.... caused directly or indirectly from the recession or other (shift in consumer spending, not responding to consumer needs, etc, etc.).

There has been American IronHorse, Vengeance Motorcycles, and I am sure quite a few more. How many others?

List them out here......List out H-D aftermarket 'Parts Manufacturers' also.

 

a lot of indy bike builders are sticking around simply through repair work and scraping by. so they haven't completely gone bust, but the drop off of the "custom bike" world is probably staggering. without the t.v. show i would imagine that O.C.C. has to be close to insolvency.

i talked to an indy up by me who builds custom choppers and he admitted he hadn't sold a custom chopper in 22 months. he had a custom bike in his shop they had built a couple years ago on consignment for one of his customers trying to sell it for 9 K. five years ago he would've had a waiting list for 10 months to sell the bike for 30 K +... he gets by because he owns the building and pays bills by servicing bikes.

 

Uh ... Buell?

 

I saw Jesse James talking about how they been tricking out stock harleys ..He said there not making many one off bikes only a few a year....seems like there doing well taking a stock harley and puting his twist on it and never have to deal with the EPA....

 

Read in a copy of The Horse Back Street Choppers that Milwaukee Iron closed their doors last year...and not sure, but think it was Redneck Engineering that was still open, but down from about 40 employees during the boom days to 6 or so now...

Russ Mitchell at Exile seems to focus more on what he calls "hard parts for softails" than customs these days...

 

I think the EPA will kill most of them custom bike builders in the years 2 come.....and not many people are in to them anymore

 

The only ones I like to see go belly up is OCC...they suck!

 

i gotta be honest most custom choppers you would have to pay me to ride, just gaudy and ridiculous. i never understood who bought these and what they did with them.

 

Swift is about dead and is selling off it's assets this month.
Titan is dead again
Surgical Steeds is dead
American Ironhorse is gone
There are many more

 

totally agree!! give me custom/modified harley anyday!