A custom motorcycle is a motorcycle

Motorcycle

A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...

 that is highly stylized or which treats aspects such as frame geometry

Geometry

Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....

, engine

Engine

An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert energy into useful mechanical motion. Heat engines, including internal combustion engines and external combustion engines burn a fuel to create heat which is then used to create motion...

 design, or paintwork in an unusual way compared to standard manufacturing. Custom motorcycles are unique or individually produced in a very limited quantity, as opposed to "stock" bikes or "stockers," which are mass produced

Mass production

Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines...

. In the 1990s and early 2000s, very expensive customs such as those built by Orange County Choppers

Orange County Choppers

Orange County Choppers is a custom and production motorcycle manufacturer based in Orange County, New York, that was founded by Paul Teutul, Sr., and Paul Teutul, Jr., in 1999. The company was featured on American Chopper, a reality TV show that debuted in September 2002 on the Discovery Channel,...

, Jesse James

Jesse G. James

Jesse Gregory James is an American television personality and CEO of West Coast Choppers, a manufacturer of custom-made motorcycles. James was the host of the reality TV shows Jesse James is a Dead Man on Spike TV and Monster Garage, on the Discovery Channel, and the focus of the documentary...

's West Coast Choppers

West Coast Choppers

West Coast Choppers is a lifestyle brand that began selling screen-printed t-shirts and stickers with the company's Iron cross/Maltese cross logo while founder and "master marketer" Jesse G. James was finishing high school, packaging the accoutrements of the chopper lifestyle long before any...

, Roger Goldammer

Roger Goldammer

Roger Goldammer is a Canadian motorcycle builder most known for winning the World championship of bike building three times.- Professional career :...

 or Ian Barry

Ian Barry

Ian Barry is an award-winning industrial designer, and co-owner of Falcon Motorcycles, with Amaryllis Knight. He plays guitar in the progressive metal band Black Math Horseman.- Career :...

's Falcon Motorcycles

Falcon Motorcycles

Falcon Motorcycles makes custom motorcycles in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 2008 by industrial designer Ian Barry and his partner Amaryllis Knight, and specializes in the design, engineering and fabrication of one of a kind machines, built around the derelict engines of pre- and...

, became fashionable status symbols. There are also companies that are bringing back pin striping

Pin striping

Pin striping is the application of a very thin line of paint or other material called a pin stripe, and is generally used for decoration. Freehand pin stripers use a specialty brush known as a pinstriping brush...

, such as Kenny Howard

Kenny Howard

Kenneth Robert Howard , also known as Dutch, Von Dutch, or J. L. Bachs , was a motorcycle mechanic, artist, pinstriper, metal fabricator, knifemaker and gunsmith...

 (also known as Von Dutch) and Dean Jeffries

Dean Jeffries

Dean Jeffries is an American custom vehicle designer, fabricator, stuntman and stunt coordinator for motion pictures and television programs based in Los Angeles, California....

 from the 1950s, with a continued effort to keep pin striping alive. The choppers

Chopper (motorcycle)

A chopper is a type of motorcycle that was either modified from an original motorcycle design or built from scratch to have a hand-crafted appearance. The main features of a chopper that make it stand out are its longer frame design accompanied by a stretch front end...

 of the 1960s and 1970s fit into this category.

Some motorcycle manufacturers, such as Harley-Davidson

Harley-Davidson

Harley-Davidson , often abbreviated H-D or Harley, is an American motorcycle manufacturer. Founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the first decade of the 20th century, it was one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression...

 and Honda

Honda

is a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles.Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than...

, include the word "custom" as part of a model name.
The factory custom segment has become the most visible in the custom industry in recent years. The original factory custom was the 1971 Harley-Davidson Super Glide

Harley-Davidson Super Glide

The Harley-Davidson Super Glide is a motorcycle model made by the Harley-Davidson Motor Company. Reputed to be the first factory custom motorcycle, it originated Harley's FX series of motorcycles by mating Sportster components, most notably the front end, with the chassis of their larger big twin...

, designed by Willie G. Davidson

Willie G. Davidson

William G. Davidson, usually referred to as "Willie G.", is the senior vice president & chief styling officer of Harley-Davidson Motor Company. He is also the head of Harley-Davidson's Willie G. Davidson Product Development Center in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin...

, which, imitating the custom scene of the time, combined the fork

Motorcycle fork

A motorcycle fork connects a motorcycle's front wheel and axle to its frame, typically via a pair of triple clamps. It typically incorporates the front suspension and front brake, and allows the bike to be steered via handlebars attached to the top clamp....

 from a Sportster with the frame and engine of a big twin Electra Glide

Harley-Davidson FL

FL is a model designation used on motorcycles manufactured by Harley-Davidson from 1941 to present. Mostly applied to Harley's large-framed bikes, including the current Touring series, the FL designation is also used with their Softail series, especially on Softails with traditional styling,...

, thereby founding a style imitated by many other manufactures ever since.

Higher volume producers like American IronHorse, Bourget, Big Dog and BMC build custom motorcycles that also must meet basic safety requirements set by the US Department of Transportation. Factory customs allow the buyer to select from a wide range of options, paint styles, engine sizes and accessories while still having the confidence, support, warranty and finance options that typically are associated with major production manufacturers. Factory customs typically do not offer the total individuality of a home built bike or a "one off custom", but they share much of the appeal that comes with a custom bike and many of the benefits of a factory production motorcycle.

Types of customization

• Bobber
  Bobber (motorcycle)
  A bobber is a custom motorcycle that usually has had the front fender removed, the rear fender "bobbed" or made smaller, and all superfluous parts removed to make it lighter.- History :...
  
  
• Café racer
  Café racer
  A café racer is a type of motorcycle as well as a type of motorcyclist. Both meanings have their roots in the 1960s British counterculture group the Rockers, or the Ton-up boys, although they were also common in Italy, Germany, and other European countries...
  
  
• Chopper
  Chopper (motorcycle)
  A chopper is a type of motorcycle that was either modified from an original motorcycle design or built from scratch to have a hand-crafted appearance. The main features of a chopper that make it stand out are its longer frame design accompanied by a stretch front end...
  
  
• Cutdown
  Cutdown
  A cutdown is a customised scooter with parts of the bodywork removed or cut away. Cutdowns were popular amongst skinheads and scooterboys during the mod revival of the 1970s and 1980s...
  
  
• Rat bike
  Rat bike
  Rat bikes are motorcycles that have fallen apart over time but been kept on the road and maintained for little or no cost by employing kludge fixes...
  
  
• Streetfighter
  Streetfighter
  A streetfighter is a sport bike that is customized by removing the fairing, and making other changes that result in an overall more aggressive look. Beyond simply removing fairings, specific changes that exemplify the streetfighter look are a pair of large, round headlights, tall, upright...
  
  
• Tribsa
  Tribsa
  The Tribsa, or Tri-B.S.A., was a custom built cafe racer or off road motorcycle of the 1960s and 1970s. Its name was an elision of "Triumph" and "BSA". The purpose was to combine the best elements of each marque to give a superior bike to either....
  
  
• Triton motorcycle
  Triton motorcycle
  The Triton was a modified café racer motorcycle of the 1960s-1970s. The name derives from a contraction of Triumph and Norton, the two brands of motorcycle combined.The intention was to combine the best elements of each to give a bike superior to both...
  
  

External links

• Motorcycle customizing at the Open Directory Project
  Open Directory Project
  The Open Directory Project , also known as Dmoz , is a multilingual open content directory of World Wide Web links. It is owned by Netscape but it is constructed and maintained by a community of volunteer editors.ODP uses a hierarchical ontology scheme for organizing site listings...