WITH THESE HANDS

A new generation of talented craftspeople is turning to the internet to learn manual skills and more ethereal concepts like marketing. It’s a combination that takes a typical hobby to a whole new level.

It was almost preordained that Paul Miller would wind up working with his hands. His father, Jordy, built several old-school hot rods and Paul was always helping out by grinding, filing and shaping metal. “Working with my hands was a no-brainer,” he says. “It was always just a question of how far I’d take it.” He took it pretty far, studying at SAIT to become a millwright and putting his skills to work for Trans-Canada Corp. A typical workday sees him get up at 6 a.m. and return home around 4:30 p.m. After a bite to eat, it’s out to his PanicRev Customs shop, a two-car garage that houses a lathe, milling machine, TIG-welder and sheetmetal equipment among other tools needed to build custom motorcycles or one-off pieces like an exhaust pipe, frame or gas tank. He doesn’t come back into the house until around 11 p.m. To construct a custom machine Miller starts with an engine, a collection of steel tubes and sheet metal. It takes him about a year for each build, turning out what the industry refers to as “tracker-style” machines. His creations are eagerly awaited by his 15,000-plus Instagram followers (@panicrevcustoms), many of whom learned about Miller when his first custom bike, a Yamaha TT500, was featured on BikeEXIF.com, a site dedicated to custom motorcycles. In 2016, that bike was sold to a heavy-hitter in the music industry in Los Angeles. Miller won’t name names— in addition to being mechanically inclined, he is discreet—but that’s not to say he’s reticent about what he does in his workshop. “I love my day job,” he says, “but metal and motorcycles are my passion.”