On the other hand, “idea bikes” are a different story. Taking a simple idea and using it to enhance the look of a bike instead of smothering it with an overdone theme is A-okay to this dude. New River, Arizona’s DP Customs’ Gulf Bike is a perfect example of this genre with Gulf’s racing colors as inspiration and not a corporate-paid excuse to put oil cans, grease guns, gas pumps,...

In the small town of Saline, Michigan, Russ Nieves spends the long winters toiling away in his garage and on his computer creating cool, affordable bikes that he rides the pants off. Yeah riding, after spending all that time in your garage, you don’t want a garage queen, but a fun-riding bike to show off your work. Russ enjoys the hell out of building something from nothing and...

  Karns Kustoms’ “Wrench in charge”, Adam Karns, has been quietly knocking out one award-winning custom after another since 2003 and proudly refers to them as “garage built” since that’s actually where they’ve been birthed. Nothing wrong with that, in fact you could say Adam was actually ahead of his time. Some of the biggest and well known builders have retreated to their garages...

  Maybe it’s just the bad boy bruiser image I get whenever I see a stripped-down bike with chubby FLH-style mag wheels and tires front and rear or maybe it’s the attitude-adding combo of straight pipes and a springer, I don’t know. Maybe it’s the never-intended, but it sorta happened anyway Exile-on-a-dime look, maybe, maybe, maybe . . . All I know is that I’d love to pin the...

Growing up he would rather draw than fight, so he honed his skill while learning to bang metal in his dad’s shop. He learned Harley service at Daytona Beach’s now defunct AMI, and he worked at the body shop. His real love is exotic painting and pinstriping. This bike is an example of his talent. Assisted by Marcus of Trailer Trash Choppers, this bike was just completed...

Obviously, when he was hankering for his first customized Harley, Andrew was up for the task. His idea was to design a vintage-style inexpensive bike, using “only what I could find on the cheap and/or fabricate,” he said. “I wanted it as narrow as could be, and nimble for hard city riding.” Mission accomplished. “This bike was turned from a frame and boxes of parts into a...

You can’t describe it, can you. I couldn’t either, so I looked it up. Paisley is a twisted teardrop, kind of kidney shape design originating in India and Persia. American quilters, those sticklers for Puritan words you can’t understand (like square dancers) call paisley “Persian pickles.” I’m so glad Jared didn’t call his bike that or...

If you love riding, not owning a way-out expensive bike isn’t going to stop you. In that case, it’s not what you ride, but who you ride with that makes all the difference. Nobody knows that better than Paula Hokkanen (shown far right in the photo above). Paula, who lives in Minneapolis, rides a 2006 black Sportster that was built in her garage and at the Boar House...

Click here for more photos Women Riders: Gothgirl Story and photos by Rodent Gothgirl has been riding motorcycles since she was a little kid. She told me her first bike was a little Honda. Goth has never owned a car though she is capable and licensed to drive one. A graduate of the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, she is a practicing...

Click here for more photos Rusty Vintage Sportster Not So Vintage Story by Wendy ManningPhotos by J. Josh Placa Everybody likes a bike with a story to tell. The owner of this bike, Craig Gacom, owner of Motorsports Auto Group in Phoenix, Arizona, likes to tell people who ask, “This is a 1928 board track racer. We found it in a barn...