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Born this Way: All about Olfactory Receptors

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An Arabian Journey

Herd Of Wolves

An Arabian journey by Fabio Affuso

Meeting this morning at Café Rider in Dubai, we are embarking on a motorcycle trip from the Emirates to Oman’s Northern coast Musandam, and then back into UAE to reach the top of Jabel Jais. We haven’t got tents or sleeping mattress, but we’ll be camping on the beach and on the mountains while testing motorcycle gear and bikes. Jenny and Abdul are in the Jeep with all the camping stuff and the nifty XR125 strapped at the back, Fahim is on a lovely custom Buell borrowed form his friend Sergio and built by Café Rider, and Zubin is on the powerful S&S bobber also built and lent by the guys at the cafe. For now I’m riding pillion on Hamad’s Harley Streetglide, and although it’s not a custom, it’s easily the most comfortable ride of them all, certainly the best to shoot from with cruise control and stereo playing. We will swap and change bikes later, so I’m not worried about riding with Hamad singing Arabian tunes.

Riding out of Dubai we head northeast on the fast motorway through the deserted landscape. We’re literally in the middle of nowhere, surrounded only by miles of orange sand and the occasional tents settlement with camels. The air is hot and the distant landscape seems wrapped in a cloud of dusty haze. I think it’s surrounding the mountains I see in the distance, at the border with Oman, but I soon realise sand is also flying everywhere and my nose and eyes are full of it. Sunglasses are not enough so I pull the Opal Goggles out and lift my handkerchief to my mouth. It’s my only chance to try this amazing piece of kit as once in Oman I’ll be gifting the goggles to Zubin as a thank you for organising the ride, plus he looks really cool with them.

After a couple of hours of steady riding we finally reach the mountains to cross into Oman and immediately discover a totally different landscape. Gone is the boring motorway and we are now cruising a beautiful twisty costal road nestled between massive rock formations and a shiny flat sea. It’s late afternoon and the sun is slowly going down behind the misty clouds. Blessed to be riding feely along the Persian Gulf, we pass several small fishing villages forgotten by modern times, and finally the trip really starts to sink in. After a long scenic ride we stop in Khasab for a well-deserved dinner and a chill. It’s a lively town with people finishing work, and it’s funny to see impressed locals going by and taking pictures of our bikes. Finally dark, we need to go and find a beach to camp for the night. I’ve now put the camera away and I’m having my first go with the bobber along the dark costal road. We find just the perfect in beach at the feet of a mountain formation, with the inclined stretch of sand going from rocks to water and finally gather around the fire to drink tea and chat road trip stories. 

Sleeping right there on the sand is a liberating experience, but it’s now time to take the XR for a spin by the water. Going nuts with the little hooligan is a lot of fun, but I wish it were a 250cc at least. So after a homemade beach breakfast and a wash in the warm sea we hit the road again to explore the surrounding mountain roads. I’m now riding the XR and shooting pictures as I go when the little baby suddenly dies. There is no more spark so we throw the bike back on the jeep and get on the way to cross back into UAE to climb mountain Jais for sunset. We swapped bikes again and I’m now riding the S&S at speed while hanging on for my life. What a crazy machine this is. So much power, no suspensions and outstretched limbs really put a toll on you but it’s a lot of addictive fun. Lunch is at a traditional Arabian restaurant with delicacies like croquettes of shark fins and fried balls of fish eggs. Sealing it all off with a good coffee – they love their coffees here! – we take the road for the mountains just as the afternoon orange sun begins to gently paint the landscape around us. I’m now testing the custom Buell, and with a flip of the throttle I spin in front to find a good spot to shoot the others from. Riding the beautiful twisty road up to the mountains is just amazing, and we reach the top just as the sun is dropping down behind the orison. What an epic ride, but with cold coming down fast it’s now time to find a camping spot again. We settle for a viewing platform further down at the edge of a cliff and pull our kit out to make dinner and tea. Again the night sky is not clear, and for the second night in a row we get a little drizzle on us, but we don’t care, we are free camping and this is just part f the game. The fire and Hamad’s Masala tea are keeping us warm, and we marvel at the landscape until we fall asleep right there on the rug we lay under the Persian sky.

