Before this fad dies (it’s already dying…), the type of ultra baggers flashing at you when you walk the different bike shows. Not at all my taste, but I am pretty certainthe builders and owners are very proud and happy.
Seen At Daytona Biketoberfest (Part 2)
Published by October 18th, 2014 in Builders, Customs, Editorial and Events.54 Responses to “Seen At Daytona Biketoberfest (Part 2)”
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OMG. The top one is the worst I have seen. So tacky.
You can’t teach good taste…
I’m sitting here eating Mexican food, and just threw-up. These type post need a warning. Lol
Cyril showing the v-twin industry what not to build. Public service announcement.
Jeff who would have thunk !
Those wheels are as appealing as 30 inch nipple rings on a 70 year old woman wth 48 tripple D’s dragging the ground throwing sparks.
Yes ! You will look but say oh my god.
Yes ! You will look but say oh my god.
What a waist of good polished aluminum
These are the clown cars of the motorcycle world.
Just enough room in hard bags for:
1. spray on tan
2. a razor to shave all your body hair
3. affliction tshirt (one size too small)
4. fake faded jeans with the feminine designs and sparkles on the back pockets.
Check check check & check!
Ready to put in my annual 200 miles and then to my part time job cleaning my “bagger” and then a quick jerk off session!
it’s a bit like when they warn about the bad acid at Woodstock,……………………………….
Cartoon Network..?
I have built all sorts of motorcycles over the years,some people like them some don’t.
I always enjoyed constructive criticism, but If I had spent a lot of time and effort building
a bike and you guys disrespected me enough to insult my work the way you did with this
guy dresser I would be hurt at the least.
if you see a bike here and you think people want to know your opinion of it remember he is
another biker so even if you didnt like it ,I think it would be cool to show a bit of respect.
I couldnt say it any better than what John Reed just posted. I read this site regularly and am amazed at the amount of disrespect given to fellow bikers, builders and riders. I think you haters should post up your builds and rides, if you have one, so everyone can offer their opinions.
The Bagger seen has come and gone. For all the folks wanting a fiberglass speaker box, there are plenty of gehto wheeled up boom boxes available now. I think it’s time to get back to business and show these jet ski builders that a motorcycle is made of metal and that bagger’s should be be for distance and choppers and hot rod bikes are for cruising, showing, and racing… I am so glad this fad is on the way out…
It’s been a joke from the beginning to many. I compare it to Obama.. A lot of people thought the change was needed but now they see they’ve just been fooled by people that honestly had no business trying to run with the professionals. Would Jesse James, Indian Larry, Billy Lane, T.D.Ward, Pat Kennedy, Roger Bourget, Cyril Huze, Jim Nasiand many others ever build a Bagger? The answer is NO! Not because they can’t, only because it’s a joke….
Moto, you have some valid points. I do agree with you that the Bagger seen has come and is now on the way out. I believe its much like OCC, It was here for the non bikers and it was needed to support the business. There are several vendors that have done very well selling plastic and other garbage for these non ridden machines. Another comparison would be the water bed industry, several venders made some cash selling water beds also but thats done too.Trendy fads come and go but the real deal will never die. The machines of the future will generate back to classic styling built from raw materials and not fiberglass. The fiberglass can stay with the boating industry where it belongs. I still prefer a bike for speed and beauty, something that a non leaning bag dragging big wheel fiberglass hunk of junk will never accomplish.
As I always say, I will just build mine from scratch.
Moto Jim nasi and roger have been building baggers as well as Kendall Johnson I agree let’s see what the haters ride and all your custom ground up fab work . I have no problem working with both metal or glass had many bikes in v twin both metric and american over the last 20 years I think people just talk shit because they cannot do the fab work .
Eric,
I’m not a hater I just think most of these bikes are not in the same spectrum as the real builders. When someone changes a few fiberglass parts and adds another amp, that doesn’t make them a builder. A builder is who builds a bike from absolutly nothing but raw materials. The rest of them are just customizers and those are everywhere…. Anyone can bolt parts on and make changes…..
Well said John Reed. I’m happy to see money being spent in many ways within our industry as we all benefit from it in some way. It fuels our niche economy and keeps families feed. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.
herTer some of the thought process I see here, Yoko Ono was an amazing vocalist because she put hundreds and hundreds of hours into hersinging? There has to be a reason why people who normally say good things or remain silent line up to say how horrid something is. Usually it’s because it’s horrid 🙂
I don’t think the bagger scene (not seen btw) is anywhere near over. I have no affinity for big wheel tail draggers but the reason the scene is here in the first place is because buyers aren’t purchasing cruisers, they’re purchasing baggers. The best selling Harley? Street Glide. Best selling Victory? Cross Country Magnum. Best selling Indian? Chieftain…As long as the custom market needs customers it’s going to customize what the manufacturer’s are selling.
