S & G Custom Cycles

Well, you've heard you can't judge a book by its cover. Well maybe you can't judge a building by its exterior. Case in point, we found a drab building down in Col Well, inside we discovered a wealth of history about cycles and, well, some interesting characters that make S&G custom cycles custom made for a crossroads story. Years ago we laughed about it. The old fella, he could lose his new refrigerator, he could lose his car, he could lose his house, but that motorcycle would be the last thing I've got. Motorcycles have been in Sam Goodman's family for three generations, from his grandfather's Harley shop that opened in 1919 to this. What is this? Well, if you need a custom bike built or a vintage bike restored, S&G custom cycles is your place. It's also a virtual muse You'll notice a lot of the engineering that went on these things was excellent. I mean you might look at it and think of an old play-off point or something, but gosh, it was a lot of effort went into this thing to make it. We think that now we've got the smartest thing there was and we'll even go back now and a lot of the stuff they've got now is stuff that they've used in the past. They've just re-innovated it. Sam was a top fuel drag racing crew chief before devoting full time to the family business. He took me on a tour of the endless collection of antiques that fill his back room, along with customer bikes waiting to be customized We took a thing all apart and he took it apart and bare painted it and we painted the frame. He did just a little bit of motor work fresh in the motor, but you'll notice the motor's painted all between the fins and everything, all the little stuff. When it's flip-flop paint and the paint on these things is about $3,000 worth of paint on it. Wow. You got a lot of fellas that rode years ago and they got out because of marriages. They got married and a lot of them had kids, a lot of them had a family to cry to raise and stuff and they had to quit. Now they're coming back into it. And actually the machines that's out there now is so much better made before they had just, I remember taking it, you couldn't leave a house without wrenches or bailing war or something to make this thing run. And now you can actually get on the machine and ride them and not have no trouble out of them. Here in the shop there are all kinds of projects in the works or waiting for the skilled hands of S&G's craftsmen. One of them is my cousin, Neil Goodman and others is Charlie, Penrith and them boys, they're just excellent at what they do. Charlie's a good fabricator on anything. I don'think if you just pulled up with anything he'd have an idea of what to do to make that girl run again. We're going to take this thing completely all apart, down to everything, nuts and bolts and all and put it back Next stop, the Bear Cave. Now Bear Henson may look The fellow that owns it lives in Rutherford County and he came to me and sat down and said that he wanted to portray some of the Confederate generals. He told me a little bit about his personal family history and he's the son of the Confederate veterans and very proud of that heritage and wanted to tastefully display that on the bike. Back upstairs, customers often come in for a little impunctu bluegrass jam, share bike tails and to check the latest old acquisitions like the ones Ronnie Mangr The chopper craze started right after World War II. I guess our veterans been living on the edge fighting the Germans and the Japanese when they come home. They ride in regular motorcycles just didn't seem exciting enough on. This is a real rare bird right here. This is a 1934 broth superior. A lot of people mispronounce it too. They call it brogue but broth is the proper pronunciation. This is also the bike that Lawrence of Arabia got killed on after he survived all that fighting in the Middle East way back in the early 1900s. He came to England, was riding around in one of his things and wrecked it and killed him. It's easy to see why bikers and their families get attached to this shop. It's a fun place and of course there's always bell the store mascot. However, some customers get so attached they never leave He had a phobia from his childhood about being buried in the ground. He did not want to be buried in the ground. So in 1989 he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. So he made a deal with the owner, Sam, and said if I get myself cremated can I keep hanging out in the shop. He'still overseas to operation today. The operation today is no typical biker hangout. In fact there's nothing typical about this place at all. It's here and open to all curious visitors thanks to the passion that'shared by Sam and all of his staff. It's a passion for the history, technology and romance of motorcycles. And as long as that passion persists the shop will persevere. I don't want to get too big at it. I'll be honest, I'm not a smart enough person to keep it all in line. I'm barely named to keep things going I'm simple at it. It's better that way to me. I'm going to keep it low keyed, enjoy it, and rear back and watch it go if I can. Try to be an old man and watch it go. That's one fun place.