Slowly waking up in the dim landscape, Hamad’s Arabian Coffee has never tasted so good, and we gather at the edge of the cliff to watch the sun rise from behind the mountains across from us. It’s the perfect time and place for a morning ride, but also the last chance before heading back to Dubai. So we skip breakfast and quickly get on the bikes to speed back up to the top. With only a few cyclists and the odd car around, the mountain is now in full splendour, and the road becomes our playground. We start descending the mountains twisty roads, and I really wish I were riding now, but hanging by the side of the jeep it’s the perfect time to capture the boys having the time of their lives. In a moment of excitement Fahim spins the bobber’s back wheel on the rocky soil and crashes massive stones onto the others right behind, but thankfully Zubin is wearing the Opal goggles that save his pretty face! What a dirty luck, but also how well built piece of kit, the glasses didn’t even break! Thank you Herd of Wolves!

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Dario Mastroianni | Officine Mermaid

Officine Mermaid opens the doors of the store in 2009 and the shop one year later, giving birth to the now famous “Motoquartiere” in Milan, Isola district.

Dario can be defined with only one word: Dreamer. Dreamer with the capital “D”. He narrates you what he does like a true artist, he takes by the hand and walks you through the trip that will bring your idea, the motorcycle, into what will become the final project and he does that with the same enthusiasm of a kid that is ready to play.

You can see he does what he loves and what he does, he does it with love.

“What does it take to do custom?” I ask.

Dario: “To do custom you need passion and a base of culture for the product that you are doing. I am from ’68, I’ve seen some motorcycles… They are all beautiful. Then, you have to interpret them. It takes some taste, everyone can do the manufacturer.

Officine Mermaid works on all kinds of bikes. Their favorites are Harley, BMW, old Honda and Yamaha and sometimes an off-road (at the time of the interview he had a KTM 450 Dakar, equipped with also the safety water tank as per the Paris-Dakar rules and Road Book. We ended up buying it…).

“Any project with new bikes?”

Dario: “We did two collaborations with Ducati customizing first the Scrambler 800 in 2015 and then the Scrambler 400 in 2016 together with Nicola Martini”.

Also in 2016, they collaborated with BMW Italy customizing a NineT that was then presented at the BMW pavilion at the exposition in Verona.

Dario: “We kept the base NineT intact not to twist BMW brand and idea too much: racing but ‘cool’.” All made in-house: racing exhaust, the handmade seat in true Japanese style, front mask handmade in the shop, all the Titanium details (with no transparent mix) hand draw like the old times… “We called an outside artist to make this” Dario recalls.

Hand grips in suede, engine, and wheels painted in black, thinner indicators, customized BMW logo. “If you customize, do it all the way”.

“The objective?”

Dario: “create the style keeping the reliability of the new bikes”. If from the old BMW R75/5 or R100 you can demand too much in terms of reliability, it will reassure you knowing that Officine Mermaid gives a 1-year warranty on all trier products. No matter how old is the bike.

So, old bikes and new bikes. Not only naked thou…

Dario: “Fabio Marcaccini from Unit Garage created a Kit for the new models of BMW GS, making them look like the old Paris-Dakar from the ‘80s. We liked it so we decided to mount them”.

Kit Fabio Marcaccini per BMW GS 1200

The Kit includes Covers on the gas tank (standard size), front and rear Öhlins suspensions (Dario’s choice), an orange seat like the original Paris-Dakar like also the front mask and, of course, rigorously off-road tires. “This is an exceptional example of how style and technique can embrace each other. With this bike, you can travel the world”.

As you enter the shop you get hit from the smell of “bike shop”, a mix of rubber, oil, leather, and steel, all on a pavement with a marvelous black and white checks pattern that recalls immediately the style of Officine Mermaid. In the back, we find the room dedicated to the seas, where the client can choose his base form and leather (all made in Italy) that he prefers.

The first room, where you choose the style and material of your seat

The main room hosts two bridges and the motorcycles that are ready to be picked up, wherein the last two rooms we find the cue of motorcycles that are ready to be customized and another four bridges, for a total of six!

Dario: “From here go out between 150 and 200 bikes a year”. Absolutely impressive.

Impossible not to notice the choice of materials and colors…

Dario: “We work a lot with the real suede, from reindeer (not Alcantara), colors like Titanium, white, black and grey. I like the ‘rusty’ bikes, brushed steel… I don’t like colors much.

