The customs are hand-built machines, most with wide rubber, modern components and flat bars. Large percentages are Japanese from the 1970s and 1980s, but the site also features European makes as well as Harley-Davidson customs. While the customs range across all spectrums, they are definitely not the heavily chromed and garishly strung out choppers you see on Discovery Channel shows like American Chopper. Most of the new wave customs are stripped down to a bare essence, have sticky rubber and flat bars, and a compact urban ethic. The bikes are hot. Bike EXIF is one of the most popular websites in our niche, with a monthly average of 2 million page views and more than 450,000 unique visitors (which is comparable to Cycle World magazine, which had a monthly circulation of 236,129 as of December 2012). New wave customs attract attention among celebrities and other members of the visible upper class. Katee Sackhoff of Battlestar Galactica fame rides a Classified Moto KT600. Jay Leno (of course) is also a Classified Moto fan. According to Hunter, the movement toward these bikes has been around for awhile. “I think a lot of it is how visible the movement is. It’s always been a thriving part of the scene, but it hasn’t received much publicity. Websites like Bike EXIF have thrown the spotlight onto non-chopper bikes, and by doing so, have fueled the fires and helped to grow that side of the scene. We’re also satisfying a need for individuality, with people more inclined to make things ‘their own’ by adding a
36 June 2013 | Motorcycle & Powersports News
personal touch. Mass production and higher living standards have made products more affordable, but at the same time, they’re ubiquitous. A custom bike is a reaction against that.” David Edwards is the editor of BikeCraft magazine, a recently launched publication focusing on the new wave customs. “Custom bikes have always been cool,” he said. “It’s just that in the late 1990s and early 2000s, things got a little out of hand. Fueled by several builder shows on television, choppers became more expensive and, unfortunately, more difficult to ride, until most were purchased by rich older guys as lifestyle accouterments. Decidedly uncool.” The old school heavy metal choppers with oceans of chrome and Harley-inspired power plants were all the rage for awhile, commanding six-figure prices. That fashion wave collapsed under the weight of a crushing economy (and possibly boredom with Maltese crosses). That world has returned back to center, which means the diehards who loved choppers since Henry Fonda still love and buy choppers, and the guys who love making them continue to do so. The younger crowd has uncovered their own custom wave. “The under-35 crowd rediscovered café-racers and bob-jobs, sometimes reinterpreted as café-bobbers,” Edwards said. “Base bikes have one thing in common — namely, they’re cheap, so we’re seeing used Evo Sportsters, older Hinckley Triumph Bonnevilles and four-cylinder CB Hondas from the 1970s.” People are out there buying bikes most would have considered junk five or 10 years ago. The rise of the 650 twins isn’t so surprising, and people have been into Yamaha 500 singles for a while. Nevertheless, this has gone far beyond that. Remember the CX500? The Honda V-Twin that was a confused mix of touring bike and cruiser? Yeah, that’s the one the new wave custom set loves. How about the NS650? Another misplaced child of a machine that was part street bike, part urban dual-sport, and had a gloomy rounded fairing that further muddied the waters on what the hell this bike was supposed to do. Go out for a latte in a small Bolivian town with slightly beat-up pavement? I don’t know, and the people who did and were willing to pay for the thing were shockingly low in numbers. Well, yes, the NS650 is one of those bikes custom guys are turning into gold. The cultural drivers are not so hard to understand. Throw the economy in the tank and jack up gas prices, and interest in motorcycles rises. They are cheap and get good gas mileage. If you have only $20 to get through the week, a small motorcycle stretches it a little further. The machine is cheap, the gas mileage is astronom-