Behind the scenes at top custom builder Down and Out MC
This British custom motorcycle firm is making bikes and bits for a global audience
Down and Out Motorcycles is a story of one man turning his passion for customs into a business that despite all its success, remains true to its roots. Based in Yorkshire, the company was set up by Shaun Walker after he took the plunge and turned his hobby into a career. “I’d always been into building customs, but only in my home garage,” explains Shaun. “In 2013 I took two to the Bike Shed Motorcycle Show in London just to see what people thought of them. Back then it was more grassroots and you took a cheap old bike and built it how you wanted to before selling it to fund the next project.” With Shaun’s workmanship setting his bikes aside, it wasn’t long until he was receiving commissions. In fact, Bike Shed’s founder Anthony ‘Dutch’ van Someren was one of those so impressed by Shaun’s CB450 that he asked him to build him a BMW special. This was all the encouragement Shaun needed.
“I set up shop in Barnsley with one employee, Carl Portlock, a tube bender, welder and some tools,” remembers Shaun. “Carl was a mechanic but had never built customs before, however he loves the scene and that passion is what makes great bikes.” Originally specialising in reinventing classics, as the years have passed Down and Out have moved with the times. “Old bikes are becoming hard to source and a lot of the people who buy our bikes want a hassle-free custom,” explains Shaun. “So we moved more towards machines such as the BMW R nineT and Triumph Bonneville. You can leave these in your garage all winter and they will start on the button come summer.” This also had the side effect of drawing them to the attention of mainstream firms.
“We have been lucky enough to build customs for BMW, Triumph, Yamaha, Ducati and Harley-Davidson directly, which is quite an honour,” says Shaun. Nowadays, as well as building custom bikes, Down and Out fabricate a whole host of parts including exhausts, mudguards, battery boxes and subframes to allow owners to create their own specials. And if they are after any inspiration, the company’s Instagram page has 81,000 followers while their Facebook page has more than 35,000, all of whom share pictures and stories of their own builds.