While Dario is telling me the origin and study of some pieces of art he has in store, I begin to wonder about who are the lucky people who can afford all these jewels…

Dario: “Even though many young people come to us are the less-young people to buy the most… Prices vary a lot, you can get a fully customized bike with 8-10.000,00$” I care to remind the readers that he offers a 1-year warranty on ALL bikes!

“You know, we are also official distributors for the Italian market of the Samurai Chopper, a Japanese bike, rigid chassis, Harley Davidson 1340cc engine… An expensive bike…”

“What do you see for the future?”

Dario: “Custom Harleys are around from 1903… Custom BMWs (in Italy) are around for few years. In the future, I’d like to work more of the off-road. The market is going in that direction, big motorcycles fairs like Eicma are beginning to notice custom shops like us and in my opinion, there is a lot of space to move around for customizers. Plus, touring and off-roads are also the most complete bikes”.

In full Officine Mermaid, there is also their logo, simple and very elegant…

Dario: “Our logo comes from my passion for the Sea, the mermaid recalls the mythology and, with it, the dreams… Just like our motorcycles”.

Herd Of Wolves

Photos by Michela Albert

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Keino Sasaki | Keino Cycles

To arrive in Keino Cycles from Manhattan you have to take the F train to Carroll Street. It’s not a particularly friendly part of Brooklyn. It’s a poor area, you’re surrounded by factories, no shops or cafes. Once in front of the door, enough time has passed to make you feel like in another dimension. And that is a good thing…

You see, Keino shop is far from the typical ‘cool’ bike shop, it has something that throws you back in time, when we used to go to old shops with many dirty tools hanging to the walls, just to get your watch repaired. One of those places where you don’t enter and sit asking for a coffee, but you rather find yourself amazed by all the beats and pieces everywhere around you that you won’t even be able to name… Keino Cycle is a must-go-see place for everyone deeply in love with the concept of the man that crafts bikes from scratch.

Keino Sasaki is a very kind man. When you enter into his shop you have to be careful, ask permission, be quiet, walk slowly, cause you are entering his life.

Keino: “I was born and raised in Japan, during college I felt the need to get away from there and pursue my dream to work on custom bikes. I worked in a car manufactory line for two years saving money to come to the US. Finally, in 1998 I was able to move here and ten years later I started Keino Cycles”.

Be nice to him and be sure to arrive at your ideas straight…

Keino: “I do all bikes. Customers come to me and if it’s something that I can do or interests me, I’d take on. Most of the time I screen people. I ask them what they want to do with the bike, what’s their vision and then I tell them – I’m sorry, I’m not the right guy”.

I like that. Keino is a one-man-band. To create a bike from scratch it can take him over a year. A year of his work, every day. When you have so much dedication to your products and clients, you can’t just take any job. You only take what, in some way, touches you.

Keino: “Sometimes it can be very hard… How do I start? I have an idea… But somehow I have to get there!”.

Keino is a real artist. His approach is like a painter in front of an empty canvas or a writer in front of a blank page. When you create something so beautiful from nothing it can be a real struggle.

Keino: “I do Holly (Harley Davidson), Norton, Vincent, Triumph, Kawasaki… Pretty much anything goes… I don’t have a style that you can label, my style is my style, more like an approach to it. I try to see what the essence of the original bike is and I try to keep it like that. It doesn’t have to be a certain way… That’s why custom motorcycles are so cool!”

Of course, being all alone, not all works are done in here. Keino works with steel and aluminum all by himself, shaping and hammering all parts from the gas tank to frames and chassis to exhaust. He also creates the forms of the seats, but he doesn’t do the actual leathering, nor the paint job. Amazing was a Triumph that I saw there when I met him, he was working on the body so it was all naked with the closed-end exhaust showing off… I felt like a kid!

KEINO: “I like those ‘purpose-built’ bikes, with a specific purpose. Like ADV or drag race bikes… Either performance oriented or show oriented. Manufactories ask me bikes for shows, clients more for purposes.

The client is followed from beginning to the end…

KEINO: “After the purchase, the client is always welcome if they have a problem I can go take the bike and fix it”.

I was surprised to find out prices were not very different from other custom shops, in fact, you can buy a fully customized bike for only 8-10.000$ depending, of course, on which is your base bike.

KEINO: “If you start with a Holly Sportster it’s 8-10.000$ only to get the base bike, but if you want a Vincent… That can be up to 40.000$! A running Honda CV250 can cost only 2.500$ but a Holly KnuckledHead is going to cost you 20.000$ for the engine and chassis! Point is… There is no flat rate”.

