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And I thought Streetfighters were supposed to be tough! What happened! The newest streetfighter craze "euro tails" look totally gay! Oh well leave it to the custom bike builders to overfabricate the hell out of a perfectly decent motorcyle.. The "euro tail" rear end looks more like a cat in heat than anything else. Sorry, but I prefer a bike that looks tough.

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When you are into motorcycles, you have to choose sides between being a Harley rider or not.You are either in or out, part of the brotherhood that has developed among Harley Davidson owners, or a renegade.I like being a renegade, a foreign bike owner, but sometimes the “in or out” thing gets old .I mean that in two ways: politically, owning a Harley has been equated with a certain degree of grandiosity, probably based on Harley’s successful marketing campaign that their bikes are expensive and carry a certain standing.Second, Harley’s market is the aging baby boomer population. Face it, younger riders like the foreign, faster, sicker, less pricey bikes.So when you see a Harley rider, he or she may be 50-60 years old, overweight, and towing their bike in a trailer.Here in Daytona Beach, some bars and hang outs will diss you based on your choice of bike.A motorcycle rider can be told (as I have) not to park in front of a bar because I am not on a Harley. During Daytona BikeWeek each year, there is a “lynching” when Harley riders hang a foreign motorcycle in a tree; then they go into a frenzy to see a Honda burn and swing in the tree.Even at major rallies like Sturgis some events bar foreign bikes from entering.I never imagined that any of this when I bought my first bike, a Kawasaki that was cool and affordable.

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So let's talk about bikes. I was going to rant and rave about Harleys and their riders. In fact, I'm still going to do that. But, I think that the rant should include more than just Harleys. I was thinking about this diatribe, and happened to go by a place that had a bunch of bikes in the parking lot. All parked together. In a little herd. But they were not Harleys. They were sport bikes, of several different makes and models, but I couldn't tell them apart.
Epiphany.
I've noticed that Harley guys all look the same, and that their bikes pretty much all look the same. I was thinking about mocking them for this. Older, relatively affluent guys who need the Harley jeans, Harley boots, Harley T-shirt from some far off event, maybe a black vest and some sort of bandana, never a helmet and usually some sort of goofy facial hair. They often ride in loud herds. Reminds me of a school of fish or herd of antelope, all together making it more difficult for predators to single one out.
Chopper guys look just like Harley guys, but with a more ridiculous bike, and they are often younger with a bunch of spare money but no discretion.
Sport guys. For the most part they have brightly colored bikes, with cute matching outfits. They often have helmets, usually hanging from the helmet holder, as they ride. And their bikes all look the same except for the color.
Damn, my high school gym teacher would have killed to get this many people to dress alike.
Now, I ride a Suzuki, not really a sport bike, not really a cruiser. A strange kind of hybrid. And it never occured to me to try to be like every other Suzuki rider. I don't need to stand out of the crowd, but I also have no desire to just blend in. I just want to be myself and I want my bike to reflect upon me.
Not what some bike manufacturer wants it to reflect. And no, a little change in the color is not customization.Hell, even a lot of "custom" bikes are just very slight variations of the same theme. All of those custom choppers look exactly the same. Maybe a little tweak here and there. And they want you to pay how freaking much for something that looks like every other ridiculous bike?
So instead of picking someone else's idea of "customization" I decided to get customization done that I wanted. Not some damn dude on TV or a guy in corporate Japan. It's my bike dammit, and everyone whom I mentioned above wants to look and act the same, and wants everyone else to look and act the same, or else get sneered at.
Well, guess what my little herdlings, it's your turn to be sneered at.

