Over the past year or so I’ve heard rumblings about CamTech Custom Baggers in Summerville, South Carolina. The CamTech crew led by Cameron Jurow, have won just about every motorcycle and bagger show they enter, including Bagger of the Year. CamTech’s bikes have graced the covers of just about every major magazine. When I first met Cameron he said he had a few bikes for me look at. Cameron emailed me one; then another an hour later. I decided to feature the first one I saw, but then Cameron just kept sending them in—I lost count after 11. I had to actually stop him as each bike was just making the decision harder. That’s when I decided upon the two-bike feature; both builds based on the popular Harley Street Glide platform. I caught up with Cameron and interrupted his busy day with some rapid-fire questions
TB: How did you get to be the bagger king?
CJ: Not sure if I am the king yet but I’m working on it! LOL. What’s funny is I raced and built outlaw 10.5 drag cars for years and did very well. I won the 10k Dollar to Win race twice which was called the King of the South so that was what I was called back then. Now the king name returns—that’s funny, I think.
TB: Why are baggers your specialty?
CJ: I just build them because they are so much fun and there are so many ways to express your ideas and designs. It’s nice to be able to ride a bike after you spend a ton of money on it. Unlike choppers, after all the work you could hardly ride them. With the baggers you can ride them and bring a passenger!
TB: When did CamTech build its first bagger? I remember you building hoppers; then what happened?
CJ: How I got into baggers is a pretty easy story. I did the chopper thing and had several. One day my buddies asked me to ride to a lunch spot about 120 miles away. I hopped on my 280-tire, hardtail, springer frontend bike and after trying to keep up with them on baggers running 90mph I bowed out and turned around. They teased me and said I needed a bagger. I told them I would never ride a geezer glide. The next day, Monday, my buddy came by my shop and said, “Run me to work and ride my bagger around today.” I said, “no,” but did it anyway. Later that day when I thought no one was looking I rode the bagger and the rest was history. I bought a brand new, solid black, ’06 Street Glide the next day. About two months later my wife reminded me I had 3 choppers in the garage, none of which had been ridden since the Street Glide came home. And, well, since I can’t leave anything alone; here we are today.
TB: Can you give me some info on your main guys that help you at CamTech?
CJ: Well, my wife is my #1 supporter; I couldn’t do it without her and she often has the ideas that go into the bikes. Darrin Davis helps me with all Autocad design and engineering as well as overseeing the entire operation. Josh Zak, my main fabricator, has been with me for several years and follows me through the trends. He is my metal master! Robbie Closson is my head mechanic and does all my assembly and builds. He is an ex dragbike racer so he has to put a gangster motor in all we build! David Lee and Chris Minichiello lays all the graphics from mild to wild. Mitch Melling and Mario Commacho do all our bodywork and fiberglass molding.
TB: Other than baggers tell me something that you want the world to know about Cameron Jurow.
CJ: I have 5 teenage kids: 4 girls and 1 boy, all of which love the bikes and I hope one day they will ride baggers with me as a family! In my spare time my wife and I play Call of Duty Black Ops on X-box 360 to all hours of the morning like kids. LOL.