You guys know that the ol' TBear is always on the look out for fresh young talent. I like up and coming craftsmen who haven't yet been corrupted by the glamour of the Discovery Channel or the high dollar bling-bling that festoons every bike lined up at Stoogis. Just regular guys, who do what they do, just for the love of it, are getting harder and harder to find. These are guys who wrench to get a few extra bucks, in their pockets, to help feed their families and to pump gas into their own scoots.
Jesus, Tbear, you’re making me weep.–Bandit
Nick “Rock” Crawley (yup, that's his real middle name) is one of the type of guys I hunt for. Nick manufactures custom handlebars. OK, you say, a lot of guys make handlebars, what makes Nick so special?
Nick is a student at Reitz High School in Evansville, Indiana. At age 13, Nick was fascinated by the bikes he saw on the road and on TV. As most kids will do, he drew pictures of bikes and dreamed about bikes, but at age of 13, what boy doesn’t? He first started off being impressed by the long, shiny bikes he saw on TV (so he was corrupted), but as he matured he shifted.
Bit badly by the riding bug, he managed to get his hands on a ratty old ‘60s CL 175cc. He immediately began chopping off all the unnecessary crap and built a cool little ride for himself. He scrambled to the library, hopped on the Internet and devoured all the welding information he could. Being a fast learner, his first project was stick welding a set of Z-Bars for his bike. After the CL 175 was finished, Nick rode it to school to the amazement of his teachers and fellow students, he was the first kid in his school to show up to class every day on a chopper.
Nick practiced his welding and bar making skills and soon he had sold a few sets on Ebay. He started with regular old Z-bars and then started to develop his own designs. The Yuppie Hanger bars were the first of his own design that really took off. Nick now makes 7/8 and 1-inch bars. Now his Coffin Bars are his best sellers. It all started in his garage with a stick welder and some 11-gauge mild steel tubing. Nick honed his skills and now all of his bars are TIG welded.
Nick is now 16 and has started his very own company, Rocks Chops, LLC is now officially a company. Four of his bar designs are copyrighted.
Since starting his own business, Nick made enough money to buy a 2002 883R Sportster, which he started to chop. He no longer cares for the expensive shinny show bikes, but he instead loves nasty rat bikes as well as shorter styled “Frisco” chops. Everything Nick does involves motorcycles. From his business to his transportation to his passion, Nick has become a “biker”.
Nick will be expanding his parts line soon to include pegs and Frisco'd gas tanks. He still sells a lot of bars on eBay, but mostly does custom orders of any kind now, and his prices are damned reasonable starting at $99.
You owe it to yourself to visit RockChops web site,
Check what the next generation is up to and tell 'em Bikernet sent ya.
