First, let me say that for the purpose of this article that the term “custom motorcycle” refers to any motorcycle that has been altered from its original stock format. This might include choppers, bobbers or pro street bikes. If we want to examine why we build custom motorcycles I think the reasons also cover why we customize any motorcycle. The desire to build a ground up custom motorcycle is the same desire to change a factory bike with usually other factors like finances and practicality being the variables that decide which direction we take.

Is it strictly a male thing? Doesn’t seem to be as far as I can tell. Many women immediately start customizing their motorcycles as soon as they get them. So I guess that would rule out any mating ritual psycho babble arguments as to why we can’t be satisfied with what we have. The motorcycle as an extension of our manhood doesn’t explain why females also customize bikes. And we know they do.

I notice that it’s a very rare motorcycle owner that doesn’t do at least a little customizing to their machine even if it’s only adding a few chrome parts or covers on, so maybe the reason we make custom motorcycles is closely related to the reasons we ride bikes at all. Is what makes us bikers in the first place also what drives us to change them as soon as we get them? I think it may be.

For most of us, riding a motorcycle is about our individuality, our ability to separate ourselves from the rest of the world and to some degree control our own world. When you ride a bike you’re in control of your very life: every decision you make could be a life or death one. I think that for most riders that is what we love about riding more than anything, the sense of control. And we extend that feeling onto what our motorcycles look like. By customizing our motorcycle we can assert our individuality in the bike itself. And it’s easy to accomplish. Go to any bike rally and try and find two identical motorcycles. It is next to impossible.

We build custom motorcycles so we can say to the world “Hey, I don’t care how much I blend into the background at work, or at the mall or when I driving my car; when I’m on this one of a kind motorcycle my individuality can’t be ignored. I’m different from everyone else, even other motorcyclists. We build custom bikes so we can stand back look at our bike and say “No one else in the entire world owns a motorcycle that looks like this.” We build custom motorcycles because we want something that shows our uniqueness.

Some of us may even build them for the sheer joy that comes from accomplishment, but ultimately we still want others to see them because it makes us unique. No one ever built a custom bike and then hid it in the garage. Like any form of art, it; and its builder, can’t be appreciated unless it’s put on display. In a world where people have become assets and numbers the custom motorcycle still screams “I will not be who the world thinks I should be!”