Feature: How To Buy A Motorcycle

Adapted from the new book The Build: How the Masters Design Custom Motorcycles by Robert Hoekman Jr., including interviews with some of the most notable builders in the USA. When we talk about how to buy a motorcycle, we really mean 'how to find a donor bike.' It’s a nice term, “donor bike”—all full of promise and low on price. It’s what builders call the bike they start out with, the one that will become something else after a few weeks (or months) under the shop lights. But despite the name, donor bikes aren’t often free. Their conditions and styles...