Big Bear Choppers and the State of the Production Custom Industry

[administrator]

Original Article:
Big Bear Choppers and the State of the Production Custom Industry

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[seruzawa]

So sorry. Linkee not workee.

[acecycleins]

Let me summerize: Since the toughening of the emissions rules the custom bike business is falling off like a Monty Python Holy Gail skit. There is no more market and by the summer of 2010 we will all be working the ABATE swapmeets to survive. The days of ignorant RUBs buying over-priced cloned motorcycles are over. BTW- anyone interested in buying a motorcycle factory?

[Kenneth_Moore]

Originally Posted by acecycleins

Let me summerize: Since the toughening of the emissions rules the custom bike business is falling off like a Monty Python Holy Gail skit. There is no more market and by the summer of 2010 we will all be working the ABATE swapmeets to survive. The days of ignorant RUBs buying over-priced cloned motorcycles are over. BTW- anyone interested in buying a motorcycle factory?

You are so wrong. With the introduction of the new Avon 640 Slidewinder rear tire, new life awaits the Custom Mass Production Sort of Like a Motorcycle industry. With the savings in kickstands alone, the average MSRP will plummet to $85,000.

[acecycleins]

Originally Posted by Kenneth_Moore

You are so wrong. With the introduction of the new Avon 640 Slidewinder rear tire, new life awaits the Custom Mass Production Sort of Like a Motorcycle industry. With the savings in kickstands alone, the average MSRP will plummet to $85,000.

Now that's funny

[pplassm]

Ho hum. When will it end?

[sarnali2]

Originally Posted by Kenneth_Moore

You are so wrong. With the introduction of the new Avon 640 Slidewinder rear tire, new life awaits the Custom Mass Production Sort of Like a Motorcycle industry. With the savings in kickstands alone, the average MSRP will plummet to $85,000.

That's just the price of exclusivity my boy, when everyone and their uncle has an Enzo and a $300 cigar still makes you look like a wanker eating a horses dong then only an $85k motorcycle you can barely ride will do...

If you have to ask, you wouldn't understand...

[The_AirHawk]

Originally Posted by sarnali2

If you have to ask, you wouldn't understand...

I thought it was "If you have to ask, well - don't ask ME - hell, I dunno either..........."

[seruzawa]

Although I don't care for choppers I have built and ridden them in the past. I have no problem with people buying them and paying 35K for them. Have a ball. I do have a problem with chopper companies that build frames that flex which make the bikes dangerous. Such companies should be held criminally liable for selling such junk. However I haven't heard such stories about Big Bear's products. So more power to them.

All that being said methinks they do protest too much. Chopper companies are going to be fighting for customers very soon and only the strong, smart and lucky will survive. Just remember that Daimler claimed that their Dodge division was an important and integral part of the company just before they sold it. So BB's pronouncements that the market looks rosy are expected but should be taken with a grain of salt. Collapsing equity lines, falling home prices (hello equity lines) and tightening credit restrictions say otherwise.

[sarnali2]

All you have to do is look at those spindly extended frame backbones and downtubes, plus a 101 in' rigid mount stroker motor, 15' over wide glide with skinny 21' front wheel and a 240 rear tire and you know that's going to be all over the road.

When me and my buds were building chops we kept the frame backbone and rake stock and just stretched the downtubes a few inches, that way the engine sat flat in the frame and you could go to 6 or 8 over and not f*ck up the handling..

One of the reasons I prefer bobbers is they usually handle alot better, though if you lower them too much they scrape the pipes and frame in corners