Greg’s Custom Cycle Works has been providing motorcycle customization, and a full line of parts, repairs, and services to motorcycle owners since 1998. Today we are talking to the owner, Greg Rice, about how his love for motorcycles started at a young age, and how that has influenced his business today.
Hello Greg, thank you for sitting down with us today. Professional motorcycle enthusiasts and experts generally end up either going into customization, or owning a dealership. How did you end up primarily working on customization?
I started working on bicycles when I was a kid, and then got into mini bikes from a very young age. My first mini bike was a Basket Case. As a Christmas present, my dad said, “You want a mini bike?” So I said, “Yeah, I’d love to have a mini bike.” I was always riding my friend’s stuff. He brought home a mini bike; it was in a box. So I built the motor and the whole frame and painted it. I put the whole bike together, and when I finished it, and tested it, it ran well.
It sounds like you were a born natural for bike building and customization. So did you finish and ride it before Christmas day?
I had to wait until Christmas, and then he gave me the mini bike. So that’s basically how I got started, and then anything I wanted to do to a bike I just pretty much had to do myself, because of limited funds. We didn’t have much money, and we couldn’t just go to a store and buy a motorcycle or anything of that nature, so we would either put [parts] together, or buy something and modify it. We made it more into a motocross bike; changed the suspension, increased the spring tension in the front, lifted it up, took all the lights off, and that was my first geared motorcycle.
How did this natural talent eventually lead you to a career?
That talent extended into a side hobby where I was working out of the garage, or initially it was the shed, and then I moved into a small one-and-a-half bay garage with my friends. We were actually just doing stuff on our own bikes, customizing them and making them cool. Then other shops found out we could do stuff, so they were referring small tasks to be done, and now and then we started doing subcontract work for other airbrush artists. We were doing custom sheet metal and stuff like that for them and they were selling it to the dealerships.
One day a friend of mine… got a motorcycle shop, and we were buying parts through there, and so [another] friend and I decided we were going to open up a shop. I got my first motorcycle shop in New Jersey called A1 Custom Cycle, and we had that for about four years. My partner and I had some differences, so I split and came to Florida and opened up Greg’s Custom Cycle Works. I’ve been at it ever since.
Greg’s Custom Cycle Works is located in Clearwater, FL on 1141 Court Street. Learn more about their services at www.gregscycles.com/, or by calling 727-461-4840.
Keywords:
Motorcycle maintenance, Rent a motorcycle, Motorcycle accessories, Custom harley parts, Motorcycle builder, Cycletrader.
