The Kneeslider

Doers Builders and Positive People

Motorcycle Builders We Are Looking For You

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We’re looking for a few good builders. It’s no surprise to readers of The Kneeslider we have a bias toward motorcycle builders here, or any builders for that matter, who take the initiative to create their idea of the perfect motorcycle or car. Among these creators, not everyone is equally skilled in all areas and sometimes their talent is focused in one segment of the process like design. There, too, some are computer masters using CAD software to turn out lifelike images of their mind’s eye and some work on paper like DaVinci did centuries ago. Some are artists in metal, hammering, welding and polishing while others lay on amazing paint. Then there are our personal favorites, the engineering masters who take technical ideas and translate them into tangible reality and most of all let’s recognize what Buckminster Fuller called “comprehensivists” whose knowledge is wide ranging and the results of their work a wonder to behold.

When a builder’s work is shown for the first time, the reviews are often mixed. The builder, or the small company ready to produce their new model, might feel a bit slighted if everyone doesn’t recognize the obvious qualities of their masterpiece, but with their own view altered from the perspective of the many hours, months or even years that came before, they don’t see what everyone else sees. Their motorcycle could be a truly groundbreaking design carried off with mastery, it might be a simpler way of doing what used to be complex, it could be different from its use of new materials or an innovative powerplant or it might not stand out at all.

In those cases when the motorcycle is less innovative or unique, the workmanship may be first rate and the quality high and it deserves praise for that but standing next to other motorcycles of its kind, it gets lost in a sea of sameness. Have you ever gone to a custom bike show and looked at the choppers? It’s so hard to find one that stands out, it’s like trying to find your Harley at Sturgis, nice bikes, great skill, but after a while they all look the same.

Sometimes, a motorcycle can be great because of the idea, even though it’s not beautiful and perfectly executed in metal. It may look rough but it runs. Someone else may need to finish it or carry it to the next level, refining it, developing the concept and making something others might want buy.

Maybe a bike is ordinary except for one unusual idea easily missed by the casual observer. It’s the kind of thing you don’t see until you take a few minutes and all of a sudden it jumps out at you.

Modifying an existing motorcycle can be just as satisfying as building from scratch if there’s something you feel could have been done better. Not flashier paint or more chrome, but something structural, changing an essential design element to work better for you and possibly for everyone else.

The idea here is appreciation for those who do it themselves instead of waiting for the factories to do it. As new bikes are introduced and everyone is looking for another way to praise the wonderful new paint and graphics or the technical advance that results from corporate dollars beyond the reach of most garage builders, I think we need to really look for those who have taken the time and put in the effort to turn out their vision and then shown it to the world. It takes guts to do that. There are so many critics and relatively few willing to face them.

The Kneeslider is going to look a lot harder for the innovators, the builders and designers and look less at the latest and flashiest mass produced factory models. Who’s building what in their garage? What about the low volume companies turning out hand built motorcycles for the fortunate few? What are the new ideas floating around now? We’ll still cover the big factories, but we’ll try to look at what’s really different or unusual instead of trying to keep up with every latest model. We’ll also look at motorcycles from years past and comment on the ideas that came and went and those that are still with us today. I hope you enjoy the extra emphasis in this direction and as always, if you have great examples of someone putting their ideas out in the light for everyone to see, let us know, we may write them up. So, let’s hear it for the builders, keep up the great work! And let’s hear from the builders, too, show us your great work, everyone would love to see it. We’re looking.

Comments

  2. This is a welcome breathe of fresh air. Any industry is reliant on it’s grass roots and the back-yard innovator has long been the inspiration for what the factories produce.

  4. the aaron motor company would like to take this opportunity to announce the intended showcase for the forthcoming concept in motorcycles. this mockup of a proof of concept will be shown as a future look at how motorcycles will be seen in years to come. the exclusive glimpse at a new test mule for exclusive, forward thinking ideas ideas will be displayed to the public for the first time on a date yet to be determined.

