is on the gas.

I mean, what's the first thing
you do when you're a kid?

You either try and wheelie a bike,
jump a bike or skid a bike.

So if you're just going around skidding
all day, what could be more fun?

On one hand we have the industry, I
think they were lost. It's got to a point

where it wasn't relevant any more, for
the customers and in the other hand,

we have this custom scene which
is full of talent and I think we speak

the language,
the new language they need to speak.

It really is a case of the people have
spoken. Something that's more accessible,

more stylish, literally going
down to the nearest cafe

and back is what people want.

The barrier to entry
is so low in terms of

cost which is perhaps
where it all started.

The social barrier to
entry is lower. You

don't need to feel scared
turning up at a big

biker event where everyone is going
to expect you to do a wheelie.

One of the things I like about motorcycles
and always have liked about motorcycles

is that they're very democratic. And yes
you can buy expensive motorcycles,

but you can buy a cheap
motorcycle and you can have a go.

You know, you can pick a 125 on eBay
for 400 quid, do your own little mods,

and rock around town and be
very proud of it. That's great.

What excites me personally and our
team is young people just getting in

and getting their hands
dirty and making stuff.

Creating their own personal expression
and that becomes a snowball, right.

There's only a couple of thousand
people in the world who are customising

motorcycles now. But their visibility
and the number of people interested

in seeing that, is huge so the ripple
effect is where the big impact is.

I think the blog was initially the
biggest thing - Bike Shed, Bike EXIF,

Pipeburn all those sorts of things.
People then can really start following

what other people are up to
and there's normally a story

with all the pictures and then when
there was an opportunity for an event

to come on, and people could
see these bikes in the flesh.

Yeah my name's Thor and honestly,
I don't know how I got here.

Time travelling. No, I run The One
Motorcycle Show, just a hobby

gone wild.
It just got away from me a little.

It would be hard for me to say that I
started a movement because

it could have just been everybody
was ready for something different.

What I was doing was counter to
everything that I'd experienced.

I didn't want to be like anybody else.
I didn't want to battle with other shows.

I didn't want to take
their customers, I

wanted to create something
new and different.

So everything that we've done,
we've done it the hard way.

Because it's counter, and make something
that people say like 'wow, it's free'.

Nothing's free any more. And then they say
'why don't you charge?' and then

the right people will come and I
say 'that defeats the purpose of

having the show, to get everybody to
come' and definitely the biggest part

of it is we look towards
the sponsorships for

covering the costs of
putting on the show.

Harley Davidson and BMW have
been huge supporters of the show

and Icon since day one.

There's dirt bikes and there's race bikes
and there's just hardcore choppers

all together in one show.
To me that's the brilliant part

of the One Show because as a
motorcyclist, I do all those things

and to be able to see all those
communities come together

at One Show is really
quite remarkable.

But the One Show for sure is still a
place where your $1500 build

commands respect for
exactly what it is.

Every builder that's got a bike in there,
I can't promise them anything.

They haven't paid any money to enter
the bike,they've come from all over

the world. A lot of people spending a lot
of money to get here and I can't

say that they're going to have world
fame for it but you've just got to show up

and see what happens.
Be part of it.

The one thing about the One Show
is that it's not a single bike show.

It's putting the custom umbrella
over ever sort of custom

and by casting that big net, you basically
put a big spotlight up to anybody

that was doing a custom bike. Got
everyone's attention to it and that's

what has allowed it to grow.

We have put on a few races
and many of the races for fun.

It's just part of human nature to
like race so the only thing that will

kind of sustain itself for a long
time is racing and then I clearly

saw the whole picture from the person
who's never raced to the future of racing.

Taking the race crowd and putting them in
a setting like this is kind of interesting

and the taking the guys that know about
choppers and bring them down the races

and the two work together. Two wheels
and a motor and it's the same thing.

There wasn't, I mean in '08 I think
Facebook was around but there

really wasn't a lot of digital
media or social media starting out.

When it started to pick up,
we jumped on right away.

It was actually the first guy I hired,
a guy that was a photographer that

took care of our social media.
That, for most people, is our marketing.

That's the window that the world
sees into Analog Motorcycles.

You can build something, put it online and
270,000 people reached, boom.

And that's amazing. Years ago you
couldn't do something like that.

You needed a TV show,
you needed to be in

magazines for years to
have people see your work.

When I got into it, two magazines
were coming out once a month

with 3 or 4 bike features in it and
it's almost like they delegated what

was cool and what was not.
They were deciding what was

the motorcycle industry custom-wise.
And now what we're seeing is

we're in control of
the whole thing really.

You know, now anybody who put their
name out there, people can see it.

And if you do good work, people want
to see it so they start following you

and shit. It's not the guy with the
huge name who always has the upper hand.

We as consumers of this information,
consumers of this content, are getting

things instantly. You can see what I made
20 minutes ago and I can walk you around

it live on the internet. I don't know if
something's lost or something's gained.

It goes one way or another, 10 minutes
later you've got to do something new.

The longevity of custom bikes online
can be surprisingly short. 24 / 48 hours.

For something that could've taken a year
to build, that's a really short life.

OK I saw that yesterday, what's out
there today? And that's 3 years

of a man's life you looked at yesterday.
What do you mean what have you got now?

People come out and they're Instagram,
they're Insta-famous. They get all this

going and then the business comes
after the fame, you know what I mean?

I think we need to be careful and
not let the internet or the social media

kind of start drowning out the
camaraderie and the coolness

of what the culture actually is.

So it's so easy to criticise when you
do nothing. Actually the people who make

never criticise. They respect the fact that
you made. The haters will be haters forever.

We don't give a fuck. We know who we are,
where we come from, where we want to go.

Yeah we get builders who are clearly
at their wits end and they've been working

their arses off for like, 12 months on a
bike and you'll get some peanut gallery

blow hard who will just leave a
really pithy one sentence remark

and yeah, builders will crumble at that.

And they like nothing better than
getting you to engage them

‘cause no matter what, you're going
to come out looking like an asshole.

There's been so many times I've wanted
to just go right for the jugular and

be like, 'listen it might have been a
bad weld but your girlfriend's fat'.

You know, 'l checked out your page' and
I've been dying to say that for so long,

something like that. But at the end of
the day, I look around me and

I get to do this for a living so if I'm
going to have the occasional people online

telling me that I'm an idiot and I
can't weld, and I suck at

building motorcycles,
I can live with that.

If you do say why you don't like it, give
the alternative, like it could be this

but criticism, not just being negative
because you're not really helping

by being negative. But yeah, whatever.
People are mean.

I've had death threats. There was one guy
who emailed, 'you fucking faggot,

will you stop showing
these fucking gay bikes,

I'm going to come ‘round to your
fucking house and kill you'.

My biggest problem is people on Instagram
don't do anything other than Instagram.

They'll look at it and they won't
even read the text that says

the thing they're asking.
They'll just post up the question.

‘What bike is that?'
It says right there, it's a BMW R100.

Like, it's not that hard!

The American magazine Cycle World,
they do events marketing so the big

opportunity they see is running
motorcycle shows. People paying

$10/$20 to get though the door in a show.
And that's why people like Revival

who are really smart because they figured
that out, and the Bike Shed as well

so the event really is a gold mine.

I'm Vikki van Someren, the queen of
fucking everything and I run the Bike Shed

for London, Paris,
Milan and the rest of the world.

We were sat in a pub and we were
about to go to a bike show and

we were all having that Carlsberg moment
when you sit there and say, you know,

what if we put on a show? And a week
later, my husband booked a venue

I think because, as bikers, we were
tired of the same old trade format.

You know, the rubbish food, the Lycra
girls and we wanted something that was

more reflective of us as individuals.
You know, when you look around

this is everybody's individual style
through their motorcycle.

So Bike Shed One was a punt,
it was an idea. We ran the show for free,

we had two arches in Shoreditch and
70 bikes if I remember correctly.

It was very much a pop-up, amateur
vibe to it. But 3,000 people turned up.

That summer of 2012,
the whole scene suddenly found its voice

and started to feel like something
tangible. We were trying to do something

that was the opposite of a trade
fair. It needed to be a destination,

a place worth going. It needed to be about
the creative side of motorcycle culture.

