What goes into 35 years of being in the motorcycle “business”? It’s more than just hard work, a job, burning the midnight oil and trying to make your customers happy. It is a life that defines you and who you are that can’t really be put into words. After 35 years of eating, breathing and loosing sleep over the next motorcycle project you create more than a “business” but rather an essence that can be felt, better than it can be described. Nobody knows this more than Lee and Brenda Clemens who have been creating the essence of Departure Bike Works in Richmond, Virginia for the past 35 years.
It really started out before all that, making choppers from used parts in basements of old apartment buildings and running from the law. After years of doing it under the landlord’s nose, what was the next logical step… open up a business of course! With only a few nickels to rub together where could someone open up a business? Pick the roughest part of Richmond that no one wants to move into and open up shop. It took more than just a little entrepreneurialism and a dream… it took stones… big ones.
When most shop owners were worrying about keeping the place clean, Departure had to worry about taking over the block and running out the unsavory element keeping their business away. Through a band of friends and supporters, the Hull Street Meanies were born just for the task. You don’t learn how to run a business in a part of town like this by getting your MBA…unless that’s your Motorcycling Bad-Ass degree. With the higher education from the school of hard knocks the job was handled and business rolled in the door. From year to year they forced Departure Bike Works to fly when other shops failed and did whatever it took to follow the dream.
Years past and Departure built a reputation as one of the premiere bike shops on East Coast. It wasn’t long until the Clemen’s family took to the race track, where they laid down record times on performance Harley-Davidsons. Lessons learned on the race track were passed onto the performance oriented Departure customers. The muscled harmony of performance race machines and customizing motorcycles became Departure’s trademark. The bikes rolling out the back door of Departure were featured on the pages of big name magazines like Easyriders on a regular basis.
Lee and Brenda built the essence of Departure, along with a family, around timeless motorcycles. With the Departure electricity running through him, Lee & Brenda’s son Travis took to motorcycles like chrome to steel. Like father, like son, Trav’s bikes began to cover the glossy pages of motorcycle publications. Times were good and the shop was moving up the street to a new and bigger shop in a better part of town. With the newfound motorcycle craze hitting mainstream America, Departure felt a broadening customer base.
In April of 2001 tragedy struck the Departure family. Travis Clemens died in a motorcycle accident. The untimely loss of a son smack at family and friends like vice-grips to a thumb, each responding differently to the grief and loss. When it came to the Departure family business, Travis left more than a painful void. For most Travis’ death by motorcycle would be enough to close up shop.
Brenda stepped to the forefront for the second time in Lee’s life. Lee was carted off to prison in the ‘70s and Brenda kept the shop alive and his hopes high. When Travis died the impact to Lee was severe and he needed time to understand himself and the meaning of the experience he was forced to swallow. Brenda again stepped up, with Andrew and the Departure team to keep the doors open. It was tough to look at any tool, any crate of parts, or bike Travis touched without seeing his son, remembering the dreams and good times. Lee needed some time to himself.
Departure kept its doors open and stayed the path. One man who helped keep the dream alive was Andrew Williams. Part of the Departure family for almost 10 years. Andrew came aboard with bare welding skills and a passion for motorcycles. Working along side Travis, Andrew honed his skills as a fabricator, builder and developed a friendship. That relationship will forever be remembered on Andrew’s left forearm in ink and on the most unique single loop chopper ever built, Titties & Beer.
Turning sadness into fuel, today Andrew is now a growing talent in the custom motorcycle world. With many of his own custom creations recorded in major publications, Andrew forms his signature style into every part he fabricates. Quietly and humbly working on the next customer’s dream and a few of his own, Andrew continues to sharpen his skills. With an imagination that never sleeps it is a lifelong endeavor to make the next one better than the last. When Andrew and Departure were selected for an episode on TLC’s “Biker Build-Off” you knew it was going to be something special.
With decades of building record breaking race bikes and the 2007 season being decided by a race, do you think Departure could dominate? Of course they could, but they had to do it Departure style. Knowing they were going up against the latest and greatest sport bike technology, Departure picked a set of 1967 Harley-Davidson Panhead cases and went to work. With all the trademark Andrew Williams styling and the expert assistance of Ernie Coates the Virginian was created on camera for the entire nation.
The shop, family and friends glistened with pride as the Virginian came together under the Discovery Channel Build-off deadline clock… as we knew it would. Even though Departure didn’t take home the trophy, we came out on top by staying true to the essence of Departure and giving the competition a run for their money with an old Panhead. How close was it? In the words of Lee Clemens, “We were just a fart-skin away”. A “fart-skin” is the technical term for really friggin’ close!
The Departure Bike Works of today is what 35 years of life driven by an American V-Twin and a dream gets you. You will still find Lee and Brenda working around the shop and greeting customers at the counter daily. With their son-in-law, Justin, working the salvage bikes and keeping everything straight, it’s still a family biz.
In the back you will find “Scotty” Massie passing along his years of knowledge to Steve Hodges. The two of them define Chopper in their own way of, “What is the bare minimum I need to do to this bike so I can ride it.” Next to them under a rising pillar of cigar smoke Billy Wheatley can be seen working like the well-oiled motors that he builds. If building motors is a science Billy is the professor. When you want to talk to someone about just about anything on your bike you will find Ernie Coates. Ernie can tell you something about riding through all “48” along with just about anything on your scooter, because he’s seen it all. If you are lucky enough to get on the list, you might find your bike sitting on Andrew’s self-designed custom frame table. Watching your dream bike come together is a service that can only be found at Departure… if you have the dream. With RB (veteran of everything), Tommy, Sean along with the rest of the colorful cast at DBW, you can certainly find a little of everything under one roof.
It is safe to say that the typical biker has changed since the ‘50s and ‘60s. Once an outlaw and a rebel, now an executive and family man (or woman) today’s “biker” has adapted faster than Cro-Magnon Man. Departure Bike Works has offered service to them all over the years. Even though the bikes and the people riding them have changed, the dream of Departure Bike Works hasn’t. Creating the motorcycle that has been in your mind, keeping you dreaming at night is what it is all about.
It’s still amazing for me to watch a transmission, frame and motor go together without a book or manual. When you’ve been around for 35 years and you have more than 100-years of experience under one roof it doesn’t matter what the book says, you know what it doesn’t say. Be it a Knucklehead, Twin Cam or a Shovelhead mixed with an Evolution stuffed in a one-off single loop frame, there is nothing that can’t be done at Departure.
Let’s all hope that the dream stays alive for everyone who shares it with us. With young men like Steve who want to know everything about their Panhead and willing to throw on a skinny rear tire and “just ride it” becoming scarce and the people who know enough to teach them even scarcer… the dream seems to be in jeopardy. They aren’t doing it for the money (because there is none) and they aren’t doing it to become famous. They do it because they are passionate about peeling down the road on their own two-wheeled dreams. Like our friend Robert Earl Keen says, “The road goes on forever and the party never ends.” When you try your best to live by it and keep the dream alive, Travis and all of those lost along the way will always “ride forever”.
October 6th, DBW Open House and Drive-in Style Shin Dig. We are going to replaythe BBO on the side of the building again and get drunk at the shop. Live musicand live women… are we going to see you there?