It took me a little over an hour to break the ice with Keino, but I can say he is nothing but a true craftsman, with a strong passion and dedication to spend his time creating the best bikes he can make. It’s time to go and, with a warm smile, my new friend  leaves me saying:

KEINO: “I want this from my future… Hopefully, I can get more parts, but I want to do this for the rest of my life. This is my living”.

Herd Of Wolves

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Bobby Seeger | Indian Larry

It all started with the friendship with Larry, he wanted me and Elisa to become his partners with the goal to keep the name up and out.

Bobby: “In 2004 Larry passes away, it was a big deal, totally unexpected. At that time some people that were working here decided not to work under the name anymore and go under their own name, which sounds like the right choice to do. Me and Elisa thou chose to keep pushing Larry’s name forward.”

“How was Larry”?

Bobby: “Larry was a true character, he was a cult figure building these badass motorcycles. Our goal is to continue making badass motorcycles…

Each of them is different and all completely handmade here in our shop. We only have this shop but we ship everywhere around the world. This is an international brand!”.

“How does the process to get bike works?”

Bobby: “We only do choppers. It’s very little here and there on other’s people motorcycles. We like to make from 8 to 10 bikes a year, most of them are sold and sometimes we like to keep one or two. Customers can look what’s going on in the showroom and we sit down and talk about what we would do and what we won’t do…”

Base motors are SNS, it happened a couple of Harley (even if very rarely) and they also use motors from a company named Accurate Engineering down in Alabama… but what is truly amazing is that they only take motors from them! Mostly everything else is made in-house.

Bobby: “We put our hands on motors too, some are 900cc, some 1000cc, some others 1240cc…

But we never put them to check power so we don’t know (and totally don’t care) about how many hp they have… But they are fast!”

Forget about the motors for a sec! Let’s talk about the work they do in the style of the bikes. Be ready to have your mind blown away…

Bobby: “Our bikes are lighter, more style, each one is a piece of art and they are extremely comfortable! Unlike most people which build their bikes, maybe in their garages, and never ride them, we build bikes that you can use every day. We rarely go to events and shows but when we do we prefer to ride our bikes to there! To show that these are nice bikes, they are pretty badass but the bike function as a motorcycle and we are here to ride them!”

Esthetically they do everything by themselves, from making the chassis in the back of the shop to almost every single part of the bike, including the paint job. In fact, the only things they don’t do are motors (from scratch), suspensions (Öhlins), mags and breaks.

Bobby: “We work a lot with Stainless Steel, aluminum, and leather. All American material by conscious choice”.

After all, it takes from three to four months to build a bike.

Prices? You better sit down for that: from 65,000.00$ to 125,000.00$.

But you can’t really compare them with anything else… Plus, of course, they cover any problem the bike might have, even if shipped to another country, they would send you the parts.

These are not common bikes.

These are classic bikes. No electronics. It starts with a normal key and there are no signals.

Yes, you got it right. It’s hand-signals only… And they are road legal!

So cool…

“Who is the typical customer?”

Bobby: “People that had nothing as a kid, they worked hard, they became successful, made money and they want a toy. These are luxury items! A lot of characters walk through that door…”.

At Indian Larry, they like to keep it simple. Don’t imagine a fancy shop, cause you’ll be far from the truth. Eight people work here and overall it looks exactly like any other shop, with a small store at the very entrance.

Bobby: “I hope in the future everything is going to stay the same. We are not looking to expand and open other shops. We go to events and shows but we like to be only in Brooklyn”.

If you like to meet them and you’re thinking when will be the best time to come, the answer is at their ‘block party’, held every year on the third weekend of September (14th-17th this year). They are going to shut down two entire blocks around the shop and having the best event you can possibly imagine, including amazing food and beer… I’ll go for sure!

After the interview, I went to the shop taking some pictures for you readers and in that moment I started elaborating the massive work they actually do. These bikes carry the same price tag of a Ferrari or a Lamborghini and they should! It might be a little hard to get your head around it at first, but these are real pieces of art, shaped from nothing, complete scratch by eight people for a total of 3 to 4 months of work.

If that isn’t amazing for you guys… What is it really?

Herd Of Wolves

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Neri Quagli | Neri Quagli Garage

Neri Quagli is no ordinary customizer.