There's people come here to check out
the latest build from XYZ builder,

but there's a lot of people come here just
to gain inspiration and see what someone

else did in their shed or garage
or workshop and think well I can

go away and I'm going to do that
myself and maybe come back next year

and enter my bike into a show. Or people
just want to come and have a look at

beautiful things, beautiful engineering
and I think here you've got it in spades.

I think this is far more about style.
There's decent food, there's decent

drink, things to look at.
It's a nice experience.

In fact, you'd have a nice experience
here even if you weren't a biker.

It's really important for us.
It's important because

it's the first contact point with
our customer, this kind of customer.

Because we can learn, we can
talk with these people you know

and we can go back in the
office with more and more ideas

of what to do in the future.

We only do the show so people
can come and see what we do and

when they see the finish on the bikes,
that's when the builds start to come in.

We sold six bikes in six days. Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

then one on the following Monday.
£16,500 a piece so yeah they saw

our work at a show, they come and have
a look at what we do, and that's it.

Events like this allow people to take
innovative leaps because they just feed

off each other. Because as soon as
somebody does something really innovative,

and everyone sees it, the whole
movement steps forward.

We got a project with Stuart Garner, CEO
at Norton and I was up there one day

talking bikes with him, and just chewing
the fat really and having a laugh

and I said, 'l'd really like to build a
bike' and his term, without swearing, was

'OK f*** off and do it'.

It's a Norton Commando 961 stock road
bike, that's the base bike

and it's been quite modified.
You're always a little bit nervous when

you come up with a design for a bike
and you build something, you know,

you've invested a lot of time and
money and you want people to love it.

It's kind of a re-creation of a world
famous flat track bike from the 70s

designed by Ron Woods who kind of
revolutionised flat track racing.

We have all this technology now,
we have amazing motorcycles,

amazing electronics,
difficult to crash,

reliable,
everything you could want really.

You know, the benefit to
progress and civilisation

and we're really saying
‘no, we don't want that.'

There are entirely too many people
in my opinion, that are completely

removed from how the things
are made that they own.

And I wasn't raised that way.
I was raised in a home where

we typically fixed what broke.
We didn't hire a repair man

when the dishwasher went down.

So much of the physical world
these days just exists

and we don't think about that at all.
Where in reality, every single thing

that exists, had to be created.
It had to be put together.

Somebody made this thing.

There's this kind of re-appropriation
of the making process and therefore

I assume, I presume the
respect of the makers.

A few years ago, there was a
small amount of people

a small demographic that were
interested in craftsmanship

or the hand made thing. All of a
sudden, there's a lot more

people interested in the
sort of things that I do.

Yeah everybody that I've ever
learned anything from

were 50... 60... 70... 80 years old.
It takes a certain amount of money

and quality and dedication that I
have to have in order to put

my company stamp on it.
It's a little sculpture

by the time I'm done and I love that
but if somebody just wants me to

put some shit ball logo on there,
I'm not going to do it.

And so much effort and time
learning how to do this,

I'm not just going to throw
it away on some pile of shit.

If you start off with shit, it's just
going to be a fancy piece of shit

in the end.

There's an element of taking
the power back by doing it

yourself, doing it on a budget,
not being given what the big

companies are selling you.

The kind of people I'm getting
coming to me are guys who are

tech guys who just want to do something.
They just want to make something.

And they don't get that from their job
or from daily life or whatever so

they do it on a bike... and I can see
there's tonnes of people like that.

The feeling you get when you've
built something or even had a go

at building it, even if you buy
parts or if you bolt on a part

you bought, there's still
satisfaction in that.

It's just nice to be given one
small problem that might take

a while to overcome and if you overcome
that, you're good for the day.

And it's even bigger, this feeling,
when you build it by yourself

because you know it by heart. It's not
just an object, it's a living object.

I've followed everything on
YouTube and I've got my manual,

I know exactly what I'm doing.
My caliper is perfect.

And I get out on the A12, have to stop
and I go smack into the back of a car.

The older and rarer the bike,
the more I'm intrigued.

Figuring out the sources, there's these
old brown papers that have been crumpled

up for years that are
in the back of a manual.

You know, I just geek out on it.
I really love it.

Any of the old bikes, they just
feel different. You can hear them,

you can feel the motor, it just
feels like you're part of it.

Almost like you're on a trip
with a good friend.

Like it doesn't matter, even if
they're being a pain in the ass

that day you still know you'd
rather be on the trip with them.

Old bikes you can fix with two
wrenches on the side of the road

and go on about your business.
New bikes you've got to call

somebody so they can put a
computer box in there, you know.

People talk about old bikes like
they're unreliable you know,

but it's like 'no, I can fix it'
and keep going.

You definitely have to educate
your customer on the reality of

what they're asking for. They want
something, they go into their garage,

and they push a button and it
starts every time and it's low

maintenance. Is it going to be a
world war 2 era knucklehead? No.

If you're going to spend
£20k customising a bike,

do you want it to be
worth £20k at the end?

Because if so, you need to
start with a Ducati or a Harley

or something else that's got
a bit of quality about it that's

got some perceived value because
we know from experience

that you can spend as much as you
want but when you come to sell a bike,

If it's a CX500, they'll only pay
what a CX500's worth

and their argument will
be, but it's a CX500.

So we start always on older
bikes, from the inside out.

On newer bikes, we can just
go from the outside in.

We don't need to take
them totally apart.

It's the amount of bikes I've seen that
have got Ohlins shocks and this and that

and they've spent thousands of
pounds putting all this race

kit on a 750, 35 year old
bike that's done 150...

I mean, what the fuck is the
point in that? Know what I mean?

What's the point?

A lot of builders I speak to will say to
me, 'l won't work on old bikes any more'

They spend the first 100 hours of
a build just stripping a bike and

re-finishing it and re-making it.
All they've done is restore a bike

and they've spent half the budget
and then they've got to spend

the same money again to customise it.

I think I prefer modern bikes
because of the performance

I love big tyres, big brakes,
all the race shit actually

It's crazy to drive that kind
of bike because you're flying.

You can't really get in and
customise new stuff as

much as you can old stuff.
That's the thing, I've been

doing this 2017 model, it's like
I can't re-wire that thing.

You've got to be an electrical
engineer to re-wire that thing and

even then you're going to
have some problems, you know.

You can't really do anything
with the injections stuff that...

without computer that only the
dealership is allowed to have.

I've also ridden some motorcycles that
have been very de-clawed by technology.

You know, you get on a bike and
all of a sudden you can't do a burn out,

you can't ride a wheelie,
you can't skid the rear break.

I don't even want to ride it. I don't
even care if it makes 200 horse power.

If you're stuck with a new bike
and you can't change anything

because the computer packs
up and goes into shutdown

because it senses a new
headlight being put on

well the whole industry is in trouble.

When people come up and and say a
bike is like, OK, that's the budget

but I can go buy a new bike for that
price. Yeah.. yes..

I can get a brand new one for that. Yeah.
Maybe that's what already happened

with the customers. They're buying new
bikes. When you get new bikes that look

like custom bikes if you
don't know the difference.

It gives them a soft
landing into the scene.

People see a bike, they see
the individualism of the bike

probably thinking, oh that's awesome,
I'm never able to build that myself

and in the past that means
this scene's not for you.

But right now if you see new bikes
coming out from manufacturers that

have the same air to them
as the bikes in this scene.

Yeah you come to a show like this,
and there's so much stuff

but it all comes down to the crowd.
It doesn't matter what you like in

motorcycles, or don't like, for me
it's all about the craftsmanship

and the work and just the
attitude and the style

and the bike doesn't have to be a
trailer queen to be a winner.

Yeah I think one of the good things
about these shows is most of us

especially those of us that
live in the colder climates,

it's just like we're in our own
little world in our shop

just working away, doing all this.
I found over the years, my social

life has become less and less.
I think that's the good thing

about these shows, that we
come for the social aspect

of the business. When you bring it out
it's like, 'Aw, where have you been

for all these months?"
Well I was doing this.

That something that a show like
this, a hand built show, proves is

you can take any kind of bike
and build something really cool.

You can go outside the box no matter
what. You don't have to have

a knucklehead to
build a cool bike.

We would go to motorcycles shows and it
would always be the same fucking thing.

