Most successful custom builders operate a production line: Not just bikes, but also hard parts and apparel. They stay afloat on the cash flow.
A tiny handful of builders can take their time, focusing on just two or three projects a year, machines that are labors of love and paid for by clients who appreciate high art as much as horsepower.

Max Hazan is one of those builders. Slowly but surely, he?s cemented his position as one of the industry?s most original thinkers and a craftsman of the highest order.
This BSA is his latest meisterwerk, a nod to the past with swooping bodywork worthy of a 1930s Delahaye. But it took time: the 500cc engine sat on a table for over a year, then moved from one side of the shop to the other as Max studied its form and admired its simplicity.
?I usually start the build process with a single part from a motorcycle,? says Max. ?But this time it actually started with three pencil strokes on a sheet of paper. It was a shape that I had been drawing for years.?
It was his client, the Dallas-based National Geographic photographer Robert B. Haas, who noticed the 1949 BSA 500 at the back of the shop. He asked Max what his plans were. ?I showed him the sketch and said ?trust me.??

Max developed the elements he wanted the BSA to have: Narrow, elegant styling, and a completely enclosed rear that concealed every moving part apart from the rear sprocket. There was no conscious reference to anything with this build: “I always try to force myse...