The stereotype custom shop has windows, bikes to show, a counter, an entrance…A business card…

Neri doesn’t have anything like that. Not even a company. It’s just him. Him with an idea: making cool motorcycles.

I think this time is important to clarify one thing about us:

Despite custom bikes now are a trend going up everywhere in the world, despite now all big manufacturers are starting to make their own custom bikes, at Herd Of Wolves we like to think about customizers in a romantic way. A man, a bike, his hands, his tools, his genius, his creativity all convey to the final product. If then people like it, they will buy it. If people buy it, you’re a customizer. That’s what it comes down to it in the end. Is there somebody riding your bikes in the world? Then you can call yourself a customizer.

Neri is a 30 years old Italian guy, who runs a video production company, his family business.

His passion though has always been motorcycles…

Neri: “I started at 14, while all my friends had scooters my father gave me a Beta RK6… in pieces… Wheels, chassis, engine, exhaust… It took me almost two months to build it”.

From there his friends started to give him their scooters to pimp them up.

Neri: “I didn’t know everything, I would knock at doors of local shops around my city, Firenze, come in and ask if I could sit and watch the work they were doing. I learned that way”.

“I see you do a lot of BMWs…” 

Neri: “I started with BMW cause five years ago, when I began, I found a K100 for 300Euro. While everybody hated it, I was able to imagine it naked and I liked the Café Racer Style”.

Neri started his first serious bikes for a project called Vintage Riders that consisted in giving some motorcycles to a luxury hotel located on Lake of Como for tourists to rent and circle around the lake.

Neri: “I like working on BMWs like K100 and every time I find one I buy it.

Yes, those are old bikes, but they’ll last you forever. I don’t see myself as a mechanic, I can build a BMW in one week, but if I decide to take another bike it could take me a year to do it”.

This is evidently not the common way to make bikes, and you’ll never find his motorcycles on sale. If you meet him, you could ask him to buy one. And he might tell you ‘NO’.

Neri: “I do bikes for myself, not for others. Then if somebody likes them they may buy them. Rarely someone came in with an idea that I then developed for him. This all thing started as a game and now it’s even too serious. I work in my family business during the day and I work almost every night in my garage to build bikes”.

His shop is a normal, private, underground garage. Despite the looks, Neri does quite a lot of stuff in here…

Neri: “I strip the bikes naked, fix them and work mostly on the look. The leather comes from an amazing artisan named Luca Ponzoni who only works with the finest Italian-made leathers. He comes here and makes all the seats, perfectly bespoke to each bike. I also paint and weld in-house”.

Despite the great work he puts into each bike, you’ll be surprised by the price…

Neri: “My bikes are very cheap. I know it and sometimes I think that I’m a bad influence on the market. But in the end is not true cause I only make few bikes a year and nobody knows about it”.

The price for one if his bikes spaces between 3,000.00 and 5,000.00 (Euro). Very, Very cheap.

I asked why?

Neri: “This is my passion, not my job. It’s like a game for me and I want to keep playing. Of course, since I can’t just keep all the bikes I do, I sell them. It’s good when I can get back the money I’ve invested in”.

So, how to define Neri?

Neri: “Take me like a friend: if we are already, you can buy from me. If you buy from me, you’ll become my friend. I love making bikes and, if people like them too, I can keep making new ones”.

Check out more photos on FACEBOOK.

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Claudio Giglioli | Giglioli Motori

As you might have understood by now, Herd Of Wolves' passion is Adventure, in all sort of shapes and forms. When it comes to motorcycles, there are a few manufacturers that can claim to have a good Adventure bike, but only one has it in its blood: KTM.

Today’s article is not only about a person, Claudio Giglioli, who is part of the history of Enduro racing, but it’s also aimed to understand what is the difference between KTM and other bikes and why, as a buyer, you have to watch out for what you read around…

Claudio owns the oldest KTM shop and dealer in Milan, Giglioli Motori.

Claudio: “My father was an official pilot for Ducati. When I was four he passed away and I moved to Milan staying with my uncle who had a mechanic shop. I grow up in there”.

Did you ever do something else?

Claudio: “No, always and only this. I did it also during the army, I was repairing motorcycles, cars, and trucks. For me, it feels like home”.

“I know you have a past in racing too…”

Claudio: “In 1977 I started racing for fun, then I did an Enduro race: Forty bikes started the race and only seven arrived at the end. I won that race. From that day Gilera agreed to give me bikes to race and to prepare for other riders”.

