10TH ANNIVERSARY KICKSTAND STORY–How on Earth would anyone come up with the idea to create custom kickstands? The concept of customized kickstands was born at a monthly meeting of SCARS, (an acronym for “Scotch and Cigars”) Stan Reich, the founder of IMP was a member of a loosely structured men's club whose common thread was a love of scotch and cigars.
One particular evening the idea came to Stan as he was looking at his buddy's 'custom' Softail. The kickstand just didn't seem to fit in with the paint or the look of the bike. Stan went home and sketched a kickstand that would enhance the look of the bike and after several additional designs the company was born.
That fateful SCARS night, led Reich to explore the possibility of creating a piece of interchangeable “artwork” for the motorcycle. The first design was the American Eagle. The eagle with full wing spread the length of the kickstand is the perfect symbol of the American made kickstands. The second was the Eagle Talon, this designs has fondly been nick named the “claw” and quickly became the best seller reaching icon status among many riders.
The other 4 original designs include the Miss Kitty, Venom, Salute, and Mumbly Peg. “We loved them and were eager to see what the public thought, so we took a booth at the Love Ride at Lake Castaic in California in 1997 . We felt a little silly standing at a table with 6 kickstands on it, but the response we got was telling. People walked by browsing casually, and then did a double take. ” Are those Kickstands?” they'd say. Then, their jaws would drop in utter amazement! It was very gratifying to see how much people loved them.” says Reich.
![talon_mirror_art[1]](http://www.bikernet.com/news/images/PhotoID44409.jpg)
Stan Reich has been in the metals business for almost 35 years. Climbing the ladder from an expediter to a partner at a small commercial foundry in Southern California, he knows the industry inside and out. Image Motorcycle Products is the evolution of a lifelong love of motorcycles, an education in metals engineering and manufacturing and a union with fine art sculpture.
The last 10 years have been a whirlwind. Every weekend for the first two years, the Image Motorcycle crew attended motorcycle rallies in the US and a few in Europe. When back at home, the staff worked to develop more kickstand designs and expand into foot pegs, gas caps, covers and most recently mirrors. Family owned and operated, we treat each customer as a member of our extended family!
“Our goal is to produce the most innovative, unique and fascinating motorcycle accessories in the industry”. What makes our products so different? Each piece is sculpted by hand, not machined. The subject drives the design, and fit & function are engineered right into the piece. We take the rider into consideration when designing. For instance, there is a natural extension engineered right into each design, be it a claw, blade, or a cuff, to make it easier to kick the stand up and down. Each stand is the same length and geometry as the stock kickstand and uses the stock mounting mechanism. Our stands are cast in 17- 4 ph stainless steel and stronger than stock kickstands. IMP products are truly pieces of functional art for the motorcycle.
Through our extensive dealer network, we are able to bring these incredible designs to the far reaches of the globe. We proudly service dealers on every continent. Constantly striving to break the mold, we are proud to celebrate our 10th anniversary with the introduction of our new Skeleton Hand Mirrors, Skeleton Web Mirrors and Talon Mirrors. The Talon Mirrors are soon to be released, so for now, here is a sneak preview of the inspiration and concept drawings. We will be taking pre-release orders in just a few weeks. You won't find anything else like them! We are very pleased with the initial response.” … Stan Reich.
Please visit www.imagemotorcycle.com to see the full array of IMP products and to find a dealer near you! and to find a dealer near you.
http://www.imagemotorcycle.com
