While the motorcycle business is in a slow period, the market for customs of the type manufactured by Big Dog has been particularly hard hit. Coleman’s plans to make parts for the bikes should be good news for current owners.
Link: Wichita Business Journal
scritch says
Sorry, but the super-custom cruiser fad has run its course. I’m guessing all the guys who wanted a ready-made “custom” have bought one.
akaaccount says
really, I mean what are the guys who buy Big Dog choppers going to wear them out by riding them?
todd says
not by riding them, by starting them.
-todd
Pushrod says
To paraphrase the old boat cliche’, “The worst thing you can do to a bike is ride it; the second worst thing is to NOT ride it.”
Ken says
So how long until we hear that OCC is going out of buisness? If they aren’t on TV anymore and no one is shelling out for a theme bike, how do they plan on staying in buisness?
TARFU says
Go back to what they were doing before building bikes.
B50 Jim says
Has anyone checked the market for used super-custom cruisers? Buy one for megabucks, sell it for pocket change, if you can find anyone who wants it. That whole custom chopper thing relied on the Ponzi scheme that was the economy before the bubble popped. Fun while it lasted. Won’t happen again during this lifetime.
powermatic says
What? That’s shocking-apparently the market demographic for non-rideable garage ornaments–i.e., middle aged scenesters with a few extra bucks due to an over-clocked economy–has dried up like a tumbleweed. As a point of reference, these were the same guys who started sticking 50 dollar stink bombs in their pie holes the second they saw Bruce Willis staring at them from the cover of ‘Cigar Aficiondo’ magazine, so it’s hardly surprising that they ran for the family checkbook immediately upon hearing the magic phrase “I’m gonna’ put my size 12 up your ass” bellowing at them from the TeeVee. For the record, I feel real and honest sympathy for all out of work owners and employees, but even a blind monkey could have seen this coming from the first installment of ‘OCC’. I’d even go so far as to hope the Tuttles have a rainy day fund socked away. Though somehow I doubt it.
Tin Man says
Now don’t get me wrong, I ride a Flat Track style Sporty as my daily ride, BUT, Ive seen the chopper thing declared dead about as often as Ive heard the World is running out of Oil… Neither is going to happen. Does anyone think that all those 40K bikes are going to the scrap yards? No, they will filter down to the guys who really want them. If you stop at a local Bike night you will still see the crowds around the outrageous chrome choppers and guys strutting around like it all means something. Put on a set of Drag bars instead of Apes and now you have a Street Fighter instead of a Chopper. Nothing ever really dies out, it just evolves.
HoughMade says
There is a lot of truth in what you say, but I think choppers will drop back to the owner/builder with just a few “custom builders” out there. There will be a used market, but not enough of a new market to support more than an handful of builders-for-profit. Unfortunately, the reality of business means a small builder must charge a lot more than someone could buy a new Harley or a Victory for to even come close to breaking even.
CBRian1K says
I can see the same mindset that fanned the flames of the super custom chopper fad drifting over to the cafe racer scene. Pity.
mobilus says
The fact that they’re no longer in vogue means I now want one.
Bob says
Suppose Harley-Davidson sees the train headed their way? . . . you can only introduce “this years black” so many times.
John S says
Much of the chopper boom was a availability of mortgage equity extraction. That’s probably over for at least 50 to 100 years. Five dollar gasoline won’t help either. Both my V-Max and Valkyrie will see little use this summer as neither can manage 40 miles per gallon. I’m experimenting with motorized bicycles. Thirty miles per hour, 250 miles per gallon, and they draw as big a crowd at a Harley event as a Big Dog.
HoughMade says
I have a passing familiarity with that concept.
http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2008/10/14/honda-50-powered-vintage-bicycle-project/
Chickenflaps says
hey John S, you’ll excuse me if I don’t shed too many tears for you, but here in England we’re at close to a ten dollar gallon!
John S says
But that’s your own fault since your politicians collect an eight-dollar tax on every gallon. And I hear your EnviroNazis plan to outlaw motorized vehicles. Good luck with that. But that should create a lot of jobs shoveling horse manure as you return to a Dark Age paradise.
HoughMade says
Well let’s be fare. Even at $10 a gallon, I could ride across England on $73 dollars. To ride across the continental U.S. at our prices would cost me over $200. Comparatively, they have a very low price for gas.
Paulinator says
Every time I see a custom chopper bike on the street I feel really fortunate that I ride a $hitty little Chinese scooter.
steve w says
i doubt most that really hate bikes like a Big Dog know much about them. It’s like Blah Blah Blah but yet people still like to look at them and watch people ride really cool bikes intead of 30,000 bikes painted the same 2 tone colors that are boring to ride. Sorry but I’d rather ride a 115 hp @ the RW bike than a 75 hp boring touring bike. One of the custom markets biggest problems is they had there eyes closed when the market shifted and could react. They finally built a kick butt bagger but far to late. The bagger isn’t that far off the price of a loaded SE 110 bagger. People also have no confidence in anyone but the major companies when it comes to service. That is seen when they trade for a new bike the day thier warranty runs out. They aren’t going to buy a custom bike no matter what the cost because most people have no mechanical skills beyond picking up a fork and feeding thier face. I’ll ride my custom bikes to my grave but I didn’t just go buy them. Customs will always be cool, just maybe not production customs.
kim says
Big Dog and the other companies building H-D clones only existed because for a while H-D was unable to meet demand. Build quality usually wasn’t too good either, so little wonder they wouldn’t last.
2MV8 says
I am a huge motorcycle fan. I have owned so many bikes during my years I can’t keep up with the count. I really never went for the custom cruiser market, as I thought they were always overpriced. For that matter I think Harleys were/are overpriced. As the economy draws to a screeching halt, all these bikes are a glut on the market. On Craigslist, I see these bikes going for a fraction of what they cost new. I saw an aluminum framed Bourget going for 12K, had 5k miles on the clock, 120 cubic inch S&S, 250 rear tire…..etc. These bikes in their day were fetching 40 to 50K. If you ever wanted one of these bikes now is the time to buy. BTW, I love Kneeslider, it is my favorite motorcycle webpage.
mahesh j says
I I have read the comments above and also have studied the markets. I feel we are reacting a bit prematurely I guess we need to wait and see where the markets take us. We need to realize that America has and will always be the mica of custom motorcycles. There is surely a drop in terms of demand but that is due to the credit crunch we all are facing the suppliers as well as the customers. I guess there will be a price correction on how much a custom motorcycle will cost, so that they make sense to buy again, the prices we paid earlier was due to ample credit available and shortage of supply.
As per the build quality goes each brand is different and its unfair for us to compare them and term them in a general category. Strong players will survive as usual and make a mark for them selves.
Also I believe that to survive each player needs to be different and provide a true customized motorcycles rather than follow a band wagon, after all they are in the business of custom made motorcycles, I am not trying to say that the concept of affordable customs is not relevant, I am trying to say they need to be different If you care to see all the production customs out there they look like a clones of each other there is no true personality difference between any brands. Hence straying away from the real purpose of there existence.
I have a vision that the custom motorcycle market will evolve and only the strongest and the best will survive. We will see the light at the end of this dark tunnel when the economy recovers.
Regards,
Mahesh J
P.S.: I really like what you guys at Kneeslider are doing keep it up!!!
rodman says
Does anyone know the actual stats on this ultra-custom market today? Economy has bounced back a very little bit and wonder if it’s come back at all?
thanks,
Rodman