first real customer for bike build of old school hardtail bobber.

[Yard Dogg]

It's cool, but I think it would lead to a trailing surprise. Still cool. If I ever build an American chopper, it's going to have one of those. I too share your enthusiasm and would love to build for a living too. I was thinking of building a custom sportster for my next one. I'll just find an old Ironhead and build it up.

[Nightengale]

You should build this.
http://www.chopperweb.info/forum/art...icle&artid=111

Thats crazy looking

[Yard Dogg]

You should build this.

http://www.chopperweb.info/forum/articles.php?action=viewarticle&artid=111

[Petersg_99]

Well, plus your time, which when it's a hobby, we figure was free.

When it's a business, it starts to add up pretty quick...

this is not something that i am going to jump into right away, right now i am still learning and want to keep on doing so. right now this is a way to earn extra money and also do something i love. this is evening and weekend stuff. i will do this like i started my tile business, part time until i have so much work that there is no more time for anything else. and i had that business for almost 10yrs, until the housing market did what it did. and the only way to get to that point (just like any business) is that you have to have a quality product at a fair price. thats why i am trying to do this so that anyone can have a custom bike and not spend an arm and a leg doing so. i have a friend of mine that has a custom bobber that he paid almost $30,000 for and when ever we go riding i have more comments and questions about my bike than he does about his and i only have about $1000 tied up in mine total.

[Nightengale]

Hi John,
OK, it's a loss leader.
It's good that you follow your dream and I wish you all success but there are grim statistics that say 98% of new businesses fail within 2 years.
Until you are making $15 an hour atop of ALL expenses, don't quit your day job.

this is not something that i am going to jump into right away, right now i am still learning and want to keep on doing so. right now this is a way to earn extra money and also do something i love. this is evening and weekend stuff. i will do this like i started my tile business, part time until i have so much work that there is no more time for anything else. and i had that business for almost 10yrs, until the housing market did what it did. and the only way to get to that point (just like any business) is that you have to have a quality product at a fair price. thats why i am trying to do this so that anyone can have a custom bike and not spend an arm and a leg doing so. i have a friend of mine that has a custom bobber that he paid almost $30,000 for and when ever we go riding i have more comments and questions about my bike than he does about his and i only have about $1000 tied up in mine total.

[fredintoon]

[QUOTE=Nightengale;403348 - - - this is my first customer, i want everything just right so that he can tell all the guys he knows and who knows maybe something will come out of this. this is what i want to do for a full time job so whatever i can do to get it started i will. - - - [/QUOTE]

Hi John,
OK, it's a loss leader.
It's good that you follow your dream and I wish you all success but there are grim statistics that say 98% of new businesses fail within 2 years.
Until you are making $15 an hour atop of ALL expenses, don't quit your day job.

[Nightengale]

Good luck on the show. Your putting allot of time and effort along with thought process into it, and it shows!

Thanks for the encouragement

[DGXSER]

Good luck on the show. Your putting allot of time and effort along with thought process into it, and it shows!

[Nightengale]

Hi Nightengale,
looks like you are putting a load of thought, effort and man-hours into this job.
Is your customer an eccentric millionaire or are you working for 17 cents an hour?

no actually one of my good friends from high school, he is pretty big in the custom motorcycle scene. and since this is my first customer, i want everything just right so that he can tell all the guys he knows and who knows maybe something will come out of this. this is what i want to do for a full time job so whatever i can do to get it started i will. we will be taking this bike to a show this summer for garage built bikes, and see how it goes.

[Nightengale]

Thanks for the advice but they're not so strict around here

[fredintoon]

i was thinking since there will be that little void space under the rear of the tank i was wondering what it might look like to mount the starter button and kill switch to that panel, and it will look like the starter button and kill switch are mounted to the tank itself, and make people wonder "how the hell did he do that?" Any ideas.

Hi Nightengale,
don't install anything there that'll stick out to rip the rider's nuts off in a collision.
Sub-surface pushbuttons or flush slider switches should work good and look neat.
If you are bitched for space under there, small microswitches that work relays mounted someplace with more room would work.
BTW, I understand that some States have strict laws about where a killswitch should be placed.
As this build is designed to attract attention the local law is liable to be all over it looking for the least infringement.

[Nightengale]

what do you guys think?

i was thinking since there will be that little void space under the rear of the tank i was wondering what it might look like to mount the starter button and kill switch to that pannel, and it will look like the starter button and kill switch are mounted to the tank itself, and make people wonder "how the hell did he do that?" Any ideas.

[fredintoon]

Hi Nightengale,
looks like you are putting a load of thought, effort and man-hours into this job.
Is your customer an eccentric millionaire or are you working for 17 cents an hour?

[Nightengale]

help

I like it! I need to save some change and just have you come build mine. lol.

like i told you anything i can do to help just let me know, i love doing this stuff.

[Nightengale]

underside

i am going to fabricate a bracket that will make it so that it will bolt in from the underside. similar to how i did that tank mount on my bike. so that it will keep a really clean look, i am going to try to keep most of the mounts kind of hidden (ie. fender, tank, battery box and so on). the main thing that my friend really wants is for everything to be really clean and simple, not alot of clutter and to make it look like the bike came that way, not something that some one just bolted on a bunch of stuff. the funnest part of doing this is trying to make everything work together, and not look like something that was just thrown together.