How did you arrive at the KTM family?

Claudio: “In 1982 I asked Gilera to give me a couple of bikes for a race and they turn me down, so I asked a friend who was working for KTM to introduce me his boss. After five minutes of the conversation, his boss told me that he would have given me all the bikes that I wanted. Since then – 1983 – I’m KTM”.

Among all the races that he did, both as a pilot and mechanic, there is kind of race that cannot pass unnoticed…

Claudio: “Paris-Dakar happened totally by chance. Two of my clients asked me if I wanted to be their official mechanic in case they would decide to participate and I said yes, cause I thought they were mad and joking… Three months later they came into my shop and told me I had to prepare two bikes. I did two KTM 660. One of them arrived 22nd. As a private pilot that’s really impressive”.

One of the things I often talk about in the fact that is very difficult for a common buyer to truly understand how good is a motorcycle since every dealer will say their bike is the best.

“What makes KTM the best in your opinion?”

Claudio: “In racing, there is no competition, KTM is always ahead. For the client who’s interested in something technically serious, there are the factory-replica bikes which, besides minor setting adjustments based on the specific rider, are ready-to-race. Enduro is not like Cross which has to last literally minutes… An Enduro race can last days, sometimes riding over 15,000 Km… The bike has to be perfect”.

“What is the most amazing race you prepared a bike for?”

Claudio: “Paris-Dakar for sure, but there was this one-time-only race that a client of mine wanted to do that really put me to work! He did the Saint Petersburg – Beijing with a friend that was already using my 660, but asked me a two-cylinder, so I made him a 950 Adventure from scratch”.

I ask again. “Why KTM offers the best compared to other models?”

Claudio: “Let’s take the usual suspect: BMW R 1200 GSA. It’s an incredibly good bike, but the rider has to understand that is a road bike for the most part. To start with, it has a shaft drive, which “steals” a lot of power to the wheel and makes it impossible to change the gear ratio. Each race (or trip) has different terrains which mean different setups. The Rally dei Faraoni is on the sand, Morocco is on rocks and Dakar is on dirt and sand... They all require different gear ratio and settings, and you can only do that with a chain drive. BMW won’t do that for you, which also means that if you do it yourself (or you bring it to me), the BMW warranty ceases to exist… Then there is the engine… The BMW R engine it has the same design of a car engine: first is longitudinal rather than straight up than it’s separated from the gearbox, with the clutch located in the middle, just like the cars. It’s a 1922 project… Let’s not even speak about the possibility to mount the Mousse tires…”.

I have to say that Claudio is very critic indeed with all new Adventure models, including the new Honda Africa Twin, the Ducati Multistrada Enduro, and even KTM, saying that the best bike they ever made remains the 990 Adventure. A little tip: the best bike for real adventuring around the world? The 690 Enduro R.

Claudio: “I always ask my clients what are they planning to do with the bike. How much off road will you actually do? Then we start talking… Some of my clients are professional riders and some of them do the actual Dakar every year, so I need to install even more technical devices on their bikes like the GPS, the Sentinel, the HornRepeater as also the HornLightAlert”.

“I think that you’re a lot more than just a mechanic for your clients…”

Claudio: “I’m not a seller, I am a mechanic. For me selling you the bike is just the beginning of a long-lasting relationship between you, me and your bike. I’m more like a psychologist, you just have to tell me what will you do with your bike…”.

“In your words, I can hear the deep passion you have for this brand, is it just sentimental or there is something else?”

Claudio: “It’s sentimental for sure, but it’s also because KTM brought some truly amazing innovations that most people don’t know about: it was the first one to build SuperMotard bikes in mass production, it was the first one to put the two-cylinders engine in Motard bikes, it was the first one to put the two-cylinder engine in Enduro bikes (then Bmw made the HP2), it was the first one in 1982 to mount disk brakes on all bikes, it was the first one in 1986 mounting the reversed fork… And let’s not forget that KTM today is the biggest motorcycle maker and seller in Europe!”

Ok ok, I got it. There is a lot we don’t know about KTM, and we definitely should.

“I have one last question for you, what is going to be your next Adventure?”

Claudio: “I’d like to ride my bike to Asia with only a credit card in my pocket”.

Well, what can I say… You got the spirit!