Agree with John Reed. No reason to bash others because it’s not your taste. I do not ride a bagger and not my style but really? What BS.
Gotta love how the custom building world is constantly evolving. Some didn’t like the chopper with the fat back tire. I did. Some like the tall skinny front tire on a bagger. Not me. Some are into the minimalist skinny tires on a bobber these days. Not my style but I can see the appeal. The fads change and evolve. Keeps us looking and wondering what the next great idea will be. 🙂
A rose is a rose and shit is shit. one smells and looks good .
If your going to build something that looks like shit then deal with the smell.
If this helps the industry then its going down the crapper.
These bikes make the crotch rockets look better every day.
Let these builders know they are going down the wrong road and then the industry will thrive with real artist.
Fuji what have you done for the industry beside bitch about it not everybody going to ride bobbers or pro streets forever I have to feed my family so of big bagger wheels is what my customer wants that’s what they get if they want a bobber so be it pro street have two rolling frames can’t give away so every body quit bitching and build and ride what you like and be happy
I think the ultra big unrideable front wheel fad has had it’s 15 minutes! Baggers do have lots of purposes, and customers like the usefulness of the bagger as do I. I have always tried to talk customers out of the “big wheel” cartoon look. but as said above they are for the yuppee biker who needs to prove to his buddies he is what he is not.
Creativity is what is what lots of these builder and customers lack! Builders build what customer want or think they need. I do believe that the builder does have the obligation to enlighten customers also.
Eric. I guess you will be known for building ugly bikes regardless of how nice your previous bikes were.
You will have to rebuild your reputation. What’s that worth ? Pride.
One can’t do all and should know their limitations. Looks like you reached out to far.
Sorry but these bikes may be at the the bottom of the rung in motorcycle history and you participated,
Create a new trend if its in your realm or look for a new trade.
john reed et al,
I do not like to revisit a post, less even a virtual ‘mud-slinging, much less to make a seen(sic) (aka scene) – HOWEVER,
A custom is meant to be unique and certainly not hideous.
Hideous is a 360 plus wide rear wheel, a 30″ plus front wheel, a 50 foot long front end, a 70 degree rake and such.
To me the most beautiful ‘bagger’ is a stock standard ’05 Road King Custom. It says 1950’s Caddilac Eldorado – it is grand a thing and it can be ridden with a smile without looking smug. I wish HD would ‘dress’ their new frame in a Road King Custom (again).
The 30-inch bagsters says prancing queen, it says Valley-girl that thinks a SAT exam is a ‘Self Awareness Test’, is says my big front wheel = hides my very little pen..
There are extremely talented builders in the USA, heck build machines that talk to your soul, not scream profanity while flashing at a Day Care center…
Eric. I don’t bitch just tell the way it is.
If my opinion offends you I’m sorry. Not all can be positive.
Negativity makes you better at what you do.
I never placed my business at the time be jeopardized with a product that wasn’t to the positive standards that I set.
Reputation is worth everything don’t be passive.
I also had a young family but always found a way to manage. That’s life.
Diversify it will save you. Wisdom.
Fuji my pride is fine I build bikes one because I love it two it provides for my family and three you cannot put all your eggs in one basket and say I am only going to build one style of bike . You have to move with the times . Besides I am building all styles of bikes doing a bobber sportster 4 big wheel baggers 2 custom roadstars and redoing a 1986 honda 350 x atc it cannot get more open to all bikes then that and just picked up a sidecar and 74 iron head sportster for a bike project for my wife to ride kick only
Eric. Point again .
You can build good bridges all your life but have one collapse on you and
your immage is gone.
To prove my point we are talking about you and its not about the good bridge.
We would not be in this conversation IF ! $ over pride
Eric Have a good day and future. I wish you well
haven’t read the comments but I too threw up a little, how ’bout warning us next time!
Fiji this is just a conversation I have no ill will towards you or any body on this blog . Because in the end if you needed help on the side of the road I would help because we are all biker brothers till the end that’s what was taught to me by my farther and that’s what I teach my son . If you want to see what I have built look on Instagram under backyardcustom s have a great day everybody
I suppose Charles Manson’s mother was proud of him at one point in time.
When Baggers were in everyone liked Them. Now they are out everyone hates them. I just want to ride and not be hassled buy the Man. (I wonder who said that?). ..Z
I own a (almost) stock Road Glide Ultra and love its looks. I also love my Fat Boy and my old school Triumph chopper. While I may not care for the way the baggers pictured above look, I can still appreciate all the effort and creativity that went into every one of them. Yeah, I wouldn’t buy or build one like these, but I’d rather ride one of these bikes than drive some of the outrageous cages out there. We all need to understand that we have different preferences and views.
