The simple answer could be that the 2008 GFC killed it. I don't actually know.
It looks like the TV show Motorcycle Mania started in 2001 and the show American Choppers started around 2002. By the time I left for Australia in late 2007, it seemed like everybody and their brother in SoCal was building a custom chopper.
One of my co-workers from Inglewood even specialized in photographing girls in bikinis on motorcycles.
Anyway, when I came back to the USA in 2020, there didn't seem to be any trace of the custom chopper builders. Obviously Jesse James quit doing West Coast Choppers, moved to Austin and is now making Firearms.
I don't know if the customer demand and disposable income dried up or if there were safety regulations that came into effect.
Judging by the Lone Star Motorcycle Rally in Galveston, it seems that motorcycles are more popular than ever.
I've also seen lots of motorcycle clubs out on the road - Bandidos in Texas (and saw a group from Dallas "Assassination City" in South Dakota a few weeks ago) and I've run into the Mongols several times out in California and Nevada.
Just curious as to what killed off what appeared to be a rapidly growing business in the mid-2000s.
It looks like the TV show Motorcycle Mania started in 2001 and the show American Choppers started around 2002. By the time I left for Australia in late 2007, it seemed like everybody and their brother in SoCal was building a custom chopper.
One of my co-workers from Inglewood even specialized in photographing girls in bikinis on motorcycles.
Anyway, when I came back to the USA in 2020, there didn't seem to be any trace of the custom chopper builders. Obviously Jesse James quit doing West Coast Choppers, moved to Austin and is now making Firearms.
I don't know if the customer demand and disposable income dried up or if there were safety regulations that came into effect.
Judging by the Lone Star Motorcycle Rally in Galveston, it seems that motorcycles are more popular than ever.
I've also seen lots of motorcycle clubs out on the road - Bandidos in Texas (and saw a group from Dallas "Assassination City" in South Dakota a few weeks ago) and I've run into the Mongols several times out in California and Nevada.
Just curious as to what killed off what appeared to be a rapidly growing business in the mid-2000s.