[Jeff Higgins]

Hmmm... where to start. I've been riding motorcycles my entire life and have definitely formed some opinions from what I've seen. There are some great looking bikes out there these days, that's for sure. Most of them don't get ridden. The seating positions, suspensions, and frames are so compromised to achieve that "look" that they are almost unrideable. If you are into actually riding beyond just bar-hopping, you might want to avoid these. As far as resale value, these bikes are such an unknown to any potential buyer, especially if you built it yourself, that you can never expect to even come close to getting your money out of them. They make great toys, but not serious riders or investments. I would love to build one myself, but it would be as a third or fourth bike, with others for serious riding.

Speaking of building it yourself. The biker community is divided into several distinct camps. Us "old school" guys, when we say "build it yourself", do not mean the "bike in a box" approach. Back in the day we chopped bikes ourselves and you simply could not buy the bike kits and other short cuts of today. Worse yet is to show up on a "chopper" that some one else built for you. To hard-core bikers, that's akin to having some one else do your screwing for you. It's just not done, and you miss most of the fun. So at least go into this with your eyes open on that count. Riders of these machines are viewed as yuppie wannabe's that have not paid their dues, and don't even realize there are any to pay. So don't be surprised to get a very cold shoulder from the very crowd you hoped to fit in with by buying one of these; membership can't really be bought. It's a really weird community to those not familiar with it, or the unspoken rules they adhere to.