Place: Colorado Handle: @paper_street_customs
What do you do for money?
Build bikes, build parts, and do fab work.
How did you get into motorcycles?
Its a case of total and complete dumb luck.
What was your first motorcycle?
A 1996 Softail Springer
What do you currently ride?
um, a1996 Softail Springer
What is your all-time favorite motorcycle?
I don’ t think I could narrow it down to one but some of my favorites are Warren Lane’s El Rey, Mullins Chain Drive’s Reaganomics, Paul Wideman’s Jane Doe, Bill Dodge’s Asbury Dirt, Jason Jesse’s The Black Tibetian, and Armond Bletcher’s Achilles Heel.
What attracted you to motorcycles?
Everything. I’ve never referred to myself as an artist but I think motorcycles are the highest form of art. They combine so many different mediums. Everything from design, to sculpture, paint, and engineering are involved. You can be creative as possible but you also have to maintain strict tolerances and and end up with a functional piece.
What do you like about riding motorcycles?
Being on a bike changes everything about traveling. Even if you’re just going down the block. It’s dangerous, you’re exposed. Like a raw nerve, everything is heightened. You FEEL everything. I’ve gotten places in my truck and couldn’t tell you one detail about the ride there, but on a bike you’re more in the moment.
How have motorcycles changed your life?
For the better! I’ve traveled all over the country, and a few places around the world because of motorcycles. And the people. I can’t even express how amazing the people are that have been brought into my life by bikes.
I don’t do this for a living because I have to. There are plenty of jobs I could have (and most pay a helluva lot more) but this is the only thing I’ve ever done that makes me “happy.”
Who or what have you gained inspiration from?
I’m inspired by the world around me. Everything from architecture and antique furniture to space ships and nature. Literature, coffee, my friends and family.
What has changed your life for the better?
Social Media
What has changed your life for the worse?
Social Media
Any other statements or slander you would like the world to know?
Build something, anything, with your hands. Pick up a wrench or a torch and take an idea from your mind and create it. Its the best medicine in the world.
