Original subtitles

It all started in 2005.

Until then, I was working in marketing,

for an Internet company.

In 2005 though, after a few hesitations,

I have decided to take some evening mechanics classes.

Few years later, I meet Hugo, at this exact place,

but it was looking totally different, it was totally empty.

Quickly, we started being friends and...

…spending time together, evenings and week-ends.

We both decided to quit our respective job

to do what we wanted to do, and follow our passion.

I come from a relatively upper-medium class family,

with parents being pretty open-minded,

so they were willing to accept many type of things,

but truth is mechanics was totally unexpected.

They did not understand how I could choose mechanics.

For them, it was an execution job, in an assembly-line type of process,

And as a very repetitive exercice.

Which I can understand, because there is a part of thruth.

That was their conception of Mechanics, so it hasn't been easy to make them accept it.

People were saying : "Are you sure of your life choice ?"

"You really want to live from bike custom making ?" "It doesn't seem odd to you ?"

And we were believing in it, because we had to do it no matter what,

to have no regrets.

I have always been told, if you don't work at school,

you will end up on the garage way, as a mechanics.

I am not inventing it, it's a real expression still in use nowadays.

I never had to prove to anybody that it was my passion.

It was a passion for myself, so I never tried to convince my parents.

So for a little while, even though it wasn't a source of tension...

...I did my thing, not secretively, but I did it on my own.

I didn't really share it, because I had nobody to share it with.

I remember talking to my boss, who was German,

at the time I was still working in the Internet Business,

to explain him that by now I will have to quit work earlier,

so that from Monday to Friday, I could take mechanics classes in the evening.

I had all my speech prepared, because I thought

"How can I explain I obtained a Master Degree

and go back to school to learn using your hands ?"

The beauty of it is that he instantly understood,

But I remember he warned me to not talk about it to other people.

I understood his advice months later when they heard about it within the company

what I was doing

Some people came to me asking : "Why are you doing Mechanics ?"

What does it bring to you ?"

I didn't know what to tell them at this time.

Since my childhood,

I’ve always been interested in various things,

things which have a shape.

When I was a child, I was crazy about cars.

I would cut out car’s advertisements in newspapers,

to make a scrapbook.

Later on, I was absorbed by insects.

I looked at a picture book of scarabs, beetles and so on, all day long.

Then when I was at primary school, I was obsessed with monsters in Science Fiction.

I invented a new monster and drew pictures of it.

I looked up all the monsters on TV programs.

I’ve always been obsessed with something.

How can I say?

At that time I was not sure about my career plan.

If I should continue studying entomology,

which I was majoring at the university, or not...

I couldn’t forget bikes I was working on as a hobby.

It didn’t take long until I settled bikes in the center of my life.

And not only..

..as a hobby.

This is how it all began.

When I was young, I just liked to ride a bike,

because it was just cool and exciting.

No other reason.

For about the last 10 years, since many people ask me why I like bikes,

I started to think about it.

I guess I’m attracted by the vulnerability

and the thrill of bikes.

There are no other vehicles which haven’t been changed at all like bikes.

You just need your brain and riding techniques to protect yourself.

This is the point why I think bikes are as primitive tool as knives or fire.

That attracts me a lot.

Riders today and riders 100 years ago are attracted by bikes

for the same reason.

Which is the vulnerability that bikes essentially have.

And riding bikes arouses a sense of rivalry.

Before then, when I was looking at my coworkers and myself,

I had the feeling to fill my day with void,

I still felt I was drawn in the middle of a mass of people,

doing something intengible even incoherent sometimes.

Now we are only two, we can manage the project from the beginning to the very end.

And today, I like to claim the fact that I’m a white collar who turned into a blue collar, proudly.

Because I am really proud of myself for doing what I do.

I didn’t work all by myself at the beginning.

I used to work in a group.

With many other workers.

At that time,

I drew a design of a bike

and gave the others instructions to bring it into shape.

