The Kneeslider

Doers Builders and Positive People

Motorcycle Exclusivity – Does It Matter To You?

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How much does exclusivity matter to you? If you buy a motorcycle that is no different than the bikes owned and ridden by thousands of other riders, does it bother you? Or does it make you feel as though you’re part of the group? Or does it even cross your mind? When you think about it, how can you even have an exclusive bike today unless it’s a one off built by a custom builder? Even then, how different is your “one off” from the other one offs he’s built and the shop down the street is turning out?

If I might pull one more quote from the current issue of Cycle World, they asked Arlen Ness about the reason for all of the outrageous customs today and his response was, “In the old days, having a Harley in the garage was like having a Ferrari. Now it’s like having a Chevy.” You know it’s true, too. You can buy a Harley and ride off from the dealer and before long you’ll see yourself coming from the other direction. Damn! OK, let’s see what’s in that accessories catalog. But if you just dig into the HD big book, it will be pretty darn difficult to come up with any combination that stands out. It might take a day or two but you’ll once again see yourself in the oncoming lane. More accessories from someone else, maybe some custom paint, then you have to wonder what you’re trying to accomplish. Are you building a better bike or just a different bike?

To be truly different you have to approach the whole build as unique and really push the envelope, however, the speed at which different becomes commonplace and then overdone is breathtaking. Any cool new idea will be copied in a matter of months, or even weeks and then it’s off to the next big thing. I’ve seen several customs being built with a large curved tube backbone like the Confederate Wraith. Extending swingarms on sport bikes has gone to such lengths, literally, you wonder what they’re thinking or who it’s supposed to impress. The bikes can’t possibly function anymore. I wonder how many radial engines Rotec will sell to custom builders trying to copy Jesse James or JRL Cycles.

If buyers and builders focus on function first, at least you end up with a motorcycle instead of an art object, but pure function can be ugly, too, so then you work on the aesthetics. The proper combination makes for nice looking bikes. Functional and good looking sounds right to me but does it matter if it’s not unique? It matters to some, how about you?

Comments

  2. Exclusivity is a mixed bag. The good side is that you have something that few others have, and it might get you some attention. Or you can just enjoy the fun of being one of the few in the know. It also marks you as a nonconformist. We all know that today having a Harley, or anything from Japan no longer does that. Heck, even having a custom chopper no longer is as distinctive as it once was.

    The down side is that you often have parts issues, lack of knowledge of how to repair it, or even what the hell you’ve got.

    I like a pretty broad variety of bikes, but scooters happen to be one of my favorite things. I can ride mine flat out at all times and even if I’m egregiously speeding, I never draw a second glance from law enforcement. There is a pleasure to that sort of exclusivity that I enjoy, and when told by weekend warriors to get a “real bike” I laugh to myself because I’m having too much fun. There is also a great scooter subculture that is still fairly underground, unlike biker culture.

    So to some degree, exclusivity matters to me. At the end of the day though, it’s all about having fun. If I found a hyper mainstream bike that sparked enough lust to open my wallet, I wouldn’t care about having something that everyone else has. The Harley Davidson Nightster has actually caught my eye, and I never thought there would be a modern Harley that would excite me. Even if I ever do go that route, I’ll stick with my full face helmet and other gear. Chaps and leather vests would be going too far.

  3. If I had the means, exclusivity would be up there with two wheels and good handling. not a boatload of chrome and wood panelled “look at me” crap, just the knowledge that I would be hard pressed to park next to a lookalike. exclusivity is market specific though – a harley would be a sweet ride somewhere like north korea or cuba… and a ural would have been a relatively rare sight during the cold war!

    function, form, originality of design, exclusivity.

    btw – exclusivity need not cost an arm and a leg – the fischer comes to mind, as does a honda dream 50r – throw a dustbin fairing on that thing, add lights and you can have the only one in your state/country/hemisphere! find another 30 horsepower and I’ll be all over it. I wonder if a tuned cbr125 motor could be made to fit…

  4. If you love motorcycles you can’t deny that the visual appeal plays a role in your choice of ride. To some it is ALL about the visual appeal, but do those people really love motorcycles or the way they look on a motorcycle. For real riders I think it all depends on what type of riding is FUN to you. Some like the freedom of a dual-purpose bike, some like the comfort and practicality of a touring bike, some like the adrenaline rush of a bike that accelerates hard and banks deep into corners, etc…

    I think once you find the type of bike that you like the best, you then explore your options in the market. In most cases you’ll “settle” on the one that comes closest to your vision of perfection in your category of bike. Then you’ll modify it to meet your needs and your taste.

    I agree with Duke that form follows function. The true innovators of the world (i.e. John Britten) will pick their “category of bike” and actually build their “vision of perfection”. Men like him are rare indeed.

  5. Exclusivity does matter to most, whether or not we like to admit it. How desirable would Ferraris and Lamborghinis be if everyone could own them? Not very. The problem with getting a truly custom motorcycle is that they aren’t designed for the street / real riding. They look cool sitting there, but how many miles are going to be put on it? Almost none. They are trailer queens at best. If you want a road tested bike, that means you join the masses. It will always be hard to find truly unique and exclusive bikes that actually work well.

