was chatting with a good friend of mine last week about our pipes and other parts plus the whole build process,,, ya know it's the basic drive here to make and be the very best, no bullshit, no acceptance of a middle road just for expediency or cost!
I guess a good explanation of our ethos is indeed the current situation with the exhaust systems we are making. I was happy with our designs and our plan to make/weld the suckers up. But then I discovered a Co called Goodfabs (they bend our T45 stock into frame tubes), they are basically the best in the world at what they do and their welding on everything from 304 to Inconel is simply perfect but more than that it's art. Pure, clean, engineering art and it's exactly what we are striving for.
So once you see the potential in front of you, going back to the old plan becomes impossible ! I simply cant go back to a lesser process when I know we can get better.
But there are downsides to all this, parts have to be re-designed again, cost goes out the window, and production time stretches off into the distance with no clear eta!
Same as paint and even covering our seats. We go to the best people we can find. We could never be painters. The time, cost and money involved to setup in house rules it out for now. So we go to the best Co we can find. But that means you have to place the schedule for any build outside of your control, THAT'S the major downside as any third party Co has their own issues that can impact on their lead times.
Right now we have several bikes in the shop that are waiting on paint. All finished bar a few days in assembly (for us here at the shop it takes no more than 2 days to assemble a bike from total ground up). Thing is all these bikes are late and as our painters are expanding their own business into new fields so leads get extended and it's out of our control. So again we can look to a new paint Co but in our experience they all follow the same drug addled random pattern of trading :D
So basically this is the world of custom building, if you want to do it properly. Not just fire crap on a bought in frame all out of a catalogue. We want to be known as the best, not the most expedient or the highest volume turnover. To this end I am not prepared to compromise on the quality of any motorcycle that rolls out of our shop. It's why only bikes we actually love will roll out of this place, that's why we won't work on baggers, trikes or anything other than Harley.
If you want the best custom build in the world, you have come to the right place. But the right build takes time . . .
- Posted from my iPhone
Location:cycle works