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Everyone these days seems to want a chopper. Not only has the chopper become the perfect remedy for the yuppie or baby boomer in their midlife crisis, but with the success of the television shows like “American Chopper”, and “ Biker Build off” the chopper has become the symbol of the custom motorcycle industry in general. Well, let me tell you that the chopper is not a bike for the masses and it is not all there is to the custom motorcycle world.
The chopper motorcycle, is supposed to be slightly dangerous to ride and maybe even a little extreme in its ergonomics, performance and handling ability. Basically a chopper is supposed to be suicide machine that only a “mad man” would or could ride! So, why do so many old men want to buy a chopper? They can’t ride them. In my shop I get the occasional customer, who wants me to adapt their chopper to fit a “more practical riding style.” It drives me nuts to put a set of pull back handle bars on a bike that was supposed to have drag bars. Most old dudes should stay with bikes that they can ride, like full dressers and boulevard/beach cruisers. The chopper is for a younger, stronger and more hardcore rider. It's funny to me, because the segment of the motorcycle market that is buying these one off custom choppers you see everywhere, are people like your father or grandfather. Now, how am I supposed to be scared of some hardcore biker dudes that roll up to the local biker bar on custom choppers, when it turns out to be my friends’ dad and grand dad riding them?
The custom motorcycle industry has more to it than just choppers. This may seem like an obvious statement to many of you, but believe me, most people out there think that custom motorcycles builders are just about building choppers. I must be clear with everyone out there that a custom motorcycle is ANY motorcycle that has been personalized or individualized in any way, shape or form. The chopper is simply just one kind of custom motorcycle.
At Sinister City we build choppers, bar hoppers, bobbers, boulevard/beach cruisers, drag racers, sport bikes, stunt bikes street fighters and hooligans. Get the picture…. Our only limitation is it must be metric to be in our shop.
Sorry Harley.
So, to sum up my opinions on choppers; If you are an old man don’t buy a chopper. If you are just learning about the custom motorcycle industry, please be open minded to the many other styles and designs of customs machines out there.

Live to ride
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Don't Disrespect the Harley riders, What can I say... If I had money to burn, I'd own a couple of Harleys and maybe even ride them once in a while. I enjoy my Rice Grinder Sport Bike, it makes more sense for intra-city transport (mixed rush-hour stop-n-go, high-speed interstate highway sprints and local streets). I've stripped it down, lightened it up but kept it legal. I wear a helmet as a condition of my parole, not from jail, but as a concession to my wife, who has "allowed" me to go back to the "evil" ways of my earlier motorcycling days. I do things that tend to irritate other motorists, mostly because they can't do them. I wouldn't drive a heavier, less maneuverable Harley as I do my Honda. But, if I were to head out on a mission to impress, I'd settle into the wide seat of a nicely appointed Fatboy. I've fallen into the streetfighter trap of liking the idea of building, owning and driving a 1-of-a-kind, look ahead, think fast and go faster motorcycle. I think your site and what you're doing for the industry is great.
Wes In Metro-Denver

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Hey, a friend of mine sent me a link to your site and i have to say I like the work you do. I often see older metric bikes and think about what i would do to chop/streetfighter/cafe/ whatever them if I had the bread, and your "after shots look a lot how I would imagine them turning out.
Anyway, I just thought I'd email and let you know your work rocks. I swear, if is see one more pointless $35,000+pimp-chopper-from-some-cable-TV-soap-opera I might blow chunks. Your bikes look brutal and purposeful, like motorcycles should.
Best of luck, and lemme know if you guys start printing up T-shirts.
Andre1w in Austin