  6. Personally, I believe if it’s got wheels, it’s probably gonna be fun to ride! I don’t care if one was made, or a billion – I appreciate both. The engineering that goes into a one-off and that goes into into a production motorcycle is still wonderfully creative. Alas, form does folow fuction…

    Trey

  7. They’ve all got wheels, motors, handlebars, etc., so how exclusive can any bike really be? If I enjoy the ride, that’s enough for me.

    (I have a worldwide exclusive on me, and that entirely satisfies my need for exclusivity.)

  8. To tell the truth, I’ve rarely seen another bike like any of mine until I meet up with a club. Honda GB500; I might have seen one once going the other direction on the freeway, hard to tell. BMW R75/5; I do see other BMWs around but rarely a slash 5. XL350; I saw a XL250 once sitting in a guy’s driveway. Yamaha HS1 90cc twin; only seen a restored one at a show. BSA B50MX (mine is a cafe racer); I see various renditions at race tracks on occasion. XR650L; this is one you’d think is common but I see more KTM Dukes on the road than BigRedPigs. Peugeot 103; the only other one I’ve seen in the last 15 years I bought. Honda Elite 125; I’m surprised I don’t see more Elites around other than the venerable 80. KLX300R street licensed; there’s actually a guy in town who has his registered for the street too.
    etc. etc.

    The most I’ve spent on any of these bikes was $3000 for the KLX and I sold it two years later for $2900. Most of my bikes cost less than $1000, run and look great and have a high level of exclusivity.

    I think the more money you spend on a bike the more likely you will be to see another one just like it.

    -todd

  9. I think you can’t have orginalty any more unless you say hey you can’t make copies of my bike. But then your just being an ass. So I think the market is more like that of fashion becuase there is that race to be the first girl with the new look for the season. But then you just end up spending lots of money trying to be the best when it should be about being you. The same goes for motorcycles you shouldn’t worry about what bike you ride but how you ride it and how much fun your having.

  10. when it comes to motorized vehicles, regardless of wheel count, all i care is that it fits my definition of ‘good’. if i like it, i’d buy, drive it, ride it. . . if i find that not many other people have one – that’s definitely a bonus – but in the end i could really care less. if I dig it – i want it.

  11. Exclusivity matters very little to me. I like to ride. What matters to me is comfort, power and reliability.
    I have watched a few of those “chopper building” shows. Honest to GOD I would not ride one of those things any farther from my house than I was willing to push it back. If those jokers would hire just one engineer they would not have to use a hammer so often just to make the parts fit together. What a joke. Just look at the crazy amounts of money they get for those “so called” motorcycles. I have not seen one yet this is worth 1/10 the price paid.

  12. I live and breathe the motorcycle industry. I take pride in that fact and enjoy every day at work because of it. By human nature we look for exclusivity, well maybe not by human nature but in our modern society we sure do. The way we dress, paint our home, or accessorize our vehicles. As long as there are cars and motorcycles people will do what they can to make them their own. I agree with most, reliability is first and foremost. If you plan to ride it reliability has to be paramount. If you are building a bike solely for the art of it than all bets are off.
    As far as “Theme Bikes”, don’t get me started.

    However every day I answer at least 20 emails and field 30 phone calls (probably more, I don’t count) from people looking to customize their motorcycle with our help. Our shop is mostly American V-Twin based but we do have a Honda Shadow a Triumph and a Yamaha Stratoliner in the shop as we speak. To throw a curve ball we even have two Bridgestone’s in the shop we are working on. So, were not prejudice against much of anything and we like to ride them all.

    Now as I stated we do focus primarily towards the American V-Twin and the parts we currently manufacture are for that market. We have in our shop a Mechanical Engineer who designs our parts in CAD from our sketches and templates. We also have a Stratasys rapid prototype machine in house. We do quite a bit of R&D on our parts before we bring them to market. Parts usually evolve several times before we are happy with them. We use the parts we make so we are our own worst critics when it comes to our parts. For us Form and Function are equals. If it looks like crap we will change it. If it does not work we redesign it. Not much of a gray area.

    As far at Television and the “chopper building” shows. We did a Discovery channel Build Off last year. We choose to build a V-Twin based touring bike with a kick. Not only has the bike run flawlessly since it was built (in 10 days, it’s not trick photography) but we ran it on the salt flats up to 147mph and change. I think we proved that motorcycle builders, fabricators, assemblers (what ever people choose to call us) can build custom, one off motorcycles and achieve exclusivity all while keeping function, reliability and safety at its utmost importance.

    Because we did build a touring bike and didn’t follow the normal chopper type build we also took a beating from the chopper guys who thought what we did was a joke but what the hell. At least we got them talking

    As far as we are concerned we will keep doing what we do and keep pushing to make better product. It can be done and still look good.

    Peace
    BigJoe

    P.S.
    The Kneeslider is my current homepage. Great site, great info. Keep up the good work.