There was some old curmudgeon
asshole, or 400 of them,

that would treat you like
you wouldn't know shit

because you didn't have any
grey hair or facial hair,

and it was always like you were
not, you were automatically

excluded from their fucking club.

It was called the Handbuilt Motorcycle
Show because these are people

like us with limited resources and they're
building something with their hands

and learning that that actually
has value. Let's create something

that we try our best to
allow it to be instead of

determining what it should be.
Does that make sense?

What's been the most satisfying
part of that, in doing

what we're doing with the
event and all this other stuff,

is seeing other people's
personal discovery.

There are multiple people that
have come to this little show

we do which was just an excuse
to bring together a bunch of guys

that we respected who've never even
thought of a motorcycle but they

came, they looked and they went
'vou know what, maybe they're right

maybe I can do this' and now there
were multiple bikes in the show

this year that were built because
they went to the first show.

The fact that the Wall of Death
is there is not just an accident.

That's not just like 'oh this might
be kind of cool'. No that was a

conscious thought of... we want to
find a way to get people that don't ride

to have the visceral experience
of what it's like to ride somehow.

Just to give them some small
taste of it. To get up close and

personal with functioning bikes.

Before, it was niche and it was
sub-culture, and it was a little bit

more people in the know, but
social media has just attracted

a bigger volume and that means
you do see more couples and

more young people and more people
from just outside the scene

on the fringes. If we don't attract
new people into the it and make

them passionate about it,
motorcycles won't exist in

20 years time.
They'll be legislated out existence.

Yeah we need more people with
energy, we need more doers

and it's the young people
who are kind of coming in

from a new angle. They haven't
been influenced in the past and

they're pushing it in new
directions and that's what

any progressive culture needs.

All production, all manufacturing,
the ability to do things with your hands

is largely exited, it's gone.
We outsource everything.

And it's really... I don't think
anyone expected it but it's

really our generation that like
'wait a minute, our dads, our

grandparents used to do this. If they
could do it, we can definitely do it.'

I'm so sick of these people who have
been in the business for a long time

getting pissed off
with these newcomers.

It's like, at some point you were a
newcomer. They're like, who cares.

Well five years ago they were riding
skateboards. Who gives a fuck?

Now they're riding a motorcycle.
Good.

There is a younger demographic
that is interested in motorcycling

and custom motorcycles and
choppers and cafes and it's

affordable and anybody
can still do it.

You've got kids of 22 right the
way through to people who are 62.

If they've only got £2k,
they can get into this.

At the other end of the extreme,
if you want to got to one of the

well-known makers, put down
£18k/£22k, you can do that as well.

And again, like buying it,
you can buy a 125 and make it cool.

It's just cheap and affordable
and if you feel cool riding a 125

you've pimped out, that's rad.

And now there's this new breath
of air, there's a fresh interest

in the younger demographic
and I think it's inspiring.

If you look at the custom
scene, it's much much younger

which is gold dust for the manufacturers.
Instead of selling

motorcycles to retired dentists,
who are going to be dead in 10 years time,

you've got somebody who has
a 30 year buying life cycle.

It's really important to make
sure that younger people

getting into the scene are
made to feel welcome.

It's not going to grow from
the same old guys building

the same old stuff. It's going
to grow from someone being

included, having different ideas,
bringing something new to it

that's going to
help keep it going.

I'll be completely honest with you,
the very first time I came here,

I said, 'well we'll go but it looks
like one of those hipster things.'

And we showed up and I'm like,
‘those guys have their jeans rolled up.

This is one of those hipster things'.
By the end of the weekend, I said

you know, these guys are awesome.

Ever since we started Blitz with Hugo,
I never met so many interesting

and interested persons in my life.

All you need to do to belong
is just want to belong and

try to bring something on the
table but try to work always

with a giving sense, not like
try to leave an imprint.

This place has always, always been
not about an individual person.

It's always been about
a group of people.

And if we were building a bike,
whoever turned up that day

would work on that bike.

Petrol heads, you can't help it.
Motorcycles are in the blood I'm afraid.

I came last year,
had an amazing time, so many bikes.

So many really nice people
and yeah, it's a must do.

Well I think the racing here,
I think that's what sets this one off.

The fact that people are getting
to get their bikes out and

come out, fire 'em up,
line up, smell the smoke,

see the tyres spinning, see the
mud, it's just brilliant really.

My name is Radical Edwards
of Radical Edwards Performance.

I'm here to race. I'm just here for
general carrying on and fun and games

and other sorts of malarkey.

What's different about the Malle Mile,
it's not too serious, it's a lot of fun,

it's open to anybody, that just
wants to bring their bike

and chuck it down the track and it
actually goes back to the grass roots

of motorbike racing. That's really
where the custom bike scene started.

It's people taking their bike
that they ride every day,

and taking bits off it to make it go
faster, race it down the road.

What's the Trip Out? A lot of
people get the wrong impression

of it 'cause they think
it's a chopper show.

Yes it is a chopper show but
it's also a culture show.

You get to see good bikes,
be with your good friends,

giving people a sense of freedom,
a bit of hope I suppose.

A lot of people go and they've
got this wannabe hard man image.

Fuck all that shit mate.
It's no good, is it?

Sometimes you want to let your hair
down and just dance to the Bee Gees.

The Trip Out's great although
it's a massive headache

and I will say that on camera.
It's a bigger headache than

any of you can imagine.
Logistical stuff, councils,

noise police, health and safety,
fire risks, and generally

the man not wanting you to
have a good party, innit.

Yeah the chopper scene at the Trip Out
is... this is what people would have done

in the 60s and 70s. They had the
chops and during the whole era

of build what you've got and
people were doing Triumphs,

they were doing Harleys, whatever
they could get hold of.

That's what you see here.
It's not all about the shine

and the sheen, it's about
what gets you down the road

so everything's purpose built and
that's what I like about it.

Well we bought a mini-bike
and we were sitting there not

doing anything on it, eating
breakfast, and we said yeah

we should build a mini-bike,
got a picture up like a Taco,

60s mini-bike, 3-speed with
reverse, so 4-speed I suppose,

wheel barrow wheels, with a
CG125 rear sprocket.

Got a show field pass, and
we're going to try and do the

chop slalom if it's still on.
It's a bit wet so the tyre

compound's not
really ideal on it.

But if we can enter it,
we will.

Everybody wants to come to Dirtquake.
It's the coolest go fast event.

I've heard all sorts of whacky
and weird rumours about it all

but I'm here now and yeah,
looking forward to it.

I'm weird and whacky so
why not get involved?

It's a dirt track race mainly
for people who may not have

raced dirt track before,
to give them a taste.

It's not professional racers,
it's amateurs and some of them

are very amateur and some of
the amateurs are quite professional

but no-one's here for the money,
no-one really cares who wins or loses,

the spectators don't
know who wins or loses.

The only guy who cares who
wins is the guy who won

and the guy who came second,
he would have liked to win.

No-one else cares.
You don't need a race bike,

you don't need any experience.
You turn up and race.

It's just something a bit different,
it's not racing showroom motorbikes

that are all the bloody same,
that all make the same noise.

It's a celebration of happiness
first of all and I think,

happiness on two wheels so it's
a way to introduce people and

tell them that that's fun, it's
not that dangerous, it's friendly,

and you don't need to have
a $30k bike to have fun.

So this bike my friends bought,
oh look it's a number 1.

My friends bought this on eBay for
£11 and handed it to me and

were like 'you wanna race it?'
and I'm like 'sure'.

At Dirtquake, I saw a lot of
messing around but not a lot

of bad crashes 'cause I think
it's a great start from somebody

who wants to get into flat track.
Go to Dirtquake, you can take any bike.

You can go back to work
on Monday and say

'l raced my motorbike this
weekend' and you really raced it.

I like being able to tell people I'm a
motorcycle racer. Whatever my results are.

When I first started riding
motorbikes, there were no other women.

I didn't know anybody that rode a
motorbike that was another woman.

There is no getting around the
fact that it was boys club

and the women who had been
riding 20 years before me,

they experienced it ten fold.

Yeah very sexist, misogynist,
very... the club culture of like...

women are property and they never
ride, they're never part of anything,

they don't own anything.
It's horrendous actually.