    I’ll get back to you when I can get a scanner to take a decent image off of a gravy-soaked napkin!

  5. I think the design contest is a really great idea. One for people like me who have tones of ideas in on paper or in digital format. It would be great to hear what everyone else thinks of them and get feedback on what to changes and what to keep.

  6. Well said, Kneeslider. Garage innovators, small private enterprises, etc… I like where your head’s at. When I think about the current state of mass-produced motorcycle design, I can’t help but relate it to Walmart and its effect on Mom & Pop stores.

    Is it not crazy to think that only one company has dominated the American motorcycle industry since 1945? Before WWII there were hundreds of “garage innovators”, what we call individualists, making original motorcycle creations. Crocker, Cyclone, Pierce, etc… None survived the onslaught of mass-produced collectivist design. One trip to Barber’s Museum and you can’t help but be amazed by all of the innovation from the pre-war era, especially the Pre-16’s.

    My question to all you innovators out there is, what are you waiting for? And by innovators, I’m not refering to the exibitionist-chopper-custom guys, either. This is a sub-culture made up of hackers, not designers in my opinion. The American custom motorcycle industry itself has become watered-down entertainment to the point were it’s essentially just a fight to see who can stand out the most.

    There’s quite a diference between choosing to ‘stand out’ and choosing to ‘stand apart’. Don’t be mislead by corporate marketing hype, ‘standing out’ does not make you an individualist. Actually ‘standing apart’ from the masses takes a true individualist who fears not what critics may say.

    A true individualist doesn’t ‘join’ or become a member of a club, either. Once a rebellion gains too many members, it inevitably becomes the empire it was fighting to rebell against in the first place. Quite the ‘catch-22’ wouldn’t you say?

  8. okay, i just need $15,000, 3 months, and somebody with excellent welding skills, and you’ll have your revolution. any takers?

  9. Nice speach kneeslider, but when a truly innovative design (more than another V-Twin with a different tank and paint job) hits most right in the face, the natural reaction is to criticise rather than praise. It is easier to critique than it is to create. Some of your own readers should take that to heart, as well as should I.

  10. Alejandro hit the nail on the head. Motorcycle riders are more conservative regarding styling then car drivers. Most people say “wow cool” but would never buy it because it is too radical. That’s why most concepts aren’t sold. Wasn’t there the Apache bike some years ago?
    Also what is innovation? Most people see this in a motorcycle when somebody designs his own engine and chassis (like Britten or Motocsysz) so where to draw the line?

  11. Case — lots of excellent points. It is most difficult to find an engine configuration, placement, etc. that has not been done in the past to some extent. There is even a narrow V-4, mounted longitudinally (see French Dollar built in 1932)…granted it doesn’t have twin, counter rotating cranks.

    We’ve had the Industrial Revolution & the Information Revolution….I’m hoping history repeats itself with a combination of the two. The people involved with material science & computing power are thinking big. For example, think of eMachineShop as the precursor to the common household having its own mini CAD part-making appliance next to the washing machine in the basement….

    Hopefully, this will spur more entreprenuers that will manufacture just about anything. Think of the diversity and access if this type of technology is available to that extent.

    Huggy, my guess is that there are no lines to draw around innovation….. Innovation can encompass a whole new engine, chassis, or it could be something on a smaller scale….like Mike Cook’s stylish foot bracket & rear brake lever on his American Cafe Racer (see link in my name)……innovate an entire bike or each individual component.

    With the air-cooled bike on its way down the last corner, I’d like to see the Motorcycle Design Association conduct a design contest strictly devoted to designing a better-looking, fully functional radiator. The radiator is just another component like anything else. Why does it have to look like an after thought?

    Ducati-Dave…..impressive bike! wow.

  12. I’m taking welding classed right now. You’ll see stuff from me soon (no choppers, at least nothing like you’ve seen). Mainly for myself, but if there’s a market, hell ya I’ll sell you one!