  13. I ride a Honda CBX 250. Powered by the venerable XR 250 workhorse, with a bikini fairing and little belly fairing that finishes off the lines perfectly. It’s a gorgeous bike, handles utterly superbly and has enough pep to have me and my dad (combined weight nearly 200kg) two up on it and still accelerate quickly enough from the traffic lights. It’s also one of about ten imported into New Zealand.

    I have no papers, no manual, no nothing. The bike wasn’t imported into America, was imported in very small numbers into Canada, and in general it’s an extremely hard to find bike. Sure, it means that I will almost never pull up next to another one, but when I do I know that the rider will have had the same experience and will be just as pleased to see me as I am to see them. I would probably flag the person down, however, to see if I could get my hands on any literature about the bike. Because right now, I’m reverse engineering everything that’s on that thing just to figure out how in the hell it goes together.

    Exclusivity is good… Just look at Porsche, and how having one is hardly the big deal it used to be. But at the end of the day, I have one failsafe test. If it makes me smile when I jump on, then I like it.

  14. Hi there. I’m not worried about Exlusivity. But , I do worry about specific function. And I think that some of the really one off Bikes, were made for that reason. I own a Honda CRF230 with a dual sport kit on it. I wanted a great trail bike, that was street leagel. I own a TW200, best sand and mud bike made. I have a 1975 Honda GL1000, with a custom sidecar on it. I have a Buell Blast, with custom bars and lights. My Triumph Sprint ST, has a custom winshield , and bars. None of these bikes are very common. But, I bought each for specific reasons. A lot of the People that show their customs, are looking for attention. OK. But, I like to ride. Blaine

  15. perhaps some confuse ‘personalization’ with ‘exclusivity’. surely, they are intertwined, but putting a set of one-off rearsets on a sportbike doesn’t necessarily make it exclusive. and those rearsets were probably put on there for a specific functional reason. someone else could put the same parts on their own bike because they want to be seen as having exclusive parts. as with most things – perception is everything. the first person sees them purely as a chunk of metal doing their duty. the second person now has ‘amazing rare parts’. that jerk at bikenight with a gazillion gaudy mods, might just be living up to his OWN ideals. . .

  16. Function is NEVER ugly! I’m sick of seeing all these cruisers that look like a cross between a La-Z-Boy recliner and a Wurlitzer juke box!

  17. Something else: One of the big reasons I bought an old KZ was because there were so many of them made, which means parts are cheap and easy to find. I’ve worked steadily on mine to improve it’s function, and in the process it’s become different than the next guy’s KZ…

  18. Ya it matters to me. That is why I bought an 1983 Moto Guzzi Le Mans III Go to completely redo it and in YELLOW! I like the performance and handeling. Only about 500 made that year. Moto Guzzi just this year(2006) made 10,000 units world wide.
    I like being different because I am.
    John

  19. BigJoe, that touring bike you did for the biker build off is amazing. Having those wheelie bars would be a bit of a pain around town, but they do follow the lines of the bike nicely. Clever concept, and had I been in the crowd, I would have voted for it.

    Alejandro, I disagree slightly. Exclusivity and desirability aren’t necessarily equivalent. If everyone could afford a Ferrari, I bet people would buy them in droves. There are numerous examples of products that are excellent on their own merit, even if produced in vast quantities. However, it wouldn’t be an aspirational vehicle anymore. If sold in the millions, a Ferrari would be taken for granted in a way it currently is not. Aspiration and exclusivity are deeply intertwined, and while desirability intersects them at many points, it’s not entirely the same.

  20. I’ll buy a Guzzi when I’m old and rich enough, not because they’re rare… But because they are purely sexy vehicles. The Le Mans II, that my old man bought, was different enough already. But he started for the Cafe look, and it made it more like he wanted it. My bike is different. But I’m Cafe’ing it not to increase it’s difference, but to increase it’s personality. Are exclusivity and personality intertwined? That’s what I want to know.

  21. We all like exclusivity in one way or another. But mass production has its obvious advantages and there’s always room for some customisation.

  22. I’ve been doing a bit more thinking, and realised this. The more prolific something is, the more customisable it becomes. Think of it this way: Company A makes cosmetic and performance parts for Motorcycle B. If Motorcycle B doesn’t sell very much, then Company A switches to Motorcycle C, which does. Therefore, they have a bigger target market, and a bigger profit, therefore they design and build more customizable bits. On that idea, I think I’ll get something VERY common, and use the abundance of parts to personalise it. Does that make sense?

  23. Bryce, I didn’t mean to intend that exclusivity and desirability are necessarily equivalent. Each person has varying degrees of each. My intention was to point out that as much as we would like to think of ourselves as people who are above the desire for exclusivity, it is there almost all the time. I would like to think of myself as a person who cares only about function and my own personal opinion without a selfish need to be exclusive, yet I would be dishonest then.

  24. Exclusivity matters a lot to me. I want a bike that suits my aesthetic taste, riding style, and riding environment. No one manufacturer makes the bike that is 100% right for me… that’s why I am doing it myself and streetfighter-ing my ’96 VFR. It’s NOT going to be black like every other fighter, it’s NOT going to have MX bars like most, and it will eventually have a Hossack-ish front end. Oh, and I’m keeping the pillion seat! I’m very certain I will not see another one coming down the road 😉