Custom choppers made for clients, not TV
All the workmanship without the drama
By Aislinn Doyle
news@barnstablepatriot.com
The three-man crew at Nakutis Custom Choppers and
Rods in Hyannis may have a smaller garage and a smaller
budget, but their skill and their passion rival the garages
seen on TV's custom motorcycle reality shows.
Such programs, like the Discovery Channel's American
Chopper, focus on customizing motorcycles in showy, and
usually expensive, ways.
There are no camera crews following the mechanics at
Nakutis Custom Choppers. Also missing is the drama usually
seen on the reality shows. What's not much different is the
workmanship, design and creation process, said John Nakutis,
owner and operator of the garage.
"We don't throw wrenches at each other," he said. "That
kind of drama is all for TV. But their designs are good, and
their work is excellent."
During an episode of one of the reality shows a garage
will be presented with a project, typically centered around
a theme. Then the show follows the process as the shop works
on the motorcycle or car from design to fabrication, usually
wowing the viewer with the end result.
The Nakutis team will work through an idea with a
customer first, and put the design down on paper. Then they
will work on "measuring, cutting, bending, re-cutting, and
re-bending" until they get the desired look, said Nakutis.
Every project is a team effort, with all the mechanics
working together on all aspects of the design and creation.
The projects that Nakutis Custom Choppers have been asked
to do have been anything from exhaust work, to small body
work, to a completely custom bike.
And like the television garages, Nakutis has been asked
to do a theme bike, although it is being kept under wraps to
preserve its originality. When asked if there was any way he
could describe the "secret" bike, mechanic Pete Schloerb
only said, "It's expensive."
Nakutis is hoping to have the custom chopper, which is
being designed for a local customer, done by February in
order to premiere it during bike week at the Daytona 500 in
Florida. Like the custom bikes unveiled at the end of
American Chopper, Nakutis said that the motorcycle "is
extraordinary. It will turn heads everywhere."
Despite the success Nakutis's garage has been having in
its first nine months, he does not think business has been
helped much by the popularity of custom chopper shows.
Instead, Nakutis attributes the shop's success to the
attitudes owners have toward their motorcycles.
"Everyone needs a car and hates when they need to spend
money to fix it, but with motorcycles it is different," he
said. "A motorcycle is a luxury. So when your bike breaks,
or you spend money on accessories for it, people tend not to
frown on it as much."
One thing Nakutis will attribute to the reality TV
programs, however, is a slightly changing clientele.
"There are a lot more young people and middle-aged women
than there were before [the shows started]," he said. Still,
he added, middle-aged men seem to be the shop's most common
customers.
Whether credited to the reality shows or not, customers
do seem to be getting more creative with their designs.
While the majority of the time the shop can cater to the
customer's will, sometimes they have notions that are a
little too impractical.
"Some customers do go over the top and have ideas of
doing something that can't be done," said Schloerb, "but we
work with them and let them know what is realistic."
According to Schloerb, the shop's goal is simple: to make
the customer happy by creating a chopper that is one of a
kind.
Nakutis Custom Choppers and Rods is located on Thornton
Drive and can be found on the Web at
www.nakutischoppers.com. |
