Bringing Indian Back to its Roots of Board Track Racing
Muis’ entrance into bike building technically started shortly after he got his motorcycle license at the age of 18, the same age a driver’s license can be attained under Netherlands laws. But his interest in building is kind of backwards. Nobody in his immediate family ever rode motorcycles, with his father just getting his license for his 50th birthday. He had two uncles that rode but didn’t by the time Muis was getting inspiration from American motorcycle building reality shows as a kid.
For Muis, motorcycles are like a recessive gene because, until he found out his grandfather rode religiously after looking at old photos of him with his mother, he couldn’t connect the dots to what fueled his passion.
“A lot of creative things fell into place for me and it was cool to learn that my grandfather was a motorcyclist,” Muis said, adding that with his father being a professional graphic designer, he was always paying close attention to product design.
By the time Muis was a teenager, he had learned to weld and designed and built his first chopper bicycle. Then came high school where in shop classes he was continually trying to refine his skills.
“In the Netherlands you have a dedication system where you decide what you want to do for university or college and I already did some courses in product design, engineering, architecture and graphic design in high school,” he said. “So, when I looked at university product design courses, I saw all the stuff I wanted to learn one day to get to where I want to be.”
Until March of this year, LM Creations was only a side gig. But with the success of his Indian Board Track replica and the experience he had winning a custom show, he decided to go all in and devote himself completely to custom building and design.
Before the Hasty Flaming Buffalo, Muis had built a Harley-Davidson Softail, numerous Hondas and even dabbled with Kawasakis. While Indian provided him his first worldwide break into the scene, he more recently built and designed a custom Moto Guzzi V85 TT for Vanguard, a Netherlands-based menswear clothing line.
In a way, he represents a growing trend of younger European builders that are willing to take more risks with customizing a modern bike or putting their own unique spin on them, while older bikes are falling out of favor because of the clear technological advances in the industry.
“My big dream is to have a production bike under my name. That is the main goal of why I do this and how I approach my projects,” he said. “That takes a lot of motivation and luckily I have a lot of that.”
