The Art of the Motorcycle
Photography: Timothy Thimmes
In a small building at the south end of Kamas, a former southern California hot rod and off-road vehicle builder quietly creates show-stopping motorcycles for particular buyers from coast to coast.
In Matt Kraft’s custom motorcycle shop, there isn’t a single piece of equipment in the neatly arranged room that looks like it came from, or goes onto, a motorcycle. Nothing on a Kraft Custom Cycle is “off the shelf.”
“Building bikes is a real personal thing for me,” Kraft says during a tour of his shop. “I’m not building bikes for the average Joe.”
Kraft grew up in San Diego, building off-road vehicles and hot rods and racing motocross. To a perfectionist like Matt, the work got old and boring. “People didn’t care how meticulous the work was—they just wanted their vehicles to function. I only know how to do things one way, and that kind of work didn’t pay for me.”
A visit to a friend in Park City four years ago got Kraft and his wife thinking about switching gears, so to speak, and moving to the mountains. “Everything we enjoy doing is right here—snowboarding, motocross, hiking, fishing—all that kind of stuff. We kind of decided on the spur of the moment.” Kraft, who has two sons, traded busy San Diego and mechanical work that went unappreciated for quiet Kamas and the chance to show what he could do with steel and gasoline.
A Kraft Custom Bike begins with an idea and a series of conversations between Kraft and a client. Look at the profile of any motorcycle and you’ll find the gas tank at its center. The fuel, and the bike itself, flows from there. “I know what a bike’s going to look like in my head before I start,” Kraft says. Starting with raw tubular steel, Kraft bends a frame to fit the customer, who flies to Utah periodically for fittings and consultation.
Everything about Kraft’s bikes screams “speed.” One bike in Kraft’s shop has the gleaming disk brake on the same side as the drive belt, so you can see the uncluttered rear wheel from the other side. Another operates the brakes through the transmission so the custom-made German drive wheel is completely visible. Kraft designs his bikes as such so that, “… everything on them is out there in the open—my work is right there.”
Once a bike is completed, Kraft takes it apart and ships every custom piece out for chrome or paint. Here the art of the motorcycle reaches its zenith, as chrome and steel mesh with custom artwork. As Kraft says, “Paint can make or break a bike.” One customer wanted his motorcycle painted with the look of a Japanese tattoo he had admired. Twelve-thousand-dollars-of-airbrushing-by-a-New-Jersey-artist-later, the “Munewari” design knocked out both the buyer and thousands of motorcycle fans who saw it either in person at motorcycle shows or in cycle magazines, where a nude model painted in matching tattoos adorned it. “The owner was there for the photo session,” Kraft laughs. “That was one of the perks for buying that bike.”
The saying, “If you have to ask how much it costs, you can’t afford it,” applies here, but since you’re wondering—expect to pay at least $45,000 up to $75,000 or more for one of Kraft’s creations, depending on your wildest desires. And at Kraft’s thoughtful and meticulous rate of three hand-built bikes a year, plan on waiting a while for the bike of your dreams.
“If I could just lock the door and go back there and build bikes all day, that’s all I would do,” says the cycle perfectionist. Looks like he’s close to reaching that dream.
Check out Matt Kraft’s creations at www.kraftcustomcycles.com.
Larry Warren is a Park City based freelance writer and regular Park City Magazine contributor.
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Reader Comments:
trying to reach matt kraft . i have one of his bikes and i have questions . tryed calling the number posted , also e-mail and cannt seem to reach him or any one . if any one could help me find him ,i would be greatful . summerswatcher@gmail.com