Comments on: DP Customs Gulf Bobber

By: Ken

Ken — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 16:14:00 +0000

Justin,

Thank you for taking all of this in stride. If it were my bike and it was hammared like some people have done, I would be depressed. It takes cajones to put your work out there!

My original comment was that the price is part of what makes this beautiful. I really think that the fact that you try to make customs that people can afford is great. This is what we need in this economy. I can’t imagine that you make a killing at this, but I hope it pays the bills and then some! Keep up the good work!

Chris, Mule and Clay, thanks for putting your collective 2 cents out there. Hopefully others will fall in line!

By: DP CUSTOMS

DP CUSTOMS — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 09:37:00 +0000

Man, we have to duck in one last time because we’re surprised at the amount of feedback this hog picked up. Some good, some not so good. Regardless, it’s a great thing to get so many opinions and we definitely take it all in for future ideas. Sounds like we could’ve done more detail work, or maybe she’s not customized enough or it’s been done a thousand times before. No worries, we hear you. Thought it might help to explain that we originally made this bike for myself, as my own personal bike to tool around on. It ended up here by a stroke of luck. We never set out to shock the world with a groundbreaking build. However, I personally think it turned out bitchin and it’s a lot of fun to ride.

DPC isn’t a ‘high-dollar’ builder, nor do we want to be. That’s not our thing. We’re regular guys that work hard and love what we do. We enjoy the simple things, like an ice-cold Pabst. No corporate sponsors or million dollar equipment. Sure, we could get into countless hours of detail work but that would put us in a different market. Our niche focuses on the working man’s budget – and sometimes that means no Brembo’s. Again, thanks to all of you for your thoughts.

Justin @ DP CUSTOMS

By: Mule

Mule — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 23:07:00 +0000

Clay, I don’t roll with the knobbies on street bikes, but other than that, your bikes are freakin’ gorgeous!!!!! Not pure sex, but pure style and craftsmanship!

By: elven

elven — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 19:38:00 +0000

Agreed what Mule and others say, the first thing about all of us here is that we are PASSIONATE about bikes and there is clearly a divide between pure custom fans and others who look at customising as a way of perfecting the way a bike works on the road, rather than how it looks.
But if anyone gets personal, I just have to respond!
There’s also a divide between USA and EU; from this site I guess that Europeans generally ride much longer distances than the average for the USA. My nearest city is Málaga and we see lots of bikes registered in UK, Germany, Denmark; that’s over 5000kms round trip (we used to do it ourselves until we emigrated). In EU bikes without 2 brakes are simply illegal and downright dangerous on our roads, so they can only ever be “show only”.

As for some of the custom bikes on here from big bucks sellers….
Bare plastic battery with no cover?
Spare lugs left on forks instead of being cleaned off?
I just build bikes for me, not to finish those details is simply lazy engineering.
Earn your money, take pride in what you do.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 19:13:00 +0000

Forgot to ask the builder since he’s replied on here;

Did you rebuild the engine or anything for that price on that pile-o-AMF? Or are you planning on doing what so many other “master builders,” or wtf ever you wanna call yourself, do too frequently and send the bike out looking “pretty” but not mechanically, structurally sound? Bike I am fixing head gasket on left the shop and went to my customer WITH the head gasket blown, but the builder got his money. I’m not even sure whether to blame greed or incompetence in this instance but these things happen too much and I am tired of fixing the shoddy work of the “master builder.” Hell, you oughta see Chopper Inc’s “Chronic” bike. It’s next door at my friend’s shop being fixed because Billy was greedy. Still looks the same as 5 years ago with no engine. Better fit and finish than most, but still not very impressive on a true hand-built level. You guys say you want to build for the real biker/enthusiast…start with a little more finish and respect to the history and terminology. You do build some nice bobbers, this ain’t one of them…it’s a short chop.

Just don’t go the greedy/uncaring way of the others.

By: patrick

patrick — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 18:51:00 +0000

That’s not a bobber, it’s a short chop and only barely because it’s got a rigid rear loop. No offense to the builder, but why doesn’t anybody take time to actually “finish” all the little things anymore. At my shop right now, I am replacing a head gasket on a bike (won’t name names) built by a reported “master builder,” multiple participant of buildoff shows etc, due to the poor overall finish of the bike. I see a lot of potential in the bikes being built by DP, but I just wish I could see more attention to detail and taking time to do the little true custom things. Bolting/welding things on out of a catalog isn’t really customizing…

By: Clay

Clay — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 17:57:00 +0000

Thanks Chris. I just like motorcycles period. There’s a folder I keep on my desktop that is labelled “Inspiration”, I sit down and look at it some times when I burned out, tired of fabricating, or just having a bad day, whatever. Nothing in there but a couple hundred pictures of what I think are really neat motorcycles. Despite the fact that I build what I build within fairly narrow parameters, my “Inspiration” folder isn’t full of rigid British bikes. Sure there’s a few, but there’s also GP bikes, flat track bikes, restored vintage mx bikes, some wild AMD type custom stuff, you name it. They’re all motorcycles, and I guess it just seems to me like they should be appreciated as such.