The Key to Crazy Custom Motorcycles Is Finding Impossible Parts

My motorcycle shop, Madhouse Motors, is called that for a reason. We started in a crazy old house working on bikes in the yard. And now, 12 years later, we grew into a 7,000 square-foot, full-size service shop, and cafe. We specialize in antique and rare restoration, fabrication, general maintenance, and custom builds.

Of course, you have to be a little mad to build antique bikes that are half a century old—especially when sometimes the goal is to make them function by combining correct original parts with vintage scientific and culinary instruments. But that’s a big part of our secret sauce: finding fun, strange, and otherwise impossible parts.

For example, in 2018, I built a 1957 Royal Enfield Indian that we dubbed “Devil’s Advocate.” I knew I wanted to create a bike with a minimalistic bobber style, so I was on the hunt for the perfect donor bike.

When I saw the Royal Enfield in a buddy’s basement, I knew right away that my friend’s bike would work. It took five of us to hoist the ’57 motorcycle up two flights of stairs—but it was worth it.

Timing Is Everything

For eight solid months, I worked on returning the Royal Enfield to its glory days. My goal was to unveil it at the 2018 Handbuilt Motorcycle Show in Austin, Tex. The project was right on schedule until just a few weeks before the event. That’s when I discovered that the clutch on the bike was completely burnt out.

I was so fixated on other parts of the bike that I neglected to check the integrity of the clutch. I’ll never make that mistake again.

There was no way around it. I needed to replace the clutch, pronto. But Royal Enfield stopped making this part in the 1960s. Showing up with a dead bike wasn’t an option, so I frantically called people who do antique restorations, and I found nothing but dead ends. So my heart was pounding when I logged on to eBay Motors to search for the 60-year-old clutch. Bingo! In a matter of minutes, I found the exact OEM part we needed.

The part arrived a few days later. We rebuilt the clutch with a few days to spare before loading the hauler.

The Freedom to Use Found Objects

The story of the ’57 Royal Enfield’s blown clutch makes it sound like I only use period-correct parts. But that’s not true. I also like to dig around antique markets, where you never know what you’ll find. For example, the Devil’s Advocate motorcycle uses parts from an antique Radio Flyer wagon, an old egg slicer, and that funny foot-measuring device used in shoe stores.

Those oddball parts were part of my scheme to design a bike that operates with a gas pedal or a foot throttle.

The foot throttle is actuated by an antique hay hook mounted to non-traditional footpegs. Riders rest their boots inside a Brannock Device, the sliding foot-measuring tool invented in 1925. Everybody remembers slipping their foot into a Brannock when they were a kid.

I ran a hand-shift linkage through a channel I cut into the gas tank. And I also stretched and recreated the swing arm with an adjustable dual monoshock set-up. The rear wheel is adorned with a modified 1940s Indian fender.

The seat pan is made from the yoke of an antique Radio Flyer wagon. But my favorite part of this bike is the taillight made from an egg slicer.

How I Got Started

My life in motorcycles didn’t start so strange and artsy. I started working on bikes when I was a teenager. For the first 10 years, I only did basic mechanical things like tire changes, valve adjustments, and carburetor cleaning.

Before long, I was taking orders for custom work. Clients would lay out the specs, the color palette, and the budget. And I would build their dream bikes.

But everything changed about five years ago. That’s when I started creating motorcycles for myself. I now use my own aesthetics and let my creative juices flow on crazy custom bikes like the ’57 Enfield.

At Madhouse Motors, we still do general repair and maintenance. And about 80 percent of our builds are for our customers. But I reserve 20 percent of my time for personal projects, which lets me build fantastical motorcycle creations, using parts that nobody else would expect to see on a custom bike.

Taking Art on the Road

J Shia at the 2022 New York Auto Parts Show

J Shia’s ’57 Enfield appeared at the inaugural eBay Motors New York Auto Parts Show last month as part of an exhibition of “Re-Concept” vehicles that were transformed into something entirely new by parts and accessories.