How could I make West Coast Choppers better?

Question

I was wondering what everyone thought of my company and how I could make it better.

Yahoo Staff Note- This is the real Jesse James. He has just recently joined up.

Answer 1

GO BACK TO WHERE YOU WERE>>>>>> get away from TV and go back to building them because you LOVE it- creative,wild, and back like your first few, the ones that made 'em say dammm this guy may be on to something

Answer 2

That depends on what you consider "better". If you only want to put a lot of money in your pocket, then yeah, do like some of these folks said and build a cheap bobbed chopper out of the JP Cycles catalog, slap a "WCC" logo on it and call it done. But I don't think that's what you're looking for.

I know that you don't hand fabricate with english wheel and air hammer each and every bike you sell, but I'd hate to think that folks are shelling out $50K+ for a $20K catalog bike with a $30K name bolted on the air cleaner.

Discovery Channel has helped you and hurt you. There was the immediate blitz of interest when you first showed up on Motorcycle Mania. You were you; take it or leave it. You got thrust (or maybe you jumped a little bit) into the spotlight and it's made you a rich man. But now you run the risk of getting thrown in with the builders who star in a scripted soap opera and, from what little I've seen and heard, are laughed at by the real deal, down to earth, daily bikers.

I think you need to take a step back from the dog and pony show aspect of what you do so as not to become a character. Think about developing a distributor network with established Harley or independent dealerships, sort of like what Thunder Mountain Custom Cycles has done. Get the bikes into the hands of folks so that they can see for themselves that these are motorcycles meant to be ridden, not gimmicks or promotion props with dumb *** gatling guns and missles hanging off the fenders.

People wonder what makes your bike special and worth what you charge. Well, Jesse, gets the bikes out there and show 'em all why it is. I'm sure there are dealers who would jump at the chance to boost their customer traffic that would come when they hang an "Authorized West Coast Chopper Dealer" sign on the building.

It may have taken some rambling to get to the end point, but there it is. Take it for what it's worth from an everyday Joe like me.

Answer 3

Well you and the others have done the same thing over and over again, how many ways can you build a motorcycle? Too many.
Besides the fact that about two-thirds of the people that watch, could only wish to have a custom bike, why don't you start by making some that everyone could have a chance to own.
Try making some three-wheelers to.
Your show and the others are predictable, great you make a cool bike, try to do something good in stead of showing off how nice your life is. The show was good for a while, but now it's just another marketing campaign, how much money do you really need?

Answer 4

Make your bikes as different from existing choppers than they were from the original cruisers.

Experiment with new frames. who says the tank needs to be on the top, or the engine underneith the tank.

Using exotic materials could make your bikes stellar.
2024 aluminum is cheap (the components for a frame would run about $500 before you machined it) and has extreme strength (70k psi yield strength)
They have machines out now that can create the body of a $600,000 carbon fiber plane in 25 minutes. Something like that could actually create a chopper directly off a computer screen, no muscle.

Something I would really really like to see would be a bike for pilots. something only available for pilots and was completely original.
I would love to see something that used old school aircraft parts like magnetos for ignition, and had not only a throttle but a mixture, something only pilot could appreciate.
Throw on a heading indicator for navigating, and set up the gauges in aircraft style.

Answer 5

Have you ever heard the old cliche', "If it ain't broke, don't fix it?" You can sell more bikes if you went to a more commercial style of manufacturing facility, but then the uniqueness of your product would suffer, until the public got used to the "new" you. If you came up with a line of "Mod-choppers" that was halfway between the radical, and a stock Harley, I think you'd find a group of buyers waiting for something like that. Produce a nationally marketable line in the $25-$40k range, and I think you'll have a winner. But what the heck do I know, I've only been riding for 40 years.

Answer 6

Question is to vague. By better do you mean more profitable? Do you mean bring more first time riders into the chopper fold? Increase ratings for Monster Garage? If its revenue you are going to have to offer something other than Choppers. I mean, I love motorcycles, but riding a chopper, any chopper is work. If you want to attract female riders to choppers you're going to have to reduce the head rake so they can tolerate them. Could you then still call it a chopper? Do you offer a cosmetic customization service for non-chopped Harleys? With respect to your store, I was an unhappy customer. I sympathize with the famous thing, everybody wanting to "hang" with you, etc. I'll try to explain. When I came in I wasn't sure if I wanted a chopper because it was a West Coast Chopper or because it was a Jesse James original. If it was the former, I would not have been disappointed that you were busy with your entourage and completely ignored myself and other customers. If my buying mind set was the latter, your being preoccupied would have made me feel unappreciated. Point is, if your selling Jesse James originals at West Coast Choppers you need to spend time on the sales floor, pain in the *** as it might be. If your selling cycles built at West Coast Choppers, independant of your persona, your doing fine. My feeling is that people buy your bikes hoping to meet you, if only for a brief moment. Your preoccupation and constant entourage prevents this. Perhaps offer a short ride, with you, to every customer who actually buys a cycle. I liked the sponsorship of rides/events idea presented by an earlier respondent. To much planning given your schedule?, then coordinate with other events. "Ride with Jesse on the toys for tots run" or "Ride with Jesse on the love ride" the idea being that owners of your cycles get to ride in your group and "hang" together at the event. I would force the issue of ownership of one of your bikes as a prerequisite for riding with your group. These things require you to get out there with the public however. I did not meet you but felt that you are more of a solitary type person making your fame and these ideas difficult to tolerate. A willingness to glad-hand, sign autographs is the price of fame. Accept it and the world is your oyster. Fight it, and the reputation that comes with it, aloof, arrogant, etc. will kill you.