After I started my own business,

I realized that what I really wanted…

…was not to instruct the others...

but to cast my idea into shape all by myself.

It was important for me

to complete the whole process all by myself.

There are two perspectives in customizing bikes.

One is the technical aspect as a craftsmen,

for example fixing the engine,

so that it works precisely.

or fixing the cornering,

so that it runs straight.

On the other hand,

artistic performance is also required.

My parents are already dead.

They both were calligraphers and poets writing Tanka.

Calligraphy is genuinely an art, not supposed to be functional.

It’s completely different from producing a bike.

It will be quite weird if you produce a bike as an art.

As I said before, it’s not good

if the artistic perspective is stronger than the technical one and vice versa.

You cannot pursuit only the mechanical competency,

neither only the artistic competency,

for example bending some parts in an artistic way to spoil its function.

The bike which is just beautiful, and will never be functional,

doesn’t attract me at all.

In that sense..

I think it is important to keep the balance.

Calligraphy is different from producing bikes because it mainly requires beauty.

Painters express their feelings in their paints,

and sculptors in their sculptures.

Although the bike is a functional machine,

I want to express myself in the bike.

The bikes which I produce should be a part of myself.

That’s why I have to improve my inner-self to produce better bikes.

What got me involved into motorcycle is travelling.

That is the genuine reason why I started riding.

I felt I was in control.

A car feels too big, and you can get stuck.

To me, a bike meant freedom.

I felt autonomous, I really feel autonomous on a bike.

I can fix it, I can just go,

I can duck out the traffic, I can go wherever I want

I can steer around and take a closed road.

The idea was to go.

The point of motorcycling was to leave…

...To hit the road.

And that’s it, I told myself, let’s pursue, we can do it.

I knew that mechanically speaking, we could go on,

not until the end, but continue for a bit.

- We had no idea! We had no idea.

And that’s for me a journey. You don’t know what’s going to happen to you.

- You don’t know!

While riding a modern 1200GS, you know what’s coming next,

but not with an old bike.

And you have no idea who you’re going to meet, where you’re going to land..

- You don’t know if you’re going to make it.

Neither when you’ll get there.

When I live for a trip, we’ll see how that works out.

- I went for a trip once with Hugo

Yes. - No, but let me explain.

We rode from Paris to Tour,

it took us 12 hours, there is only 155 miles..

But we had so much fun. - But it was one of the best trip I had.

And I perfectly remember the teacher tells me: "If you kick it now, it will run"

So he puts some start pilote in the carburetor,

I kick it 2 or 3 times, and it starts.

I remember that I call one of my best friend, and my dad,

on both hands I end up on a voicemail,

and the only message I leave is the noise of full gas

while holding the phone at the rear of the exhaust pipe.

How dumb is that ?

But I had nothing else to say at this moment, the bike was talking for myself.

That's my favorite memories.

Recently I’m aware of the flow.

It can be replaced with continuity or harmony.

When I design a bike

I’m aware of the flow of the bike,

from the front to the tail, it has to be one continuing line.

The flow between a bike and the scenery,

has to suit in the scenery.

I realized that everything has a flow.

When I ride my bike in Bonneville for example,

I try to present it as cool as possible.

I mean the flow of producing bikes won’t finish

until a person rides it in the most suitable location.

My current theme is to align the flow until its last.

My whole life is also a part of this flow.

In the job and in my free time, I’m always aware of the flow.

I guess I am happy.

Simply because I can earn money doing what I like.

Spending money on my favourite things.

For me it is quite simple but important.

I’m happy because I’ve always been like this so far.

Although I don’t have a luxurious house with a pool,

not even a car with air-conditioner,

nor a big TV,

I can do what I want when I want.

I can come to Bonneville,

I can run the canyon in the daytime...

...and work at night,

I can sleep when I want.

I can do what I want when I want.

That is the happiest thing I could imagine.