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Before getting expensive and unnecessary performance upgrades to your bike, you may want to consider either getting a new larger bike, or learning how to ride the one you have to its full potential. If you think you need a faster bike, it may be the time for you to learn how to really ride. I think many people, especially new riders, want to upgrade their bikes without understanding the many ramifications that come along with owning and maintaining a high performance vehicle. Many engine upgrades will make your bike much harder to ride and maintain if you are a rookie. Many new riders don’t yet understand how to ride their stock bike very well, so upgrading in this case can literally be a good waste of good money and could be an accident waiting to happen. Thus, giving the rest of us true “speed demons” a bad name as being reckless and stupid, which we are not!
I think that a good start before doing any performance upgrades is to, first make sure that your bike fits you well ergonomically and if it is the right size and weight for your body style. If the bike is not a comfortable extension of your body, than you will lose the race every time! The professional racers have their bikes tailored to fit them like a glove or like a custom made suit. One needs to be able to feel confidence and comfort on ones bike in order to go really fast. Once those details are in order the engine and exhaust upgrades can begin. A professional racer can take an old piece of junk and kick the ass out of a newer inexperienced rider who may be on a bigger bike. The reason why Rossi, Hayden, and Bostrom win all the time is mostly because they are crazy! They go “balls out” all the time; they truly understand how their bikes work and know how to ride them. The results from a performance upgrade may not be the magic trick that the inexperienced rider was looking for. The new rider seems to think that a fast motorcycle will make them a fast rider, but this is not true. My advice to all those new riders out there who want their 600 to beat a 919, a 1000, or a Hyabusa is to learn how to ride your bike to its fullest potential, Then, and only then, will you be ready to handle you’re newly found power.
Ride or die!

All,
I must say that the motor cycle industry has gone wild. The scruffy “Harley dude” on his brand new, shiny, dresser with his matching outfit made quite the impression when he tried to stop next to my sister-in-law at a light and fell over back in May. He didn’t hurt her car with his Harley head rag much when he bounced his head off her front quarter panel there at the light in Daytona, but the scrapes and dings in his hard bags and chrome and the blow to his ego were pretty bad. He didn’t even know how to get his bike back up either. My sister asked: “are you OK?” and he grumbled something about “new brakes… and he was fine” so she left him there trying to dead lift the bike off the ground pushing with all he had. I relay this story to help make the point here in the Sinister City site. I see all the same $15,000-$30,000 chrome, production, Harley’s going “potatoe-potatoe-potatoe” and wonder if their riders really want to look just like everyone else? I saw a ’74 Honda 750 transformed into a bad little bobber. The thing that caught my eye was that you could still see the lines from the Honda coming through in the bobber. I rode the bike and was so impressed I bought it and had the mad doctors there at Sinister City start working on it to make the picture in my mind of what the bike could be. The only cut in the frame was to drop the rear springs and weld in solid struts to make it a hard tail. The guys there at the shop would constantly have me in there or call, when I was not deployed (military), and we would scheme on my little project. You can see it on the front of the Sinister City web site. They even have before and after pictures through all four phases of my little choppers life: Honda street bike to bobber to rat bike to the healthy little 1000 cc chopper it is today. I spent around $5,000 and turn heads everywhere I go, when I am back. I heard the Englishman from “Horse BSC” say that there are no choppers on the road from the last several trips he had made on the road down through here. I see that as quite a shame. I was in such a hurry to get my little monster out with its suicide clutch and jockey shifter that we hadn’t even had time to get all the motor gremlins out (my fault) so don’t rush the guys taking that thing in your head and making it into a reality. They do know best; what is done and, when your beast is ready. You can pay a pile of money to look like the rest of the production world or a handful and ride the dream bike from every picture and showroom you ever saw that you said: “if I only had that bike I’d…” Sinister has slowly snuck up on the production and custom community and they have the accolades to prove it from both the geniuses there at Sinister City. Go by and check out the Rat’s Hole awards and whatnot they have earned. They have been moving up the ranks there in Holly Hill/Daytona and are about to go big time. I learned a lot about bikes and had a blast with the guys there in the shop and I am proud I got one of their first choppers. One of Jesse James’s first bikes was for sale there in Holly Hill and they wanted $100,000 for it rust and all. It was someone else’s idea of a dream bike and it had a big name attached to it. It doesn’t really matter what anyone else thinks of what I ride but, how much will my $5,000 dollar chopper be worth in the next couple of years when someone sees the Sinister City plate I made those two maniac’s keep on my bike so everyone would know who could do work like this and not have to ask me when they are drooling over my baby.

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The Old Outlaw


The New Outlaw