ABOUT US

 

Story time! Flashback to 1979, my dad, Mike (co-founder and head builder of Buscadero motorcycles) was torn between his love of his new Honda XR185 and his itch to start racing mx at the local track, wondered if he could build it to be competitive in a race. As a young towheaded kid in high school, he stripped that 185 down bolt by bolt, removing lights and any excess weight from the bike. He Supertrapp'd it, threw on some number plates, painted it white and BAM! Not only was his first race bike born but a deep love was ignited in him for tweaking, cutting, grinding, painting and building custom motorcycles.

Honda XR 185 vintage motocross

He was the ONLY 4 stroke mx bike at the track in 1979. He had to race a class up (because displacement wasn't fully understood in the local racing world yet) and usually got womped on the starts but actually won a lot of races on that bike. My dad turned A LOT of heads, and most likely (if you know my dad) had more fun than anyone else;)

Fun fact: We've built a few white XR's as an homage to that first race bike. You can read about one of them here

Honda XR 185 vintage motocrossFast forward to Feb 2020, all of us sitting in a mexican restaurant coming down from a big day at the One Moto Show in Portland, Oregon. We kept coming back over and over to an idea. What if we built NEW motorcycles that looked old? 

Peanut tanks, oval plates and pure simple beauty, but had all the good features of a new motorcycle like disc brakes, electric start, etc...

As soon as we got home we started going to work on this concept. We didn't have the resources or the money bags to produce a whole run of completely original bikes from the ground up. So we started looking at the resources we had at our fingertips. Insert GPX Moto.

GPX Moto is an offroad motorcycle manufacturer with their main North American distributor based in Lindon, Utah (just a few hours south of us). We toured their shop and picked up a bike and immediately took off all the modern style fenders, plates, seat, etc...and started brainstorming ways to fit vintage style parts on it.

We had some hesitation about the fact that the GPX factory is in China. (Most chinese motorcycles don't have the best reputation) But after tearing into the bike, testing, riding and examining every part piece by piece. We started to really fall in love. 

GPX seems to do things very different from most Chinese motorcycle manufacturers. The parts are TOP quality. Assembly was tight, and the customer service is EXCELLENT. They warranty their bikes and can get any part for them anytime. 

We were sold. So we decided first to try out a 110cc pit bike. Because everyone can ride them and they're an absolute RIOT. However it was going to be a much longer process to develop a new design with them, so for our initial launch into this idea, we ordered 50 naked (motor, frame, suspension, wheels) bikes from the factory and decided to custom build each one with vintage style body parts. It was no small endeavor and throughout the process we had MAJOR doubts and concerns. But to make this long story, somewhat shorter. Everything went incredibly smoothly.

We sold out of the first 50 bikes within a few months. And we've had some really positive feedback. So we're now diving head first into developing some new, completely original designs with the GPX factory. The 110's were our first crack and now we plan on introducing full size models and so many other exciting things to come. 

We're taking our love of vintage dirt bikes developing a series of motorcycles that are unlike any others on the market today. My dad's ability to create and build things from scratch has always bewildered me. His attention to detail and wild creativity is manifested in everything we do.

 

 

Here's where I (Parker) come into the picture...My contribution to all this stems from the business I've built over the last decade in leather craft, called Stock and Barrel Co. You can check it out here. You can usually find me in my workshop building vegetable tanned leather bags, wallet, belts and "buscadero" western gun belts and holsters. (There's a little foreshadowing to our name for ya) It's allowed me to explore all the new ways that makers, builders and creatives in general can use social media to pull back the curtain to the amazing talent that's usually going on behind closed garage doors. 

We'll be exploring fresh new bike builds, regularly building and racing old ones and growing a community of people just like us. So whether you're just getting into motorcycles, or you're an old vet, Welcome to Buscadero Motorcycles.