seen this site? if not you need to....
http://www.benjiescaferacer.com/
enjoy
Ride Fast and Take Chances
www.meistercycles.com
http://www.benjiescaferacer.com/
enjoy
Ride Fast and Take Chances
www.meistercycles.com
BCR
1 - 8 of 8 Posts
I hear the guy who bought the silver and black cb750 cafe racer is not a happy camper as the bike is falling apart on him. I have seen him riding it (it looks like hell) and spoken to one of his friends and there seems to be a lot of little nagging things going wrong with it (from engine troubles to some of the cutsom parts splitting welds and cracking).
I have spoken to Benji a couple of times via e-mail and he seems like a really nice guy. I like his eye for design on these bikes but I don't know anything about his craftsmanship. He seems to know what he is doing with a lot of different 70's bikes.
The thread is not meant to start trouble, just repeating what I heard and have expirenced. If others haev good or bad expirences please by all means chime in.
I have spoken to Benji a couple of times via e-mail and he seems like a really nice guy. I like his eye for design on these bikes but I don't know anything about his craftsmanship. He seems to know what he is doing with a lot of different 70's bikes.
The thread is not meant to start trouble, just repeating what I heard and have expirenced. If others haev good or bad expirences please by all means chime in.
Having built a slew of race bikes, some including the whole chassis....it takes a TON of time and money to get any real custom sorted out. It takes a real consumate craftsman to build a trouble free bike. I've built one customer race bike....never again. I charged $3,500 for it and by the time I was done I was making about $5 an hour.
I'm not surprised it's falling apart...people that can build a true roadworthy custom and sell it for a reasonable price are few and far between.....and I'm NOT one of them
JohnnyB
I'm not surprised it's falling apart...people that can build a true roadworthy custom and sell it for a reasonable price are few and far between.....and I'm NOT one of them
JohnnyB
Having built a slew of race bikes, some including the whole chassis....it takes a TON of time and money to get any real custom sorted out. It takes a real consumate craftsman to build a trouble free bike. I've built one customer race bike....never again. I charged $3,500 for it and by the time I was done I was making about $5 an hour.
I'm not surprised it's falling apart...people that can build a true roadworthy custom and sell it for a reasonable price are few and far between.....and I'm NOT one of them
JohnnyB
I'm not surprised it's falling apart...people that can build a true roadworthy custom and sell it for a reasonable price are few and far between.....and I'm NOT one of them
JohnnyB
bike building is a labor of love....soon my shop will be deicated to custom builds, i'll keep y'all posted....
Ride Fast and Take Chances
www.meistercycles.com
Ride Fast and Take Chances
www.meistercycles.com
it is hard to make money at building non harley customs. Even the cafe style harley's are having a hard go of it. These days you can't ger anybody to pay more than $5000 for a complete japanese based cafe racer (with lots of custom work) and more than $15,000 for a comparable top line british bike (unless you are kenny dreer). If you were to charge the normal labor rate for a jap custom you are looking at a $10-15K motorcycle, same for a birt bike going up to $20K.
Parts are about the only thing that seems to be making any profit, because you don't have the labor invested like an individual bike. Plus the guys that are into this kind of bike are low budget types, so they would rather spend the time on their bike and the money on a high quality piece. Airtech, raask, tarozzi, and evan wilcox all seem to be doing ok off of just parts, meanwhile all the local shops who work on these bikes are beating their brains in to keep up on the shop rent and usually relying on another business to prop them up.
Parts are about the only thing that seems to be making any profit, because you don't have the labor invested like an individual bike. Plus the guys that are into this kind of bike are low budget types, so they would rather spend the time on their bike and the money on a high quality piece. Airtech, raask, tarozzi, and evan wilcox all seem to be doing ok off of just parts, meanwhile all the local shops who work on these bikes are beating their brains in to keep up on the shop rent and usually relying on another business to prop them up.
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