As a longtime editor of motorcycle publications, I imagine myself as having a keen sense of design when it comes to motorized vehicles. We all just know when a bike looks right to our eyes.
However, there is a deep chasm between recognizing an attractive design and actually crafting parts in metal that look perfect together. My engineering talent is nonexistent, and my sense of design couldn’t hold a candle to real artists like Arlen Ness, Max Hazan, or even the laughable Orange County Choppers crew.
But I am a pretty good editor, and a recent conversation with builder Paul Yaffe revealed a parallel in our work lives. We take products in their rough forms (words, in my case, and motorcycles in Yaffe’s) and tweak or redesign them to be nicer to look at or more functional.
Yaffe, who goes by the handle “Lucky,” says he’ll put a new Harley up on a lift to examine it, and in only a few hours, he and his crew will come up with several new products to address the production bike’s shortcomings.
“We find ourselves leaning more towards either cosmetically enhancing the things we don’t like or fixing things that we think don’t work,” Yaffe related.
And this is a process similar to editing words and photos.
Yaffe expresses derision at some of the components on new Harleys but calls it “job security” for his Bagger Nation and Paul Yaffe Originals enterprises.
“Thank god for Harley’s insistence on not finishing the models they create,” Yaffe told me. “They always do the worst seats and the worst handlebars and horrible turnsignals and ugly license plates.”
Coming back to my editor/designer parallel, Yaffe and his crew “edited” Harley’s kickstand.
“The Softail kickstands have a horrible design, and the bikes fall over all the time, and the kickstands break, so we came up with this product that one of my guys named the FIX-stand, which I think is the best name. We were able to get a patent, and it fixes the problem.”
Anyone who’s had a chance to chat with Yaffe knows that he’s as genial as they come, always quick with a smile and a laugh. But he also has a hard-nosed edge if confronted.
When Yaffe grew bored of the pizza-cutter big-wheel front ends, he invented his Steam Roller Touring line of fat-tire front ends, and he gave these products the SRT monicker. However, SRT is also a handle used by Dodge for its high-performance sub-brand.
“We actually got a letter from Dodge suggesting that we not use it, but it turns out that it’s illegal to trademark, copyright, or patent an illegal activity, and Dodge’s SRT stands for Street Racing Technology – and street racing is illegal.
“So,” Yaffe continued, “we suggested that we wouldn’t point out to the trademark commission that Street Racing Technology is an illegal activity and Dodge’s SRT trademarks were probably not worth the paper they were printed on. Funny enough, we never heard from them again!”
Many more great stories – including the latest trends in customization, the birth of the bagger dominance, and the evolution of big-wheel baggers – from Yaffe in the video below!
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