• Help support Chopped Baggers :

Who builds their own bikes?

What level of work do you do on your ride

  • I do the full buildup

    Votes: 18 56.3%
  • I do most of it, but leave the harder stuff to others (engine, rake kits....)

    Votes: 11 34.4%
  • I mostly just bolt on the accessories

    Votes: 2 6.3%
  • I have others do it.

    Votes: 1 3.1%

  • Total voters
    32

QuikHD

One of THE 150!
I'm just curious to see who builds their own bikes. Not saying I see it here, but I have seen guys brag about their bikes in person and point out a few things to the small crowd they draw and take credit for others work. I even asked one guy how he raked his frame. When I asked him how he welded it, tig or stick.......He answered I dont remember! Then I noticed the ghost logo on his fender of a local shop....Hmmmm

I'm not trying to bust anyones balls here. Some people simply just dont have the time to do it, some dont have a garage to do it, some would rather pay someone to do it to know it is 100% right, and some have no clue.

I do 95% of the work on my bikes (paint and machine shop stuff I dont do) but sometimes I am just too busy to wrench on other things like my vehicles and will pay for stuff to be done on them.....Mostly because I dont have time, or time vs money just doesnt add up.
 
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Bill

I used to own some shit!
I voted 100% althought I may have not done any serious Engine work "that doesn't mean I won't." And I leave the body work to the pros.
 

Nova606

One of THE 150!
I do also about 95% of my work....

When I rake I will cut the neck off but I have a friend who is an exceptional welder and I will let them do it for beauty reasons, not saying I could not but i know that mine would not look as nice... I am also a horrible painter and right now I do not have any time or really ambition to get better so I will not be doing that... Anything else, hells yeah I will tackle.
 

slothy

Balls
I do also about 95% of my work....

When I rake I will cut the neck off but I have a friend who is an exceptional welder and I will let them do it for beauty reasons, not saying I could not but i know that mine would not look as nice... I am also a horrible painter and right now I do not have any time or really ambition to get better so I will not be doing that... Anything else, hells yeah I will tackle.

about the same for me, but my painter does the final painting - i just help with body work and the official scuff parts bitch.
 

vrog

One of THE 150!
Myself and my firends do all of our own work. My father ( now retired ) owned a body shop / restoration shop and he would handle the paint. For my new bike it was not the case. I had a list of parts that I wanted to get off my buddy cameron at Camtech Custom Baggers. He told me he wanted to do my bike in house. Wasn't even a week later and he gave me a 2hr notice that his guy was coming through RI and was gonna pick up my bike. He hooked me up and made me an offer I couldnt refuse.

I'm extremely grateful and more than pleased with the result. His painter is flat out nasty when it comes to this stuff. My father went with me to pick up my bike and was very impressed with his whole operation. I was a little bummed that me and my buddies were not going to cut up my new bike but the flip side is when people ask about the bike and who did it I just reply Camtech Custom Baggers. I'm more than happy to say they did it as they are on top of their game and have all the awards and acomplishments to go with it.
 

Chad263

One of THE 150!
I do about 90 percent I obviously dont do paint and I didnt do my motor by myself other than Ive done pretty much everything
 

Sonic69

One of THE 150!
There is 3 of us that hang out together that do the whole job. We are all better at one thing ,so each one of us helps the other with what we are good at. Lets just say I'm not the painter or the welder. I can ,but they do it alot better.
 

DBH

One of THE 150!
I do nearly everything, farm out cylinder boring, valve jobs ect, just don't have the equipment. My painting sucks but I keep trying and learning. I have an ironhead chopped under construction right now, started as a pile of tubing on the floor and a basket case engine, parts gathered from where ever i find what i want. Love learning to do new things.
 

yardsale

Up in da one fiddy...
I don't have the patience for quality body prep and paint. I can handle everything else...
 

heavyhitters

One of THE 150!
We build our own bikes with some parts from other shops like cam tech ? But we do all our own paint and welding and also wheel cutting . (Not trying to advertise )
 

HogWild

One of THE 150!
My theory is, I'll f*** it up first before paying someone else to do it. I won't do major engine work, but have tried most everything else including some painting and powder coating. I'll try anything once. Would love to get better at the powder coating, need to leave the painting to someone else, and want to try pinstriping/airbrushing.
 

yardsale

Up in da one fiddy...
My theory is, I'll f*** it up first...

Ha! I have a slight twist on that theory: Using my patented "not thinking things through" process, I f*** it up, do it again, and end up paying more than it would have cost me to have someone else do it.
 

Classic$98

One of THE 150!
I will do anything but machine and body work. Anything else is fair game. Sometimes I wish I didn't know how to work on stuff cause I sure don't have the money to pay someone to do all this shit. I'd be rich......Bitch!
 

Gdub

One of THE 150!
So far I have built a pile a parts in the corner of the garage, does that count?
 

CHAINSAW

Site Supporter Until The World Stops Spinning!
I do everything, but I like welding, fabbing, glassin and paintin more then the mechanical stuff. Less busted knuckles that way, and my fingers are stupid and like to drop nuts and bolts in hard to reach unretreivable places.
 

808Bagger

Well-Known Member
For me, I did around 90% of my work. I basically tore everything apart and put back together. The only thing I didnt do was color match the parts I wanted painted, weld my neck, and rework my front forks. Assemble, moch up, body work my neck, changing out handle bars, re worked my air suspension I did in my own garage. Powder coating parts I just take off the parts and bring it to a friend who specialize in that area....
 
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