Women still get a hard
time, you know, as a girl

pulls up on a bike,
it's a big bike, guys are like

'oh is she going to drop it?'
but you know what, I think

this scene in particular is
supportive of women riders.

The coolest thing I've noticed
about this show in particular is

there's more female bike
builders here as well.

So it's not just riders and
girls like us that make clothes

but girls that are wrenching
and building their own bikes

and showing them.
And that's really inspiring to me.

People don't really care
too much about my gender.

They care more about the product,
but for me, my gender, I've had

a very lucky experience and I
know a lot of women who have not.

And I empathise with that and I
also am trying to help change that

the way that they're trying to
change it and men are following suit.

Men are participating in this
social change just as hard as

the women are. I feel like
they're helping because

they realise that it's important.

It's a far more inclusive market.
It's far more, both female friendly

and I think to a certain
extent, family friendly.

And what's amazing is
that the bike media, the

traditional bike media,
doesn't seem to have noticed.

I see way more women on the
road, I see more riding

groups pop up and I see a lot
on social media which is great

That's where a lot of people are connecting
and we encourage people to connect.

There's a big buzz word
all over now about feminism

and women doing it for themselves
and I think motorcycling

has just maybe become a part of that.
I think it's a good timing thing

with the custom scene
coming to the fore and then

it happening around the same
time as a lot of other things

in women's lives.

We have the potential to change
the industry for the better.

Women are fitting in
in a different way.

They're exposed directly to
stories about other strong women

who are coming up on
their own and doing this.

But right now you're dealing
with a lot of women who are

best known for Insta-fame
and that's dangerous.

They're riding, they're racing,
they're doing really interesting things

but it's really easy
to write them off

Looking at some of the more
trendy Instagram photos and

things for women in motorcycling
that are happening right now,

you can look at it as an
extrapolation of old Easy Riders

in a negative way, or you can
look at it in a positive way

because they're not draped
on the bike not moving,

they're riding it themselves.

It's a fine line to get a
woman on a motorcycle

to empower her as
well as the machine.

And I think a lot of my
fellow photographers

actually fallen down on that
whereas being a woman

and shooting women,
has actually been a lot easier

for me than it maybe would
be for one of my colleagues,

men colleagues that is.

It's more about women
opening up motorcycle riding

to other women right now
and the community that I've met

through that is just amazing.

We did not mean to start
Babes Ride Out at all.

Well, Anya and I had been
friends for a little while,

and we wanted to go camping
together and then we decided

to open it up to everyone,
all women, so we posted a

really shitty Instagram flyer
and before you knew it, we were

getting messages from girls
all over the United States.

It just grew exponentially as
we used social media to reach

out and tried to meet these
ladies. It just creates this

safety bubble. No-one's cooler
than the next person.

We're all the same this one weekend.
You'll see a 60 year-old grandma

hanging out with a 21 year-old
girl. They're having a beer together

and talking about where they
ride, who they are, what they do.

The idea of teaching
women how to ride or at least

giving them their first go on a bike.
Me and the girls got together

and said, well our boyfriends
taught us to ride in Asda car parks.

What do girls do if they don't
have a friend or a boyfriend

that just has a little bike
that they can give it a go on

but they really want to
get into it.

My thought was, create a network
that's based in something

deeper than Instagram, hashtags,
and a t-shirt you can buy for $10

and actually connect these
women so yeah we look like

we're having a blast on social
media but it's so much deeper.

It's truly a network.

With the younger generation
maybe, of motorcyclist,

it's a little bit less like
you're a female motorcyclist,

you're a male motorcyclist,
we're all just motorcyclists.

The distinction is not so important
any more which I think is really cool.

There's many times in my life when
I've asked myself the same question

'why do I build custom bikes?'
because I'm definitely not rich

and I've struggled most
of my life to pay the rent.

Just be real, why do we customise
anything? We like to show off.

I don't play golf,
my father plays golf and I said

‘why the fuck do you like playing golf?'
and he said 'it's the game that

you can't play perfectly but it's
that trying to do something perfect'.

I'm like 'that's the dumbest thing
I've ever fucking heard'.

- Son what do you do?
—- I build these bikes.

- You built a perfect one yet?
- No

- You think you can?
- No

It's kind of like playing golf, you think
you're going to get perfect. You're not.

I was the kid on my block that
took everybody's bicycles apart

and maybe didn't get them all
back together all the time so

their parents were always
yelling at my parents.

But that passion for how things
worked, is what drove me.

I have this disease of making,
I want to make stuff

but I've never been happier
since I've been making stuff. So...

The whole time you're working
on these bikes, you can't wait

until it's done. But then the
minute it's done, it's done.

Now what? You start another one.

You know what? I love making things
and motorcycles are just my favourite.

I like cars but it's just
it's a little too much for me

and you spend years building a car
and a motorcycle, you can get it out,

you can get all your creative visions
out and to me it's just as cool.

All the skills and craft,
all the engineering,

and then also getting the
aesthetic and artistry

built into it,
is such a fun process for me.

That's why I think it's a
worthwhile pursuit, even though

it is just a frivolous thing,
it's just a silly motorcycle

but that combination
makes it more than that.

To me, I'm a caretaker of that bike.
It belonged to somebody before

and it'll belong to somebody after me.
I'm taking and making it into

something new and different.
I don't want to be remembered personally

but I want the brand to be
remembered and to be thought of

inside the motorcycling timeline as...
we helped this thing.

I want to leave a little something
of me for later when I will not

be there any more, maybe
for my son and daughter.

If he can have a little head turner,
paragraph in the custom story

I'm happy, I win.

I don't feel like I have a choice
because as soon as one is finished

there's this nagging, creeping feeling
that there's something new to be

solved or something new to be looked at.
There's new questions that have arrived.

It's a disease, isn't it?
It's like I either have to stop

what I'm doing right now or
I need to go all the way into it

because you can't get into this
a little bit, you have to do it 100%

I was helping a friend of mine,
Josh Elison, who's a great metal shaper.

He came and looked at my bike.
He's like 'wow that's fucking great'.

I looked at his and I'm like
‘yours is way better than mine'

He's like ‘no yours'.
Then we start pointing out to

each other 'no look
where I fucked this up'

'no, my fuck up is
bigger than yours'

It's like, what are we doing?

In the motorcycle world,
we're all competitive.

Like with Woolie,
Woolie built a beautiful MV Agusta

and I'm working on an
MV Agusta right now.

I love the bike that he
built, I think it's gorgeous.

So I'm here trying to do
something a bit different

with our MV but it's competitive.
I want to build a better bike

than Woolie built. Fuck yeah, I do!
I respect the hell out of him

but at the same time I want to
build a better bike than he built.

On the builder side,
competition is never overly welcome.

It's not just the competition for
customers but it's the competition

of ideas and protection of ideas
so it all gets a little touchy.

What would motorcycles be without
a little beef now and again, right?

But it just goes viral a lot
faster now because of Instagram.

I shudder a little bit.
I'm probably not going to

win any friends here but I
shudder a little bit when I see

bikes like [BLEEP] or [BLEEP],
basically just bikes that

had a few little things
unbolted and a lick of paint and

put back together again and
they're probably really nice guys

and they probably worked really
hard to earn that money but

you can't call that a custom.

Everyone used to build a bike,
take it to a show, put it on a plinth,

and that was it. You just show
off what you built. And no-one

would ride the bike.
Most of us are building custom bikes

to race at a show now instead
of building a show bike

you're building a show bike
that's for a flat track race or

for a drag race or
for a hill climb.

So Glemseck 101, this event we
are attending now is hosting the

finals of Sultans Of Sprint
sprint racing challenge.

What makes me really, really
happy and proud is that we

manage to build up a kind of
therapy for motorcycle freaks.

What we're doing is,
we call it turbo charged

flying carpet contest.

Yeah I think really what
makes Sultans Of Sprint

really, really special is it's
something in between custom bikes

and racing bikes. It's, for me,
quite fascinating. It's all the

energy they put on working on
the bikes to make them faster.

For a six second adrenaline
shot, you know. It's completely

completely crazy. I mean,
it's pushing custom to new boundaries.

