Distributor adds custom motorcycle brand to catalog
Tucker continues to build its list of custom motorcycle brand partners with the announcement of its latest exclusive distribution partner, Motone Customs Motorcycle Parts.
Motone Customs is owned and operated by two partners, Dale Crawford and Sam Wheeler. Crawford, a Californian, started borrowing his older brother’s Honda 50cc trail bike bored out to a 90cc. At 15, late at night, he’d ride up the Pacific Coast Highway to the canyons branching out from Malibu. Wheeler, from Great Britain, got his first bike when he was 16. It was a battered Honda CB360 that he rode as his only form of transportation.
Wheeler’s entrepreneurial spirit led to him living in Vietnam, a nation that gets everywhere on 125cc motorcycles. Being surrounded daily by motorcycles and aftermarket parts, he started investigating where the parts are made and who made them. He found that there were only a handful of quality manufacturers and that they were simply reproducing replacement parts for the local market. His idea was to develop new designs, provide them to the quality manufacturers to produce and then to sell the parts in the West. After painstaking trial and error, he succeeded.
Around this time, Crawford was looking for another opportunity to capitalize on his years of business experience outside of the U.S. Max, Dale’s son, was brewing craft beer in Vietnam and had become close friends with Wheeler. Max introduced Wheeler and Crawford, and upon their first meeting, Motone Customs began.
It took over two years for Motone to design, manufacture and build enough inventory to open its virtual doors. Now expanding their offering, they use the latest technology to design parts, from clay modeling to CAD to 3D printing. The brand commissioned designers from England, Holland, Germany and the USA to help bring its vision to life. They’ve gone from small CNC-machined, value-added parts to stamping out steel and aluminum gas tanks on a 200-lb. press in their facility. They injection mold knee pads and ABS side covers, and forge aluminum gas caps and exhaust flanges. The brand’s latest product line is high-pressure, injection die-molded, O.E.M.-quality or better engine side covers along with gear and head covers.
Motone has evolved from Triumph air-cooled parts, to Harley-Davidson Sportster café racers, to BMW R Nine T kits. Soon, they’ll have complete exhaust systems for these bikes as well as seats and lights. Motone Customs wants to make it possible for everyone to own and enjoy a personalized, custom motorcycle they can depend on for years and years.
