Fabricating passion on two wheels

LOVELAND — Motorcycle riders put a great deal of trust in a mechanic’s ability to make a ride safe and comfortable, not to mention to transform two wheels and a motor into unique, tantalizing eye-candy.

Boyd Motor Co. in Loveland specializes in fabricating and machining its own custom designs and parts, creatively engineering the details that pop wheelies in a biker’s imagination. Owner Ryan Boyd builds motorcycles, cars and rock crawlers in his 2,200-square-foot shop on nights and weekends, and has since 2000, when he was 18 years old. His day job is a mechanic at Markley Motors in Fort Collins, and he puts in 100 hours between the two jobs in a typical week.

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Boyd’s custom work has been featured nationally in such publications as Wild, Hot Bike, MCM, Cycle Source, Ol’ Skool Rodz, The Horse Backstreet Choppers, Easy Riders and Petersons 4-Wheel Drive.

He also has a devoted local clientele. The esteem they have for Boyd and his design, creativity, engineering, attention to detail and personal character is so unabashedly high, one wonders if they speak in such flattering terms about their loved ones.

“His machining work, his welding skills, everything about what he does is top-notch, that’s why I went to him,” said Rob Curci, owner of Spotlight Music in Fort Collins. “His skill level is right up there with the best of them. He’ll listen to what you want and do better than what you expected him to do. The guy does incredible work, everything that I’ve seen him make, manufacture or fabricate is unbelievable. He does really high-quality work, it’s functional and it looks good.”

Ken Conte, owner of Fort Collins-based Rise Above Consulting, a marketing company focused on the motorcycle industry, could have had any of his celebrity connections custom build his motorcycle. He went to Boyd.

“Being in the motorcycle industry, I’m skeptical when someone tells me someone is great at building motorcycles,” Conte said. “Several years ago, we judged a bike show together and (Ryan) showed me what he was working on. I was blown away by the attention to detail he was putting into the bikes he was building and the amount of knowledge he obviously had about fabricating and machining.”

Boyd built Conte a completely custom show bike worth $50,000. The bike had its own tour, debuting at the 2009 Specialty Equipment Market Association Show in Las Vegas, the biggest aftermarket motorcycle product show in the world.

“What I really appreciate about Ryan is that I would go to him and say, ?What do you think about doing this?’ and he would say, ?Yeah, no problem.’ Apart from making a square wheel, anything that’s possible, he’s willing to try and willing to do,” Conte said. “It came down to what I really wanted to do. With Ryan, I could be intimately involved in the process.”

More than a project

The bike took a year to build, according to Boyd.

“It’s one of the best riding bikes I’ve ever built,” Boyd said. “We finished it and then it got a lot of exposure at shows and magazine shoots. We rode down to Durango and put like 1,000 miles on our bikes in three to four days. It was awesome to see him get to ride it and see it perform flawlessly.”

It also turned out to be more than just a one-shot project.

“I prototyped a lot of custom parts for it and started a product line from that bike,” Boyd said. “I have four parts available now and six in the works. It got me a lot of exposure and I got to do the SEMA show — it’s hard for a bike to get in. It’s ridiculous and amazing.”

Jeremy Robinson, co-owner of 3J Inc., a machine shop in Wellington, manufactures the parts from Boyd’s prototypes.

“He does great work, he’s extremely creative and great on the detail,” Robinson said. “If you provide him with a project, you know it will be done right. He has great integrity, he’s a great friend and a great gentleman.”

Boyd’s attention to detail and exceptional customer services comes from having negative experiences when he attempted to have others do custom work for him.

“I remember when I was first starting out, I wanted it to turn out a certain way so badly, but I didn’t have the means to do it,” he recalled. “I would enlist other shops and buy parts on the Internet, and I was always so disappointed in the quality. I’d call them and they didn’t care.”

Boyd takes what he does — and what his customers want — very seriously.

“I talk with customers and get a feel for what the part is doing on the bike. I modify what they want to better suit them — I want them to brag about what they’ve got,” he said. “I try so hard, I’m almost neurotic about it. If I have a part I can’t figure out just right I don’t sleep at night, I’m down at the shop at midnight. I want the part to last longer than the motorcycle.”

Word about Boyd’s attention to detail has spread beyond Northern Colorado.

“People come to me from all over the country. While nothing’s ever perfect, they see that I strive for that in everything I do. I’m passionate about it; it’s definitely where my mind is 100 percent of the time,” he explained.

Boyd, 29, found his life’s work and passion early on.

“When I was a kid, I had this crappy little Honda,” he said. “When the starter went out on it, I wanted to change it myself. I started working on my own car when I was 16 and I decided I liked that. I got a job at Markley Motors washing cars and moved up the ladder with them there.”

Boyd said his employer of 14 years has been supportive of his motorcycle mania.

“They’ve always been really receptive to what I wanted to do and they give me time off if I’ve got a big project I’m working on or if I have a show,” he said. “I got all my master’s certifications with them. It’s a good job, but my passion is building things like motorcycles and hotrods.”