The economics of building bikes
have meant that some people

have excelled and other people
have fallen by the wayside because

it's not really a good way to make
money unless you're very, very

organised or very talented.
You've either got to create a brand

that people will pay
money for or a product

that people feel
is value for money.

It keeps going because people
are so passionate about it

and for them, making money
wasn't what got them into it

in the first place. And for them, all they
really want is a way to keep doing it.

I'm in business to
make money obviously

I'm only concerned with having enough
feed those kids and go back tomorrow.

Everybody I know in the bike
building world that has a

bike building company, struggles.

I don't know,
maybe other people are getting

rich doing it but I
don't feel like I am.

The enemy of the builder is the time.
It's always the time.

I don't know, working for ten
hours, charging for one or two,

there's just nothing in it and
if they were all brutally honest,

it's probably only a £1 or £2 an hour.

A lot of people enter the custom
bike world with a passion

which you need, but they
get taken advantage of.

People get them to build bikes,
they don't pay them what it costs

the person to build the bike, but
they try to get it on the cheap.

Take advantage of
that person's passion.

If somebody tries to
sell a bike for $40,000,

it's a lot of money but you've got
$25,000 worth of parts in

that bike. If it took that guy
six months to build that bike,

he made $15,000 in six months.

If you're building a bike and you
start from scratch every time,

then hope to find a client who
will buy it, you'll go broke.

So we launched a concept
for a batch build,

and the bikes were a success,
but we didn't really sell any.

You can build what you think
is the greatest bike in the world,

and you've got 1,000 hours
in it, and nobody likes it

so if you get it on a commission,
and you build it for them

and as you go, he's paying and
so forth, he's never happy.

You never get to
the end of that job.

You can't make a
living out of that.

But it would be very easy
to be seduced by Instagram

and things to think that
there's a living to be made

easily in the custom bike scene.
And then you have the business

people who figure out
how to sell swag and

parts and things like that.
I mean, Roland Sands is like the apex guy.

The big thing for me is I'm not
down there working on bikes all day.

A lot of what I do is convince
people to spend money with us.

I look at it as a business.
I don't look at it like

I need to do this entire
project on my own,

in order to make it authentic.

And then when you try
to put the numbers in,

and start to put the
business model together,

and start to actually figure
out what's the economics of

how this works? You find
out that there's no data to

go on, there's no real tangible
information so you've got to make stuff up

and then you go,
'well this is all bullshit'

The custom motorcycle thing
is cool and it's great

and it is a business but
to be successful at it,

we all have to do
something else.

Our parts line is what actually
brings in the steady income

on a regular basis. We build
a bike, it gets a lot of press,

it gets a lot of media attention,
and then they come to our website

to check us out and hopefully
they leave buying a tail light

or a hat and that's
basically the business model.

People that I don't want
to deal with is cheap,

cheap people that want to
nickel and dime on each project.

How much is this? How much is that?
How much is this?

It's hard to deal with people
that don't understand what

it takes to be a craftsman.

I don't have a millionaire coming up to
me, wanting me to build

a $50,000 bike.
I've got blue collar dudes, a guy that

has saved a couple of bucks,
he's got three kids at home,

and he's wanting to spend
$12,000 on a really cool bike.

So I want to make sure he's getting
something really cool for his money.

I mean, these are luxury goods.
Nobody needs a motorcycle.

Certainly nobody needs a
custom motorcycle

so my client is the higher
crest of the 1% of the world.

I need movie star customers
with bigger pockets.

Our average customer has
changed quite dramatically.

We've gone from blue collar guys to
building bikes for millionaires.

My day job is my day job.
I like doing this stuff,

I don't want to make this my
work, I need that balance of

reality and this little fun
fucking motorcycle shit that we do.

I don't make money doing this,
customers are a pain in the ass.

Sometimes it's pretty hard when a
guy has been thinking about his bike

for the last year and he's
got all these ideas on paper

and he's got everything
that he wants together

and then you've got
to burst his bubble

because then he can't
afford what he wants.

The first question:
What does it cost?

And I say, well it can
cost $700 or $70,000.

What do you want to spend?

The prices, I keep it pretty simple.
I just think about how much

time is involved and how
expensive it's going to be.

I can build a bike for $20,000
or $100,000. There's no...

there's no set thing.
I don't have a minimum price.

Right now they start at around
18 and go up to about 40.

And honestly it's like surprising
how easy it is to spend

$35,000 on a $35,000 bike.

They end up going into personal
collections and that's really what

I can say about it. The level of collector
has to be consistent with the build

and I've just been really fortunate
that I've aligned with people

that get what I do.

Yeah Mama Tried is very unique.
You can go flat track racing on Friday

and go to a show on Saturday, and
on Sunday you can go ice racing

so to have a flat track race in an
NBA stadium is pretty spectacular.

We're really into dirt tracking,
flat tracking around here,

that's a big sport in this area.
So we were like ‘how can we do

an indoor race?' so we thought of the coke
syrup thing and that's how it started.

We knew the Hooligan thing was
happening. I got in touch with

Aaron Guardado and I was like,
‘so what's the deal with Hooligan?

Is there rules?' And he's like, 'no
not really, it's really just dirt ball

outlaw racing, for people who just
want to get into the sport'.

And I was like, 'alright let's have it'.

It definitely started out as... show
up at the track and race your

Harley no matter what it is.
Your street Harley slowly evolves

into a race Harley and next thing
you know you've got yourself

a full blown race bike.
What's good about the Hooligan

class is that it's a really
attainable form of racing.

Your regular Joe can go out
and race and potentially win

everything on a pretty small
budget which is really nice.

And you can have a complete
race bike for under $5,000

which is crazy. You can't have anything
competitive in any other racing

on that minimal budget.

It's great because it's
bringing a ton of new people

into the sport. A ton.

I think Sideburn was hugely
influential on re-exporting dirt track

back to the USA and getting
people interested in it again.

Dirt track racing is: you throw a
bike in the back of your pick up truck

and your leathers and you go racing
and that's what's cool about it.

Summers are crazy around here
because everyone only gets

four or five months to ride.
So in the winter everyone is like

always messing with their
stuff because you can't ride

but you're thinking about
motorcycles every day.

We just thought, what a better
way to do it, like have that stoke

in the middle of winter.
A little bit of something in the deepest

part of winter to get you
through until summertime.

The bikes that we chose,
maybe they're not the best

of any genre that they're in,
I mean some of them are,

it still fucking rules. It doesn't
matter that it's not perfect.

The person that was building
that bike had an idea what

they wanted, they went after it and
didn't care what other people thought.

We came to Mama Tried show,
we got invited while we were at Sturgis.

That was a boost of
confidence while we were at Sturgis.

It sucks.
Nobody got our bike whatsoever.

A lot of old people with
golf carts and shit and then

we got the call to come to Mama Tried.
I think it's a cool thing.

And I think that's had a lot to do with
why these little grass roots shows

can become huge but still stay cool
and relevant and not a total sell-out.

We're all into two wheels.
There's so many different genres

and things you can fit it
when it comes to two wheels.

I want them all in the same room.
I want to split up all their groups

so I don't put a big pile of
choppers in the corner so all the

chopper kids can go make a
dark corner and hang out and

talk shit on everybody because they're
too cool to talk to anybody else.

I want to take them out of
their comfort zone,

put them next to a race guy
and I want to see one of those

chopper guys on a race bike
at Flat Out Friday the next year.

They can hate 95% of the
bikes but they'll love one.

Or vice versa. Some of those
bikes I'm... I don't like them.

But I know that they're going to
like them and when I go

out there, right now, and that
sun's just like that and I see

the bike that I don't like,
gleaming in the sun and

there's people all around it
that are just loving it,

What do you say? It's perfect. It's great.

I feel like we lucked out and did
something at a really perfect time

in what's happening with motorcycling.
Maybe it'll be like this for a long time

or maybe it's just a little
space in time but

it's cool to be around
it while it's here.

Winter time changes between
ice riding and building.

It's a labour of love
at the end of the day.

Building these bikes
is something I can do

to get away from life.
It's something I can do to just relax.

It truly is fun and it allows
my imagination to go wild.

I think that would be difficult
today, to start up and do

something that hasn't
already been done.

We made it legit to do
whatever you want

because we didn't follow
any kind of rules.