  13. Earlier I mentioned, “Hopefully, this will spur more entreprenuers that will manufacture just about anything.”

    I’d like to add — manufacture just about anything including a wide & varied range of motorcycles or motorcycle parts. Case, I agree, it is absolutely crazy that the US has not had other motorcycle brands in so many years.

    However, prior to WWII must have been a great time ! ! …to have so many home-grown, high quality (relatively-speaking) motorcycles to choose.

    (that also includes the automobile…..a trip to the Auburn Cord Duesenberg museum is worth it if you are passing through Indiana.)

    Here’s to living during a time that is poised to go through that industrial/information revolution part II.

    http://acdmuseum.org/

    http://www.emachineshop.com/

  15. Yes, this does seem to be a good topic. I fully encourage people to be individuals and make what they want to make.

    Not to knock any custom builder’s out there, but let me make a clear distinction between a small-batch manufacturer and a custom bike shop.

    A custom shop will make a one-off creation based on their own personal artistic expression or by what their customer desires. There is an art form to this type of work and it’s been around since the beginning. This would be similar to automotive coach builders, who take oem parts, chop ’em and re-arrange ’em into their own creation. Custom.

    However, once a coach builder moves away from taking custom orders and begins to manufacture in small volumes, it becomes a different type of business. Think Lamborghini. They still build each supercar by hand, but as far as I know, they don’t do too much custom work at the factory.

    Confederate doesn’t build custom bikes either. All Hellcats look the same. No flashy paint, no mods. They are series built in small batches, but all of the batches are the same until the model changes. I’m not saying this is how everyone should do it, this is just how we do it. The Wraith will be made the same way. Only 250 will be made and all 250 will look the same.

    Critics may say the Wraith doesn’t look like other bikes, or it’s ugly (I’ve yet to meet someone in the professional design community who thinks it’s ugly). But Confederate doesn’t really poll the public to see if our designs are pretty. We have a philosophy here, and that philosophy is what fuels the designs. That philosophy is why I joined the company.

    While I’m on the subject of the Wraith, I would like to challenge the critics to back up their words. You line your bike design up and I’ll bring the Wraith. Come on, it’ll be fun! Be prepared though, you might be slightly impressed that a bunch of slackers from the Big Easy could engineer something so primitive and exquisite. If the board track racers of the ’20’s would’ve known how to put a knee down, this would have been their machine of choice. I extend an open invitation to any open-minded motorcycle enthusiast to visit our factory and see it for them selves. I’ll show it to you myself.

    All in all, the most significant differentiating factor between custom bikes and small-batch manufactured bikes is that the design process required to tool up for a run of high-quality manufactured bikes involves considerable testing, r&d, and capital investment. Unfortunately, this alone is enough of a deterrent to a lot of custom builders.

  16. Great idea! Encourage new builders, but maybe some of them can creat practical rather than the high dollar wunderbikes I keep seeing. Maybe there is someone out there that is able to take an inherently good, but asthetically challenged,( read goofy looking ) bike like a Suzuki Vstrom or a KLR650 Kawasaki . and do for it that which Vetter did for Triumph’s Trident many years ago. Round headlights, a wide flat seat, clean cylindrical instruments, and a fuel tank that is practical for bopping around. I do not think it likely that I will be riding from Paris to Dakar anytime soon, and more than forty years riding tells me that most of you wont either, so a tank a bit more like a late 60’s Triumph or a dirttracker would be nice. I am not talking about a Super Motard bike (again most riders wont ever even see a SM race unless its on TV) just a nice ride that you can take your girlfriend for a ride on without folding her up like a pretzel or jarring her kidneys out for the sake of style. There are good reasons why so many people rode in the 60s and 70s. There were lots of fun, speedy , non intimidating bikes to choose from. There is no question that there are better bikes around now but lots of them are very (make that VERY) fast or uncomfy. Any ideas?