Born to lose

Bike’s founding editor dreams up, builds and finally sells his latest project

I’ve been around the custom world long enough to know about the pain that ensues when it’s time to flog your bespoke beloved. Last year I was one such hopeful, specifically so’s I could use the proceeds from selling my Honda Superdream ’tracker to turn a recently acquired SWM Gran Milano into a post-apocalypse streetfighter. However, realistically aware that I’d not get the £4500+ it cost me to build the blighter, I put it on fleabay at £2500 but got not a nibble. I also listed it in the online classifieds run by Britain’s premier custom emporium, Bike Shed, but still no takers.

Further online twiddling unsurprisingly revealed most up-forsale custom bikes don’t sell. And if they do, it is for nowhere near their asking prices. The reason? Most amateur builders are trying to recover the cost of a poorly executed bike or, worse still, an unfinished project. The underlying irony being, one’s man’s highly personalised dream machine is another man’s ho-hum.

But because I used professional tradesmen to do the things I can’t, the end result at least looks good – unlike most of ’em on fleabay. However, as hopes of turning the SWM into a poor man’s Ronin faded, I reluctantly re-advertised the Honda at less than half its build cost. Within two days a very nice man bought it sight-unseen, proving beauty is in the eye of very few beholders and anyone selling a custom must be willing to take a big hit. All of which tells me custom bikes are ultimately rich, or at least multi-skilled, men’s playthings. Which sadly excludes yours truly.