I was the only guy who was a racer
who was building custom bikes.

It was this crazy blend,
like taking those two things

and smashing them together was the
most natural thing in the world to do.

What I wanted the company to be,
what the inspiration was for the company

it was the English
street biker scene.

For a kid coming up in the
sport bike community,

to see... here's your sport bike, but
this is what it could be turned into,

and it was mind-blowing to me.

The custom bikes that get
built now often begin with

a collaboration going through
photos of examples of bikes

that someone has seen on social media.
Custom builders get really edgy if

you claim that it was your
bike where they got the idea.

Every custom builder came up
with every idea they've ever had

on any bike they've ever built and I'd
be the last person to suggest otherwise.

You have to obey the laws of
physics, you can break the laws

of man all you want, but the
laws of physics are not bendable

so you have to find a way
to work within them.

Building a good custom bike,
to make it look good in the metal

and actually physically work as a
piece of transport, is fiendishly hard.

Taking things that don't work
and making them work

and connecting those lines,
it always inspires thought.

It makes people think. It's not just
'hey look at this custom bike!

it's an idea.

To me, less is more so
when you look at the bikes

that I do, they almost look
like they wouldn't work.

I guess it's a simple process that's
difficult to do, if that makes sense.

This is a bike I'm doing for
the Show Class People's Champ.

It's for the Born Free show
this year up in California.

I basically modified the frame
how I wanted it to look.

I actually built the
bike around the tank.

So I built this tank a few
years ago and it's been

sitting on my shelf and I've
been waiting to use it.

There is going to be straight bars
that are clean. There's going to be no

controls on them with an
internal throttle.

It'll just look like a nice clean
little short chop but it's a soft tail.

That's basically the gist of what
this one's going to look like.

Don't do design for the sake of
design because that's not design.

You're not solving any problems,
you're creating a problem by doing that.

I think it goes back to the
simplicity of the design

so anything that is simple
and elegant it will be

more or less timeless. As soon as you
add more than what should be there,

it can date quite quickly.

A component or a complete machine,
whatever it is, designed to perform

properly, at its best possible
way, it automatically somehow

becomes a beautiful object,
in this case a motorcycle,

inherently it's beautiful.

Honestly, I'll block an
engine up against a wall,

move tyres back and forth,
and get the wheel base things down

to where I'm starting to feel it,
and then I'll take pictures of it

and I'll just sketch on the
pictures with a pencil.

So every time it needs a
part designed, I do it in

Solid Works.
I design every part myself.

I'm a designer from the first
through to the end.

Recently, I had the opportunity
to build a bike with my own

aesthetic. From that, it kind of
opened up this huge door to

make me want to come
to work and create art

that happens to be
on a motorcycle.

Typically I like to try and get as
much creative freedom as possible

but some customers just
want to have some say.

That definitely disrupts
the creative process.

So we try to do a couple
of spec builds a year

where we just build
what we want and sell.

Customers obviously bring in money so
we try to do a few of those as well.

Some are great and some not so great.

There are times that people
come in and they say:

Hey I saw this bike on
Bike EXIF or Bike Shed or

Pipeburn and it's like:
I want you to make me this bike.

It's like, no. Somebody else
made that bike. That's their bike.

I'm not going to make that bike.
Or they ask us to repeat what

we already made that they
saw on Bike EXIF. I'm like:

No I don't want to do
that, that's no fun.

I negotiate for white card every time.
We discuss, I try to know

who is in front of me and we
try to know what are his hobbies

his passions, what he likes really.
And I will do what he wants

not what he asks.
There's a bit of a difference.

All you need is *that*. Remember
that. All you need is *that*.

But you can have as
much of that as you want

but it don't give you style though.
*That* don't buy taste, does it!

It's really interesting to see
nowadays if you go to a show

like Yokohama Mooneyes.
There's so many incredible builds there

that... a lot of people actually say
that the best customised Harleys

come from Japan.

What blew me away about
that bike was that...

the way he just so effortlessly
encapsulated everything

in one bike. It was like, woah!
And then he goes back to

building a chopper or something.

With builders at the top of
their game, the skill set is

kind of more than the style.

One of the most interesting
characters is lan Barry

of Falcon Motorcycles.
He made 3 or 4 of the most

beautiful custom bikes ever, selling
for insane amounts of money.

I like the word friction.
Friction is responsible for

the conversion of energy so
to not embrace seemingly

conflicting ideas and trying to
hold them in the same container

as long as you can,
engineering and art,

whatever the two are,
they're always there

but that friction is necessary
and I play with that. I swim in it.

I antagonise it.

It's really difficult to
create a signature style.

But then you get people like
Autofabrica and they've managed to get

that kind of signature look
and they do it beautifully.

We've got DNA that we've
developed from very early on

so it's very easy for us to
apply that same principle

that same formula to
anything that we build and

designing a bike that doesn't
conform to a trend but

almost gives a nod to
whatever design era

you want that bike to
be applicable for

and having a modern
take on it.

We're not constrained by other
people telling us what to do

or how to design something.
We just come up with an idea

and just put it in metal.

The brand, the business,
our skill sets have all evolved

and it's gone from being
a custom bikes shop

to coach builders. Our skill sets lend
us to coach building a motorcycle.

So the Type 11 project with Yamaha,
I feel like we've captured a modern

take on a café racer, dare I say it.
I think every designer's dream

is to create concepts and
not water them down

and what we like to think is
that we've created that but we have

got real world constraints as well.

One of the most important things
is the marriage of form and function.

I like to have something
aesthetically pleasing

but it has to work too and
perform the function so there's

often that compromise,
the left and right side of the brain,

which is like turmoil.
Your brain is fighting with itself.

As an engineer,
the thing that I really enjoy is

when someone says
‘you can't do that'.

Fuck you, I'm going to do it!

When it's not supposed
to work or be that way,

And you can find a way
to get it all to balance out

and all to be aesthetic,
all to still function.

I want somebody to be able
to ride around Europe or America

on our bikes but if somebody
else wants to do a show bike,

they may be showing their skills off
rather than talking about a bike

that's rideable. It's just saying
‘this is a piece of art'.

Custom bikes are as rideable
as the builder wants them to be.

The first thing is,
they all have to work

so I ride them all.
They all work.

Even if it's going in a museum,
that's a given.

Every part on a bike has
got to work perfectly.

I want my bikes to be
ridden as hard as possible

and that's typically
what I tell my clients.

I put several hundred
miles on your bike before

I gave it to you and now I want
you to ride the piss out of it.

I can think of nothing worse
than just to sit and look at it.

I'm flattered and also
insulted, simultaneously.

A bike has to have its look,
its image, but I think

that a bike that's not ridden is
defeating its purpose for being.

At this point, I would
like to create machines

that are less of a motorcycle
for people to ride

and more of a
kinetic art piece.

Fun to create and also
fun for the viewer

to figure out how it works
and spark the curiosity

‘cause my entire existence
in this culture is

revolving around my curiosity
of how things work.

A lot of custom bikes back
in the day were artistic

rather than functional I think.

There's an old thing though,
if it looks right it usually is right.

Form following function and everything
and yeah the market has changed.

For the better. I guess.

I think that putting
anything in a museum changes

how people look at it.
I see no distinction between

art and engineering. You can make pure art

without engineering but
anything that has to do with

construction has engineering involved.

This is perhaps the art of engineering.

Or the engineering of art!

They're intimately entwined.

The Custom Revolution exhibition
is an exhibit of 24 motorcycles

from around the world.
A remarkably diverse collection.

Peak examples of a renaissance
that's happened in motorcycle

culture in the last 10 years.

I was asked by the Petersen Museum
if I was interested in helping them

put together a show so it
was amazing to bring

all that stuff into an
actual museum.

There's been a lot of shows but
there's never been a museum show

featuring this scene and it doesn't
represent any particular style

but it does represent a movement
and a cultural moment.

I've been calling this a
renaissance in motorcycle culture

the likes of which we
haven't seen since the 70s.

So in this instance,
I'm hoping that framing them

within a museum will make people
think a little bit differently

about what's happening with motorcycles.

They're eccentric,
each one is unique,

but they're design objects.
They all needed to be special

so I thought 'we need wow bikes".

