From fabrication, engines, ground up restoration, and custom paint, Savage Cycles does it all. A lot of sacrifices have been made by the crew at Savage Cycles in order to succeed in a business full of challenges, and obstacles. However, Sean Snyder, president of Savage Cycles, and his partners Mike Dixon and Jeremy Gordon managed to keep their eyes on the prize, and move forward. While engine builder Jack Rafferty keeps building quality machinery on the East Coast.
“What makes us extremely unique is that we have people and equipment in place to do everything in house, which enables us to keep costs down while being able to build quality bikes,” Snyder said. “This opportunity and facility allows us the capability to keep up in a competitive custom market.”
Savage Cycles was the next logical step in an evolution from Savage Grafix, and officially became a business of its own in 2002. Working as a team for 15 years and counting, Savage Cycles brought their paint and fabrication skills from the street rod/custom car scene to the motorcycle world in a big way.
It wasn't until Snyder and his wife, Lorrie, vacationed in Myrtle Beach, during Bike Week that the blood started pumping, and the itch to start bike building was sparked.
We returned home to Maryland, came up with a concept for a bike, and built our first custom bike, from there Savage Cycles was born.
“I knew I could always do this, but it was scary in the beginning, because I didn't know what to expect,” Snyder said. “For almost four years we worked hard at proving ourselves. Building bikes is one thing, but being able to build bikes that leave people talking is another. We just believed we could do it and went after our dream.”
Snyder, a mason by trade, felt he had the right people in place to make, what was once a hobby, into a full-blown business. Everyone involved at Savage Cycles made sacrifices. Dixon was a building contractor. Gordon is considered one of the best fabricators and welders in the region on his own. Everyone took pay cuts to pursue this dream, but Snyder said the sacrifices were ultimately well worth it.
“When we started out, everyone knew we would have to give up something in our personal lives in order to succeed in the custom bike business,” Snyder said. “We are doing something we love and making a living doing it. Not too many people can actually say that.”
Savage Cycles recently moved into a lavish 6,000 square- foot facility, with the intentions of staying small. “We’re concerned about personal attention for each customer,” Snyder said. “We also pride ourselves in every custom detail.”
Savage Cycles prides themselves in knowing they handle all fabrication and paint in house. The shop builds their own frames, handlebars, exhaust, custom components, and sheet metal. They handle all the body work and lay on all the custom paint. The staff forms the seat pans in the shop. Besides one-off choppers, the crew manufactures their own line of production customs ranging from the Violator, Head Hunter, Jackal, and King Chaos.
They also provide products from Big Bear Choppers.
In addition to assembling Big Bear bikes, they add their custom touch to ensure each bike is a show winner. All wiring is run internally through the frame and handlebars. This makes for a much cleaner look. It can be a pain, but well worth it. They weld spacers to front fenders to protect the paint. Nothing sucks worse than having your paint chip off around the “floating” spacers. They install chrome wheel bushings and spacers. It's the little things that make a difference.
They install weld-on mid-mount kickstands, not the bolt on front mount. It's a much cleaner look. “Quality is everything is this business, and I think we definitely put out quality in everything we do,” Snyder said. “You can't ask for much more than that.”
