I got home late last night from the shop — I'd been working on a couple of Suzuki M109s for Cobra. I was cleaning up, looking at the guy in the mirror and wondering at what point in time did I start looking like my father.

The StrataCruiser was designed by Mike Rinaldi and fabricated by yours truly. It's based on a 2003 Kawasaki VN1600A.

I was standing at the sink, digging out fiberglass resin from around my fingernails, wondering how much acetone had been absorbed through my skin in the past 35 years of custom motorcycle building. How many cubic feet of fiberglass and bondo dust had passed through or settled in my lungs. How many brain cells had lost their lives in the search of the perfect fiberglass part? Something about breathing resin fumes all day makes me ponder the meaning of life.

So I grabbed my One-A-Day "Silver" vitamins and a couple of aspirin, and figured this would somehow balance out the damage I'd done over the years. I was patting myself on the back, amazed at the reality of how a couple of quarts of resin and a few yards of fiberglass mat could turn into a perfect motorcycle seat/fender combination. Did I do that?

My 2004 Mad Kaw used a Kawasaki Vulcan 2000 platform.

I finished my routine, raided the fridge and plopped down in my favorite recliner in front of the big-screen TV. I grabbed the remote and scanned through my favorite channels. Speed Channel had some over-caffeinated, pizza-faced, twentysomething kid proclaiming that the new import "tuner" cars were going to take over the custom car world as we know it. Click ...

Next came MTV, with the last kid's clone telling the world how hip-hop music ruled and rock 'n' roll was dead. Click ...

The History Channel had a show on the decline of the Roman Empire. There were several scholars debating at what point did the Romans lose control over the ancient world. Hmmm ...

Well, back to waxing philosophical. The fumes were wearing off, and my headache was gone.

GROWING ACCEPTANCE

I did the Dealernews Dealer Expo in Indianapolis last year. If you haven't been, you should go. It's where the industry meets and shows off the latest products and trends.

A young lady approached me at the show and wanted to discuss the importance of the "new" metric custom motorcycle scene. Was it going to replace the current Big Twin rage? She was trying to convince me that the metrics were going to take over.

In 2003 I fabricated this bike from a Honda VTX1800C using a design created by Ken Boyko, Mike Rinaldi and myself.

I couldn't help but think that this was the same conversation I had back in the early 1970s with someone else. What is our fascination in the United States with having just one great, new cause? Why does there have to be just one "Best Bike Builder" on the Discovery Channel? I don't think we'll hear a click when the custom motorcycle industry changes direction — just like the historians can't put a date on the collapse of the Roman Empire.

Changes happen slowly, sometimes without fanfare. If a motorcycle falls over in the parking lot and no one is there to hear it, will it make a sound? (Maybe that's too Zen. ...)