So what connects all these motorcycles
is a purity of vision and intention

but mostly it's the success of
how they've realised their ideas.

These trends will go away
but the style remains.

It's one of the first times that
I've been aware in the motor industry

where manufacturers have actually
listened to what people want.

Before, it was 'this is what you need',
this is what you must have'

Now it's 'shit we've got to work out
what you guys want

otherwise you're going to buy
the other man's one.'

If you look at Yamaha,
BMW, Triumph, Moto Guzzi,

they are actively courting
the custom scene.

If it wouldn't have been
for this whole scene,

I think we would never have
made a Nine T for example.

But when we started seeing the
shift towards these kind of bikes,

then you saw this whole new wave
custom scene, that triggered us

to start working on a
bike like that on our own.

We saw that there's definitely
an audience out there

We are more or less 30% of the
total sales of the company.

Until now, we sold something
like 46,000 bikes.

We've always been in the custom
scene, from the very beginning.

Some of our first parts and accessories
date back to the early 1900s.

So within just a few years
of the company coming alive,

there was ways to make the
motorcycle different, custom.

When you buy a Harley,
it's basically the down payment

and then people load it up
with all the accessories.

I think that's part of the reason
Harley is so successful.

Because you're buying a factory bike,
but then you can spend another $15,000

on trinkets.
Triumph has just noticed that.

They now do the Bobber,
they'll be 150 accessories for it.

So that's their approach
to the custom scene.

I was working on a bike in
the background and I wanted

to do a series, I contacted Triumph
France to get some bikes.

They told me no, we don't give
you bikes because we have our own

package to custom the bikes directly
in the shop, in the Triumph shop.

That's not custom, of
course, it's accessories.

I've just bought a new van,
I went to the showroom and I

specced my van out.
I could say I've got a custom van

because I've got this,
that and the other on it

but it's not a bloody custom is it?

If the scene is offered
to you on a plate,

and the manufacturer says
'here's the bike, here's the helmet

here's the jacket, go off,
live your own dream.'

If you want to buy into that, fantastic.

When a movement gains speed,
larger companies will want to try

and capitalise on that movement
because there's going to be people

who literally can't afford
artisan, one-off produced

motorcycles 'cause they cost
a lot of money so if you can buy a

custom bike for £10k,
then that's brilliant.

I think it depends on whether
they're doing it as tokenism,

or whether they're doing it in
some way that they actually

believe in it.
Some brands do it very well,

but others just pretend to do it.

That's not what this is all about
for me and people like me.

It's not what it's about.
Nice things to look at but

there's no heart and there's no soul.

The real hardcore guys that will
build bikes, they always stay

below the radar and they're
building their own bikes and

they don't give a shit
what the brands do.

It has to be one person,
with one vision, working on

a concept. It's not a corporation
that says a custom bike should

look like X,Y,Z.
Oh we're going to make 10,000 of them.

Or even 10 of them.
It's a one off.

It's the line between
true life and lifestyle

and true community and corporate.

Essentially, what the manufacturers
are doing are using us to sell bikes.

Custom bikes that have been
funded by manufacturers

to appeal to an audience...
Is that marketing gone mad or

does it defy what it actually
means to have a custom bike?

A perfect example of that is a
manufacturer making a Bobber.

When you think about that...

So that Bobber's possibly the
worst bike I've ever seen

in my life. It's just the front half
of the Bonneville with no thought

applied to the rear end of it
and the one thing that really

fucks me off about companies
like that is, change the name of bikes.

Don't call a bike a Bobber
because that is a style of bike.

And now if you Google
Triumph Bobber,

their fucking bike comes up and
you wanna see Triumph Bobbers.

I don't think it comes through
as genuine to people in these

sub-cultures. I think they feel
like it's a money grab and

it turns a lot of people off
because we all got into this

because it was something different.
You don't want to be in a parking lot

with 50 of the same bike.
You want yours to stand out,

you want it to be yours.

It's really easy if you are
in a scene that's really

quite niche and quite cool
to get quite uppity when other

people start coming along and
going 'l'll have a piece of that'.

And the manufacturers come on board
then the brands come on board.

And this scene, the secret of its
continued survival is evolution.

And to keep moving and the
manufacturers coming on board

is part of that evolution.
We should embrace it.

But I think it's important for
manufacturers to understand

a new blood that is
getting into the industry

and it going to take us forward.
We know that we need to

stay away but be part of it
without being too...

Now the manufacturers are
taking note of this and seeing

what an appetite there is
for custom bikes that they're

starting to do it themselves.
Commercially, that's very sensible,

but there's still always going to be
that appetite for there only being one.

You'll never see another one like it.
That's pretty powerful.

The custom motorcycle scene has totally
revolutionised the motorcycle industry.

The motorcycle industry was in the
doldrums and sales were way down,

and there is no enthusiasm
and new ridership is way down.

It's a sign that there's a
big problem in the industry.

So the custom scene has been
a life force. It's injected new life

into the motorcycle industry
and that's really exciting.

What a cool place to be,
to be changing the direction

of a many billion
dollar global industry.

We have this official
customisation programme.

We work with builders
around the world.

It's one of the ways in which
we can both support

and encourage the custom
ecosystem that way.

Within India, Royal Enfield has
been the most customised

motorcycle for a very long time.

The world of customisation
allows us to maybe be seen

by people who wouldn't necessarily
have considered our brand.

There's a lot more to Royal Enfield
and by doing these customs,

we can hopefully broaden people's
perception of what that is.

So the Sinroja brothers were an
interesting coming together of things

quite accidentally.
Rahul and Birju are Indian brothers,

Indian company,
everybody's living in Leicester...

I love the story about the fact
that we were Indians,

we grew up with these bikes,
we grew up in India,

we were set free to
do whatever we want

as long as it was a cool idea,
they were always on board.

It was more like friends
just handing out building bikes

rather than a corporate giant
saying 'here's a bit of money,

do that, I'll see you in
two months time."

Basically, we were approached by
Adrian from Royal Enfield saying

would I be interested in working
with them and we would be getting

the Interceptor to work on and
obviously we jumped at the opportunity.

The guys at Royal Enfield have
got an amazing team.

I'm not being paid to say this,
but they're all genuinely

enthusiastic and
interested in motorcycles.

We don't place a strong
limitation of any sort

on the builder. For us, we have
our motor, there in the bike.

That's the core of that bike,
it's the motor.

Just keep some of the character
but we're not going to tell you to

limit your creative vision because
of some idea that makes a difference

because it doesn't in the end.
Motorcycles are cool.

The cooler the motorcycle,
the more people will like it.

Please make us a cool motorcycle.

With in house builds like Lock Stock,
those are where we want to really

push the capability of the
bikes to the next level.

This is why we bring in Harris,
because they are chassis masters.

This has been great,
yeah it's been really good.

It's created a lot of interest
within our factory because

we haven't done a drag race before
so, perhaps I shouldn't say this,

I think it's come out pretty well
so we're all quite proud of it.

This was a competition/custom bike
so it needed to look nice as well.

In terms of creativity, El Solitario of
Spain, they're in a different league.

They march to the beat
of a different drum.

They make truly amazing
machines, really controversial,

We have a voice in the
motorcycle world and

for good or for bad,
but at least we have the right

to choose who we work
with and with that voice,

we decide how we use it.

So we realised we were
strong at communicating and

working with others so that's
how the Desert Wolves were born.

When we first started
talking about Desert Wolves,

everything seemed so complicated.
We were so excited,

we couldn't believe we were going
to make such a dream project.

It was too beautiful to be true
and too difficult to be possible,

it seemed to us.
And one thing we love at El Solitario

is jumping into the void.

When we start a project,
we have to be loyal to ourselves

and to what El Solitario is,
and brands want to work with us,

it's because they like what we do.

The motto of the Desert
Wolves was collaboration.

It was the central axis
of the adventure.

We wanted to do absolutely
everything, from the helmets

to the bags, to the tents,
to the motorcycles

When David from El Solitario
approached us for his

Desert Wolves project,
he was looking for a very cool

looking fabric so we wanted
to develop a comfortable,

lightweight, protective denim
that even passes the CE standard.

We had been flirting for
a while with El Solitario.