Answer 7

You could try putting back in the pot; use your clout to do what the discovery geek (chopper king or some s'hit?) does; go out and search out all of the unknown but really great scratch builders (Like Greg Rice in Clearwater, FL) and bring them on to either a new episode of (what is it? Motorcycle Madness? Pardon the Oldtimerz disease) your show and profile them kind of like Biker build off...You'd have to figure another gimmick because that guy has done that contest thing to death; maybe profile a couple or 3 on each episode (increase the number of episodes), and maybe put them all together for discussions based around small or big bike building projects. When you have a good library of these guys, you could maybe focus on one of them for an episode; maybe the one or two who impress you the most and help him become the next guy to realize the dream.

As a stroke survivor who is really grateful for being back on a bike after a 20 year layoff, your shows, especially with the trials and tribulations of your life struggles have been really great to see; I'd love to see your bike show evolve into the next level and I'd like to see more episodes made. But you did say your company...not your show.

I really don't know how your company is run; I know the merchandising generated from the show is a great income producer; your name and logo are everywhere coast to coast. I have a lot of respect for your building/manufacturing/design abilities and it seems your business acumen is either very much intact or being directed by someone with a lot of savvy. I've owned 2 businesses; one for 11 years in NYC building and repairing guitars and now in Floriduh, I manufacture and market a new kind of chum product that I invented that requires no refrigeration and outlasts any of the conventional methods. I can tell you, in each business the absolute most important expenditure has been advertising. It should start out as at least 50% of the budget, and maybe slide back to 33% once you're profitable. But I'm preaching to the choir; you already know that. If you feel stalled, advertise more. Stay in people's faces. People are like lemmings and will go where directed so just stay in their faces and the business will flourish. Even coming up with new products takes the back seat to that; even with an old product one in ten hasn't seen it and to him it's new so if you bear that in mind and act on it you can't fail. You've already proven that to yourself.

Answer 8

How do you make it better?

Running a successful company like you do, it would be very easy to rest on your laurels and do nothing. However, congratulations to you for taking the initiative and not assume that things dont get any better. After all everything can be improved.

Firstly, no company gets anywhere without their workers. Their enthusiasm and input must be valued and their opinions respected.

If it were me that was asking the question, I would go out of my way to ensure that the workers are treated with respect, that they are encouraged and that they are well rewarded for effort and for introducing ideas that will aide production and profitability.

By the way...You build pretty cool bikes too dude..I hope you tell your workers that too.

Answer 9

Jesse the only thing that i can tell u is to keep it real don't go getting so busy worrying about how to make things better i figure that its working for u now then its going to work for u later remember if it ain't broke don't fix it so sit back and enjoy the ride because if cant have fun doing it it ain't worth doing and if its not fun then its a job so keep doing it the way u r keep riding and have fun later T

Answer 10

Jesse- I was in L.A. and visited your shop. One thing I would suggest, would be giving tours of your shop/machine area. Being an auto mechanic, I know this may not be possible because of the obvious liability issues. But, I do think your fans would enjoy seeing the various stages of building a bike. i.e. machining a part, the design process etc. I am a huge fan, and visiting your shop is something I will never forget. Thanks for taking the time to read. -Chris Lyles- Maple Grove,MN.

Answer 11

Just in case this is for real...

Only suggestion I could make, is perhaps you could create a semi-mass produced version of your design, to be sold at ultra-reasonable prices. All the custom and one-offs are awesome, but you have made a real name and a following with the regular working class guys who could never afford one of your bikes. Perhaps a kit bike, but a line of working man's priced, 'blue-collar' editions would rock! In a world where even a decent Honda runs $25K, you could way undercut on price and blow away the competition - and make a bizillion in volume sales. You'd be the hero of the average joe's. Awesome rides shouldn't be reserved for just the R.U.B.'s