Deep in the heart of Marina del Rey, California, amidst jet ski shops and high-rise condos, you'll find The Chrome Triangle. It's a section of Lincoln Boulevard with Bartels Harley-Davidson on one side and two custom motorcycle shops on the other. If you want a stock H-D, you go to the Harley mall that is the Bartels complex, but if a ground-up custom's your poison, then you go to either of the two operations across the street.
One of these is Schwartzkopf Exclusive Customs (SEC). Its owner, Eric Schwartzkopf, has been a pro bike builder for 10 years (and yes, he's related to General Norman Schwartzkopf; Eric's his nephew). The gearhead bug bit him in Kansas at an early age. Eric started off working on bicycles, and at age 13, he picked up his first four-wheeled fixer-upper. "Out there you could get your driver's license at 14. I took that car and added a trick 327 in shop class," Eric said. By the time he was 16, he'd moved out to Los Angeles, where he started working for Bartels H-D-then in nearby Culver City-but later struck out on his own.
That first operation was a far cry from the current shop. "I shared a shop in Inglewood with a guy who made some crazy movie cars. I even lived in the building for two years, but then the owners sold it," Eric told us. Where did he move to next? "I had a home garage in Westchester. We drove the neighbors crazy with big parties every weekend...we had a pool table in the garage and a swimming pool out back. It was sweet.
But nothing lasts forever, and the house he was renting got sold, forcing him to move, yet again. This time he sublet space from an antique shop on Lincoln Boulevard. "The whole place was packed with all kinds of shit. We took over more and more of the shop until we had the whole thing."
And, here he is. For the past several years, he's operated out of the A-framed building across from his old employer's dealership, building ground-up customs and customizing existing bikes for all kinds of folks. One of his ex-employees is nanny to Brad Pitt's bike fleet, and SEC is where he comes whenever he needs work done.
Between repairs and customizing, Eric keeps the shop running even with the current market correction. Fixing problems keeps him afloat, while custom work is where he makes his profit. Both of these apply to his building philosophy. "Since most of what we build is for customers, we try to figure out what they want. We point out riding characteristics of various bikes to find a happy medium between style and ride quality because the bikes have to be at least somewhat ridable," Eric told us. "I like to be creative and I like building bikes. I've seen folks buy bikes they didn't really want and no one spent time helping them find what they really want. They buy stock bikes and dump tons of money into them trying to make what they want." Often, he can do that by recommending changes here and there to make the bike a better fit, but it costs money to do so, and sometimes all the person wanted was to buy a bike and enjoy riding it. When a new customer comes into the shop, he tries to convince them to do a ground up to get what they want first time right out the door. As for a signature style, he doesn't have one. "I don't prefer one over another. But I like a challenge. It's easier if you stick to one style, when you're doing the same thing over and over again. That's why I like to change it up," Eric said.
But being a California shop owner has its downsides. "I hate the whole business side, especially in California because of the bureaucracy. It's hard to focus on building when trying to keep up with other shit." On top of that, he says it's very important to keep the customer up to speed on what's going on. If you don't, it can lead to problems. "A guy comes in with a budget and along the way he wants to keep making upgrades, but in the first budget he didn't allow for PM controls. He keeps wanting to add these high-dollar things and all of a sudden the bike's done and it's five, six, or ten grand more than he thought it was going to be and he starts flipping out, making threats. It's about communication. People don't always keep track of costs, so I tell them up front how the process is going to go. Also, a lot of people come in and drop down money. They expect you to immediately pull their bike on the rack and start working on it. It doesn't work that way. You wait until you have enough parts to get a lot of work done, then put it up on the lift and get it finished all at once."