The custom motorcycle industry has gotten so crowded I expect to come home some night and find a stranger building a bike in my kitchen. Almost each day at this magazine we are bombarded with requests to feature bikes from newbie builders who are seeking fame and fortune in a tough industry. Nothing bad about that really, it’s just amazing how hard it must be for the new guy on the block to try and stand out. So many builders are genuinely sincere in their quest, but what’s it going to take to hang in there and be successful? What do they do really special that no one else does? A hell of a lot of young guns are out there trying to make their dreams come true. Hopefully they will.

Some of these young guns are already so seemingly well established it belies their age. Here’s the scoop on one of them. Our lovable Rally Editor Rodent is always demanding (what else is new?) that I must speak with a young builder from Reno, Nevada by the name of Aaron Greene before it’s too late. I already knew Aaron was the owner of Paramount Custom Cycles, but I didn’t know why I had to speak with him before it’s too late. Well after meeting and chatting with him recently, I know why. Turns out, Aaron is an extremely smart and way cool guy that digs motorcycles enough to make it his passion for life, even at the tender age of 29. Like many young builders, he was introduced to off-road motorcycles by an enthusiastic parental unit and grew up living the life without probably even knowing it. Riding off-road got him into the mechanical end of things early, “You really had to be able to work on those bikes just so you could keep riding as a kid.” At 14 he was an accomplished auto mechanic and got into cars and hot rods as well as bikes, “When I was 16 I had a ’66 Impala I thought was cool, but I kept racing dirt bikes for fun, still ride them as often as I can.” Turning 18, Aaron moved to Scottsdale, Arizona and started working at Surgical Steeds where he started to learn about building customs from the esteemed John Covington, “It was a great learning experience, but I wanted to do more.” Now 20, he set up shop at Easyriders in Reno, Nevada where he got to be the shop’s resident custom builder, but for a pretty bright fella like him, it still wasn’t enough. A year later, Aaron opened the doors of Paramount Custom Cycles and hasn’t looked back. Big deal you say, sounds like every other story of every other young builder guy. Well this is where it all gets good.

Fast forward a bit and you’ll find Paramount growing quickly, making innovative one-off creations and producing a line of affordable production customs for real people. Innovation is a big part of what he is, things like producing the first custom with a 280mm rear tire or the first production motorcycle to have a 280 rear tire stock. Speaking of production bikes, PCC produces a fine line of extremely high quality bikes that anyone would be more than happy to call their own. The exquisite attention to detail and quality of the build has to be seen to be appreciated. Twenty-three skilled employees are working there now with just about everything is built in-house including the great paint work. “I don’t know why everything has to be as expensive as it is; we’re trying to make it more affordable and better at the same time, just more for your money. How many young guys can pay for those really expensive bikes? If they’re looking at buying a new Harley, I want them to be able to look at us too,” said Aaron. One big difference is that these bikes ain’t no kit bikes, but a real production bike by a federally licensed manufacturer who actually gives a damn about what he’s selling. Production numbers are climbing rapidly with no lessening of quality, “We make sure the entire bike works together. I don’t accept less.” Aaron adds, “We ride and use our parts before the customer gets them, when they’re ready, we roll them over into production.” This extensive line of parts from frames to pipes to bars (among other things) to complete bikes is also available for sale to the public at www.paramountcycles.com.

Again you say, “yah?” Well here’s where it really gets good. Aaron’s calm demeanor conceals a raging imagination that is always looking for new things to do and explore. He’s already acquired three patents for seriously innovative items like his Main Shaft Offset Bearing Support System, ‘hidden’ internal clutch and brake lines and the big one I’ve saved for last. Our esteemed editor and signer of my check, Mark Barnett, is always going on about how whoever makes the first suspension bike that REALLY looks like a rigid, not a Softail or one with visible linkages or whatever, will own the custom industry. Walking into his office for one of his daily Perry White chew-outs (PW was Clark Kent’s Daily Planet ranting editor) about my constant screwing off, he instead handed me a couple of Rodent’s “spy pictures” of the back end of a frame still in raw metal. Okay, I’m looking…it’s a rigid…so…hey, what’s that hidden seam? Damn, look at that, it’s a real suspension rigid. You’d never really know until you really stick your face against it. Shit Aaron, you’ve done it. That’s so totally worthy of patent #3 it’s ridiculous.

As you’re reading this, Aaron has shown the finished bike at the Big Twin show in Las Vegas and dubbed this new frame the Softrigid, because it is. Actually, I figured this was just a neat substitute for a sprung saddle, but Aaron straightened me out on my silly notion, “No, it’s got a full three inches of travel and it’s got an air suspension system that also has a spring too. Air is compressible to a point and loses its suspension qualities as it’s compressed. That’s where the spring comes into it and controls how the air is compressed for good handling and full control.” This should be as revolutionary as the first H-D Softail was, making that design as rigid looking as a Dyna does now. “This all came about in my passion for rigid bikes, the Softail saved Harley from bankruptcy because of the cool factor associated with it,” said Aaron. I wouldn’t be surprised if some suits from Milwaukee show up in Reno with a trailer truckload of cash from their stashed bejillions to try and option this design. As Homer Simpson said, “Make them pay!”

But wait, there’s more. Aaron informs me he’s interested in making his own engines. Not just another clone, but something entirely different. “I don’t understand why engines have to cost so much. You can buy a new V-8 small-block crate motor for less than what a v-twin costs. They’ve got four times the parts and still cost less. Does that make sense? I’m working on something that will incorporate parts like these for a lot less money. I’m thinking about doing something different about the angle between the cylinders too, maybe something like 50 degrees, nothing firm yet,” said Aaron. Well, you probably assume that’s it, but you would be wrong sir! “There’s a lot of crazy stuff coming down the pike, neat stuff like a hydrogen powered bike. It’s all about advancement,” said Aaron.

Normally in an interview, this is where builders tell me how they’re so busy they don’t get to ride very much anymore or that if it wasn’t for Sturgis or Biker Build Offs, they wouldn’t get to ride at all. Too many times in life, people give up the very thing that got them into what they are doing in the first place. You can’t forget your roots. Has this happened to Aaron? No freaking way, I’m so glad to report. “I’ve been riding a mule bike we built to test frames and parts every day. It’s a rigid and not painted or anything and I really love it. I’m at my happiest grabbing my fishing pole and camping gear and just riding out to a lake or to Sturgis, camping all the way,” said Aaron. You score big points with me on that baby! “I have a passion for motorcycles and the lifestyle, that’ll never change, it’s just me I guess,” says the man with a quiet, calm passion for innovation and imagination and never forgetting his roots. It was a pleasure to meet you man.