With a passion for motorcycles dating back to the early 70’s, we found ourselves in the position in 2007 to seriously look into the business side of the motorcycle industry. One of the Directors had around 16 years’ experience in Import and Distribution, so importing ourselves was the likely way to go, and in 2007 we set up Big Bear Choppers Australia Pty Ltd and Wildcard Customs Pty Ltd. The job for BBC Australia was to run the licensed production facility and own the CPA (Compliance Plate Approval) for our bikes and for Wildcard to run the shop.
In the early years we bought some built bikes but mostly components from BBC in America. The bikes we get out on the road are well respected and we love ’em, but over the years we unfortunately experienced supply issues, lack of warranty support and QC issues that required rework before we could complete the bike builds. This was extremely unacceptable.
From the start of 2011 we obtained Frames and Sheet Metal only from our US supplier and built supply relationships with S&S Cycle, Baker Transmissions, Performance Machine, BDL, Wire Plus and others so we could continue to build high quality bikes for our customers.
Dealing direct with these companies allowed us to give our customers a higher level of components, like more power in our 100ci Engine running with specifications advised by S&S Techs, the introduction of our V111ci Engine in early 2012, better finishes on our Transmissions and a wider range of Wheel choices, Primary Drives, Front Ends, Forward Controls and many other upgrades.
We then started to think about how we could improve supply and quality of the frames themselves. The level of rework that was required to pass our QC was increasing, and with BBC closing its doors in November 2011 and Rage Hard Choppers taking over the production of bikes in February 2012, the problems only grew. We felt it was time to find another frame supplier and in early 2012 we spoke with Daytec in CA. Daytec is known as one of the best frame builders in the US and has built and does build, for some very well-known companies. We now use the frames Daytec has built for us and we have been able to discontinue our association with our previous frame and parts supplier.
We recognise the need to continually strive for improvement and we are passionate about bringing high quality Custom / Production motorcycles to the Australian market. We now have our suppliers and our production team where we want them and are looking forward to building more S&S Powered American V-Twin Motorcycles “in Australia.”