He approached us to say
'we're trying to do a project

which is trying to show a
more adventurous side of

a motorcycle and we think
it should be a Harley'.

I said 'OK let's
do an adventure'.

Of course, it's El Solitario
so there's a high level

of abnormality. We're going to
go to somewhere impossible

with an impossible motorcycle
and impossible clothes but

it's going to work. Let's leave
Western civilisation and get into

the sands of the Sahara.

We like their attitude because
they're that embodiment rider,

the hooligan approach
to Dakar riding.

Imagine for Harley Davidson to
develop a scrambler programme

make it real, that would
cost millions.

So we're actually a very economic
way of exploring future options.

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We've been really amazed at how
well the bikes were performing

in the rocky terrain, harsh
conditions, warm temperatures,

and we also know they're
pretty rough riders

so they were giving the
bikes a good beating but

there were no major issues,
that was a good sign of confidence

as well in our bikes.

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We road them home, that's unbelievable,
I mean all the shit we went through,

yeah they survived.
It was hard, it was fucking hard,

It was a huge adventure, a real one.
It was a fucking real one.

And we survived ten days
in the desert.

I never enjoy the victories
when they happen,

I enjoy the victories
afterwards, in the aftermath.

And even after a war, I can't,
I just don't see it happening.

I need some... relax to be like,
fuck, we did it.

Things can only really be
sharp and on the edge

and cool when they're small.
As soon as it gets too big,

it's too diluted, it's just
not fresh any more

and that happens with everything.
So yeah, the bigger it gets,

the blunter it gets, I guess.

I think that the great
shame in any phenomenon

is when it gets rooted in itself.
You can disappear up your own arse

in a puff of niche smoke if you're
not careful. You've got to evolve.

Because it can't stand still.
If it stands still, it will die,

which it nearly did in 2008.

Have we crested the wave?
Are we on the back side of the wave?

Or the front side?
I'm really intrigued

with how things will change
but they will change.

As long as there's motorcycles on the
road, there'll be custom motorcycles.

And I think the scene
will adapt and change

through different kinds of trends.

Like many other things,
social media has opened the window

on any niche worldwide
and there's guys interested.

I thought it was going to
do like a fucking souffle.

The only risk is if it goes too much,
we lose the spirit, the philosophy.

It is tricky because
I feel the same way.

I get scared. The bigger it gets,
the bigger it's going to eat itself.

If something's really good,
then everybody likes it,

and it gets bigger and bigger,
and then becomes this

great big snowball
careering out of control.

The internet speeds up
evolution too quickly

and we should've been allowed
to have 10 or 15 years

before it got bitten into by
the big corporate companies

and then it becomes generic
and they white wash it all and

it becomes a pastiche of itself.

You say people buy cheap
motorcycles and fix them up

but I don't see that
nearly as much as

I see people buying
$10,000 motorcycles

on a credit card and you see it
at things like Babes Ride Out.

90% of people are on a Triumph
Bonneville or a Harley 883.

They're not on anything
other than that.

So it's a new world in that way.

It's not a sub-culture
any more though is it?

If you want to keep something
super niche and to yourself,

fuck off and do it on your own.

People who are opening a
restaurant or a cafe,

think about opening a
motorcycle cafe.

Anybody who's got a
garage and a blow torch

is now a custom bike builder.
You have to remember,

that to build one, it's a
tremendous amount of time

and cost for someone goes
into that so I think there will

only ever be a certain audience
for whom they have the capacity

to undertake those
kinds of projects,

either as the consumer or the builder.

We don't want to be part of
the mainstream like everyone else

and as soon as this
custom motorcycle scene

that we've all been part of
and loved since we were Kids,

becomes the cool thing,
I think we're probably going to shun it.

Not motorcycles themselves, 'cause
I'm always going to ride a motorbike

and I'm always going
to work on my own bikes

and build my own bikes,
and so are my friends.

For me, I'm just going to be
in my workshop, drinking beers

and working on bikes really.
I don't give a shit where

the scene goes. I'm not too
worried about where it goes

or how it goes or
how it gets there.

Seeing what everyone else
is doing and pushing yourself

away while adding and pushing
forward into something else,

is constantly racing away
from that tsunami of

mass culture, I guess.

Lots of people we know who are
very famous have become quite quiet.

We used to notice they're very hard at
work and they've stepped back and

are thinking about what they're
doing and we've seen this year

bike builders drop out
and close their doors.

I think everyone's starting
think, well where we going next?

What's coming next?
What are we going to do?

How's this going to evolve,
grow and keep on going?

And it will, but it's just
how it's going to happen.

Personally,
I don't have any option.

I don't have any training or
qualifications in any other direction.

I don't have any fall back,
there is no pension, there is no

whatever, social security.
Nothing. So there's just

doing it forever. There is no plan.

Let's be honest, the combustion
engine is not going to be around

for that long so let's enjoy it
while we've got what we've got

and then when the
next thing comes along,

let's make that great and the
people who do adapt

are going to be the ones who
will always be the trend setters,

or the ones who come up
with exciting new ideas

and I'd like to be one of them.

I'd love to get my hands on
an electric bike and try

customising an electric bike
because I definitely think that

electric bikes are very close to
being where we're headed.

Once you are understanding that today,
the guy who lives in Santa Monica

is connected to the guy
that lives in Milan,

and the guy who lives in Jakarta,
and understand that the problems

we have right now facing us,
they're all the same.

Then electric bikes or alternative
vehicles, as we call them,

make a lot of sense.

Electric bikes are here
and they're viable

and they're a lot of
fun to ride because

they have 100% torque at ORPM.

That's a recipe for Yee ha!

I would like to see more
customisers embrace

electric bikes and think
about other things.

Try something new. If you're
taking this much time and

energy into it, let's
make a real impact

on the industry and not
just a style impact,

maybe there's room for
an engineering impact too.

To be honest, I'm quite
intrigued with electric vehicles.

I've been studying them
a little while now

and they do interest me.

The silent revolution... and it's
going to sneak up on us

and we're not going to be
aware of it but it's going to

suddenly take over and I'm all for it.
I think it's great.

That means we can ride
stealth and we can ride free

without having the
Cops On our ass.

You're going to go to jail if they
catch you with a motorcycle

in the forest but on an electric
one, they can't catch you

because they can't hear you.

It's kind of the shitty thing
about human beings, right.

The know change is necessary
but you give them ten steps of

how to change things and
they're all painful

things to address, nobody
is going to fucking do it.

So if you give them something
that's easy and understandable

and exciting, then change
is imminent, you know.

We have all these
manufacturers building bikes,

watching people
lose riding spaces,

watching people lose
access to tracks,

and nobody's doing
anything about it.

But they're iterating on technology
to the tiniest percentage

to sell you a new bike,
but they're not addressing the need

for an electric power train or
a quiet bike or the ability to

reconfigure your investment in
a way that makes it sustainable

or OK for the modern world.

Sooner or later there's
going to be a mainstream

electric motorbike that's going
to have all the boxes ticked

and everyone will be like
'yves, I get it now,

makes sense,
I want one of those!"

It may not replace their garage
full of stinky two strokes

but if it can stand on
its own two wheels...

Anyway, you want to be
future-proof, in a way as well.

It's interesting if you look at a
product that we've done like Live Wire,

which is our first electric Harley.
If you have the opportunity to ride

a Live Wire, you'll have a blast.
It's good fun to ride,

very futuristic and it does
add to the emotional

experience on the bike.

The only thing restricting
electric bikes at the moment

is the stigma attached to it.
There's a new technology there.

The world's changing and
you can embrace that or not,

but those that embrace it will
be producing some fantastic bikes

that won't have an
internal combustion engine.

The biggest thing was the
potential behind them.

What can we build here?
We don't have to adhere by

any of the things that
we have to worry about.

I can chuck away the rule book.
I don't have to worry about exhausts,

heat, vibration, fuel, oil, nothing.

It's a really interesting prospect
and that's what I'm looking forward to

from a customising point of view.

Right now, this question of
what is next, the notion of

a true motorcycle for
the 21st century,

which I haven't seen,
which doesn't exist.

And I want to be there
to see it, to ride it,

and maybe even to make it
and that's a real powerful idea

and something that... my hair just
stood on end thinking about it.

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