i take eric for granted sometimes. he gave me what was probably a lot of money to help him get out there and get noticed. i don’t check out his blog very often, i just told him he needed one in december, but having spent the past eight hours re-designing and editing it to match the new identity i’ve created for him, i realized how hard this guy has worked.
his blog is a documentary of a man who can’t write for s**t, but the photos tell the story of what it’s like to say “f**k it, i’m gonna build bikes for a living.” he’s not a well-connected ad guy. he’s not incredibly educated. he learned how to do things by simply doing them. he talks like he’s from jersey. he took an architecture class in college. he spent a decade and a half working as a heating and air contitioning tech.
that’ll learn ya how to wire s**t, but not a lot about the fabrication of custom motorcycles.
with that background i am amazed at what he’s been able to do in the past year with limited tools out of a two-car garage in georgia. some of his work is really amazing for a first-timer and the more i saw, the more i knew about him. from his kawasaki kz750 ratbike with faux f***ed-up paint and king and queen seat (i hated that bike until tonight and now – goodness i must be experiencing a philip k. **** “message from an alien ***” moment – i find it…. cool. it has character.) to his incredibly clean xs500 cafe racer (soon to debut at the dime city cycles grand opening), it’s plain to see that he’s going to make it, and make it good.
he says he is building a frame jig next month to take his bobbers to the next level. and that xs500 cafe racer? i’ve seen some of the details and it’s really an amazing bike. what’s on his website are teasers. he has an eye for quality and says the next few bikes he builds are going to be miles ahead of what he has done previously.
it seems that eric exemplifies all that bikerMetric is about:
do it yourself,
no excuses,
f**k you if you don’t like it,
risk everything,
motherf***er.
check him out and watch the development of a young builder as he grows artistically and mechanically, learning how to create reliable, killer custom motorcycles and one-off fab parts working men and women can afford.
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