If you feel that strongly about the looks of these baggers, build a bike your way and show it.
It is what it is, to each its own.
I fail to see any originality in the three above as they are all about the same. I can appreciate the work that went into them, however they are still ugly.
And if your going to complain or get upset with someone criticizing your work, toughen up and get over it. Not everyone is going to agree with what you produce.
to each his own.
if you have nothing good to say…then say nothing at all.
Cyril shot these pictures at the Rat’s Hole show. A very bad one. Few bikes, low quality, bad location 45 minutes south of Daytona!
Sorry but I just don’t get Baggers, and I really don’t get Baggers with stupid Tonka Toy front wheels. Come on guys, please start building proper customs not Tarts Handbags.
The positive side of all this is that these guys spend tons of money for performance motors to put in these bikes that hardly get ridden. And just like the billet choppers of the time, these bikes will be parted out at some point and I’ll get a cheap hopped up motor for my Dyna…LOL
Any chance we have two different topics mistakenly blended together? IMO there’s nothing wrong with custom baggers. Indeed, they are a huge part of the current new sales mix and a bike type most riders gravitate towards as they age. Somehow it seems many folks think “custom bagger” and “giant skinny front wheel” are synonyms, and that is not fair or accurate. There are amazing customizations of all bike types that don’t involve a stupid biiiiig wheel fad, and always will be. In some ways I still maintain custom baggers are a huge % of the future, just not the cartoon ones.
Styles come and go. The front runners will keep up with the latest style while the rest of us just do the traditional thing.
Ride On
The bagger movement may or may not be dying, only time will tell. ( Proclaiming its imminent death out of wishful thinking isn’t likely to speed up the process, either.) Love them or loath them, they are still driving a large segment of the industry, which is good for all of us. Cyril knows this too. Post a pic of a nicely built bobber, and it gets 6 or 8 replies. Post a picture of a big wheel bagger, and it gets 40 or 50 replies.
Personally, I doubt that baggers will be going away anytime soon, although we can pretty much guarantee the styles will change and evolve. I think the swoopy bodywork has a limited shelf-life, but big wheels are likely here to stay. In the mid-late 90s, in the custom car world, anything bigger than a 16 was considered huge, but now, the same self-styled “old school” hotrodders that derided the rubber band tires on 18s are ordering their Challengers with 20s from the factory. It wasn’t the “fad” that so many predicted, it was a paradigm shift. And, more to the point, it wasn’t the old school guys that drove the trend, it was the newer, younger builders.
Considering that they are showing up on more and more non-bagger builds, I’d guess that 23ers and 26ers are here to stay. Thuddys and Thuddy-toos? Who knows, but you can bet that us gray-beards will eventually follow the trends set by the younger guys.
Mike, 2 yeas ago Cyril featured my bobber with 30 replies, that’s a lot more than 6 or 8.
Just need some peddles and they look like big wheels
I was going to throw in my .02 and then I saw that Bad T-shirts ad next to the comments and was able to re-prioritize my thinking to the really important things in life.
I don’t think the bagger thing will die, as baggers themselves are quite functional
What will die is the “Big Wheel” thing that has gone the route of the chopper back tire
How much is enough ???
26″, 30″ i hear tell of a 32″ wheel out there somewhere ???
Well. like i always said when the back tires got to 300 series
In the front anything bigger than 23″ & out back anyting bigger than a 200 series is a waste
but that just 1 man’s opinion there will always be somebody out there willing to pay for
“The Next Big Thing” Get It ??? BWHAHAHAH !!!!!!!
You didn’t post a pic of that nice paint job the Freddy Vs Jason Bagger from Rat Hole Show.
The top one is a proper eyesore, the owner was surely the “class bully”!!
WTF is that fairing on the top bike? Holy sheep shit.
Every fad goes “too far” before it begins to fade and I think that’s what we’re seeing here. As much as I personally don’t care for baggers that have gone this far, the bright side is seeing that our industry is strong enough to support such radical work. While many other industries are hurting and continue to pinch pennies just trying to survive, these bikes show that the dollars are flowing in our industry. I’m sure the people spending those dollars realize they’ll never see 20% of their investment returned when it comes time to unload these bikes, but they spend it regardless of that fact. Its all good and gives those of us who work in the motorcycle industry a sense of where the custom motorcycle economy is. The annual sales numbers I’m currently seeing at DOUGZ Custom are better than they’ve ever been, so I’m a happy man.
Its a matter of personal taste……
These are simply not my cup of tea, thanks anyway.
-nicker-
Ugly girls need loving too………………………
Hey now…I’ve always wannted a bike that looked like it had been in a head-on collision with a truck load of paint.