Herd Of Wolves

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Tim Harney | Tim Harney Motorcycles

Tim is the most unusual bike builder I have ever met yet. He’s young, mostly makes old beemers, but he deeply believes in electric bikes. It struck me to see such a genuinely dedicated guy that builds bikes for the fun of it, more than the business. His view on customizers is clear: too many people talking, very little actually build and way too many are full of themselves. TIM: “Despite being an (unlicensed) structural engineer, I think that is pretty arrogant and offensive for bike builders to take a perfectly good working motorcycle and tear it apart to find a better version of it, when there is a sea of people, of engineers, that are trying to figure out the best way to release this product in the safest manner. People like myself are taking these things down… That is exceedingly arrogant, that we think we know better”. Well, tough right? I guess he has a point. We (bike lovers) are not trying to buy better bikes when we approach a customizer… We are trying to find someone, something, that will make us feel special. We all want something unique to identify with. TIM: “I’ve been approached by too many people to do any number of weird baggers and things like that, and I have always said yes cause its challenging, but – I’m not gonna build them a bagger! I’ll build them my version of a bagger… I think is better to have clients to speak my vocab as opposed to me speaking theirs”. “Do you think clients don’t know what they want?” I ask.

TIM: “They have ideas in mind of what they want, but if you’re not a bike builder you probably don’t know exactly what it is that you want. Just like, I go to a restaurant and ask for a well-done steak and the chef comes out and is like “you actually want this medium-rare”.

He’s wording it differently, but is not far from what Claudio Giglioli (in our previous interview) was saying about his clients: “They have to tell me what they want and need, and I will the do the rest”. TIM: “I have to digest whatever my clients are trying to get across and come up with a good compromise”. Again, not very far from what also Claudio was saying that he’s more ‘like a psychologist’. I think I’m starting to see common ground among customizers from all around the world… “How did your passion started?” TIM: “I build my first motorcycle cause nobody would lend me one. I wanted to go really fast, but I never thought it might be prudent to have really good brakes… I went through shoes a lot cause I’d have to drag my feet to stop the bike”.

Hard entry in the world I’d say… TIM: “I started racing in Super Motard and then I also prepared race bikes. I keep asking myself ‘why do I do what I do’ and I think with me the answer is that I need to know how things work, I find myself taking things apart not knowing how they’re gonna be back together, really excited about the process of not knowing how they’ll get back together”. Tim makes around 15/20 bike per year, all working alone. He does all the engines, the weldings, but paint and leathers come from outside – all American made. He wants to deliver the best job, but the best people cost too much. He prefers to make fewer bikes for less money, rather than having five people working for him and then pumping up the prices. I respect that. “What are your favorite bikes to work with?” TIM: “I do all kinds of bikes, but I prefer BMWs, especially R bikes. They are so dependable and have a nice look. BMW still sells better than any other brand because of that”.

“Can you give me one example?” TIM: “The valves that come with an original air head (R models) they actually have two different metals on them, ferrous and non-ferrous, a really uncommon thing and really really expensive thing to do. The reason they did it is to make it a more reliable valve train, and that’s why BMW air heads tighten their valves as opposed to loosening, like in other bikes. “Have you ever considered working on new bikes?” TIM: “Although I do a lot of old bikes, I think is better to use new motorcycles. It’s way easier to make a new, good working and safe motorcycle look old than an old bike behaves like a new bike on the road”. The tough question: prices. TIM: “Price – starting at $15k – of bikes is gonna be the same either you bring your own bike or not, cause I’m gonna go through the bike regardless and I’m gonna do the same amount of work”. First time I hear that. It doesn’t sound so wrong thou. If you were to bring a new bike it would be different of course, but on old bikes, which are worth not much, he still has to do so much work of them that it really makes sense to keep the price steady. Especially when you hear what he has to say about warranty… TIM: “There is no such thing as warranty for a year. I’m building things that could possibly kill my clients… My ‘warranty’ is for life. Meaning, I’ll be always here for you. A happy client is the best advertisement”. Tim, what do you think the future holds for us? TIM: “About that… Any builder that is not going to participate in building electric motorcycles is killing himself. It’s just a matter of time… Electric bikes are way-way better…” “Are you somehow involved?” TIM: “To build them is too expensive for me now, but I’m working on that… For now, I can tell you that in October 2017 I’ll host the first electric bike race in New York City”. As Jeremy Clarkson used to say… “And on that bombshell, it’s time to end the show!” Herd Of Wolves