It seems like every time I turn around these days someone is touting their “custom” bike. What exactly is a custom?
Harley-Davidson, as you know, has a full line of “dark customs”. Two years ago my pal, Greg White of Speed TV, hooked me up with a Vulcan Custom to ride. And now Honda is putting out it’s own custom, the Fury. If everyone has the same bike, how is that custom?
Some of these “customs” have a great look (and I really wouldn’t mind taking the Fury out for ride) but I think that calling them all custom is really a misnomer. When I think of a custom I think of originality, one-off parts and unique paint. To me, a bike needs some serious modification to be considered a custom. Every motorcycle owner, especially the cruiser owners out there, makes the same basic changes when they get their bike.
First, we change out pipes, air filters, maybe bars and cables then add some saddlebags (or remove them) to give our bikes a bit of our personality and performance-liking. With those minor changes, we can park in a lot with 100 other bikes and pick ours out of the crowd, with no problem. But, can someone else?
What makes a custom motorcycle “custom”?
Lets look at some of the similarities in a few customs.
Vulcan Custom
Iron 883 Dark Custom
Honda Fury
American Ironhorse
HD Cross Bones
Right off the bat you can see that, regardless of the brand, a “custom” is more for the solo rider. They have smaller seats, which are lower to the ground. Fenders are bobbed down, both in the front and rear. Bars are mostly pulled back, although apes or mini-apes are acceptable. Individual stylized wheels are a necessity.
All of these “custom” bikes are just doing at the factory what we normally do when we get our non-customs home. So, I guess in that aspect you might be saving some money if you buy one and keep it bone stock but seriously, who keeps their bike stock?
So, if you buy your own custom, do you have to make all the normal changes to customize your custom? My friend ArtBiker bought a ’49 panhead and chopped the bejesus out of it. Now that is a custom. Buying a frame and building your own is a custom. For a custom to truly be custom, you need to customize it. Right?
ArtBiker fixing his chopper
Factory Custom Bikes and You
What do you think? Is the world of unique, factory-custom bikes just building more of the same? Would you prefer if they just called them something else? If you bought (or own) one, will you change it or keep it stock?
p.s. I know that some of you have seen, this but it’s too fricking cute to let pass by.