What does it mean to customize a motorcycle? What does a customized motorcycle mean to other people? We probably all know the answer but really cannot explain it. Sort of makes the expression " if I have to explain you wouldn't understand" have more meaning.

Since the dawn of time people have customized. Caveman painted their caves, Indians painted their faces with war paint, and Bikers expressed their individuality with tattoos.

Making something your own can be expressed in many different forms. Customizing a motorcycle is not always about how much chrome or how expansive the paint was. Even the rat bike is a form of customizing. It too expresses the owners desire to stand out from the crowd the same way the six figure custom tries to scream I am different than the rest.

As the saying goes..... unless you are living under a rock you have seen a lot of changes in the motorcycle industry and culture. We have seen people we never expected get involved and some just as quickly get out While others liked what they saw and stuck with it. We have seen $100,000 motorcycles being built in 30 day TV time. More astonishing we have seen people willing to buy these bikes for $100,000.
Most of those folks are no longer interested in motorcycles. They have moved on to cars, trucks, and boats or just went back to playing golf. The investors that funded these projects are also gone. Looking for the next get rich scheme. Once the bottom dropped out of the mortgage business the overpriced "chopper" business followed.

This was a business that catered to a few individuals with money to burn and egos to inflate. Now that this crew has done their mid life crisis thing and moved on to other things, where does that leave us? Perhaps it leaves us with a chance to get back to basics.
But who are we? We are the ones that are totally obsessed with anything to do with motorcycles. If there is something on the tube about bikes we will probably watch it, unless it really, really blows. While browsing the internet or a bookstore we will always go for the motorcycle sections. If there is a news story on TV or in the paper about something motorcycle your friends relatives and neighbors will ask you if you know the people involved.

All that without even mentioning the sheer orgasmic joy we get from riding and working on bikes
Yes, it is a big tent. A lot have left the circus, for some good riddance. For the ones who have stayed and get it, Welcome.

So, where does that leave us? For those that always have and always will love their particular flavor of motorcycle it is exciting to see what is evolving. Anyone that has been around long enough to see Harley get bought and sold by AMF, the introduction of the Low rider, the bar choppers, and now a return to bobbers must realize that we are almost full circle.
We have seen the truly outrageous but are now back to something more simple. Gobs of chrome are being replaced with powder coating and flat paint. Fancy paint jobs are not the draw they once were. Painting the sheet metal with spray cans was always an alternative to custom paint. Shame flat black was not as popular back in the day as it is now. Who can screw up flat black? Lets face it money is tight and many cool practical rides are being built with the same imagination and creativity used 30 plus years ago.

The direction customizing is going is a good alternative to what we have seen in the past ten years. Rather than being driven by money and how much of it you can spend there is a strong desire to get back to basics and create customs that are creative in a sense we have not seen at the fore front for a very long time. It would be nice if the rest of the country would follow our lead and get back to basics rather then just push for change for change sakes. At least I can be hopeful.