For bike baron `King of Flames,' life's in the fast lane
BRIDGEWATER -- Custom motorcycle builder Dave Perewitz had just returned from a week in Sturgis, S.D., after attending one of the premier motorcycle events
Classic creations. Page 4
in the country. In the seven days at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, he sat for photos for his annual motorcycle calendar and was the subject of five magazine photo shoots. Most importantly, he took a 700-mile ride on one of his freshly minted bikes from Des Moines to Sturgis as part of the ``Biker Build-Off" competition scheduled to be aired on the Discovery Channel Oct. 9 .
But on this recent Tuesday morning, Perewitz showed neither wear nor tear. He was still going a mile a minute attending to various bike projects in his store, Perewitz Cycle Fabrications . Apologizing for the ``mess" in a showroom that looked spotless but apparently had too many vehicles in it at the time for his liking, he took a phone call from someone notifying him that he will be inducted into a newly created motorcycle hall of fame (He's already in two others).
Perewitz, known as the ``King of Flames " for the art he paints on his signature bikes, never slows down.
That's the secret to his success in an industry where bike building was just a hobby for most when he first set up shop in 1971 in his Brockton backyard. Now, the business is so mainstream and popular that the 55-year-old father of three is constantly sought by celebrities who want to order one of his flashy bikes, which start at $60,000 and go as high as $100,000.
``It's no secret. It's a lot of hard work," said Perewitz, who by his own reckoning has built more than 1,000 motorcycles from scratch. ``You have to truly have a passion for motorcycles and be willing to make sacrifices. You have to sacrifice time. You have to sacrifice every weekend. I've got a place on the Cape and I love going there, but I've been there twice this year. . . . Last year, I only had five weekends off the entire year."
But the sacrifices have paid off. Perewitz is in the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in Pickerington, Ohio, and the National Motorcycle Museum Hall of Fame in Anamosa, Iowa. He also has been invited into a hall of fame for master builders being created in Daytona, Fla.
Perewitz has built bikes for wrestler Hulk Hogan , NASCAR driver Kyle Petty , Ruben Brown of the Chicago Bears, and Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford . One of his creations even showed up in a ``Miami Vice" episode, he said. More than 100 motorcycle magazine covers dating back to 1977 featuring his bikes line the walls of his sprawling two-story, 12,000-square-foot showroom and workshop on Plymouth Street in Bridgewater.
In the ``Biker Build-Off" series, scheduled to air at 9 p.m., Perewitz was pitted against another custom builder. Each had 10 days from start to finish, beginning with a bare frame. Once the bike was built, each had to ride it to prove it worked. The winner takes bragging rights and a big trophy. (We know who won, but we swore we wouldn't tell.)
Lori Rothschild , the ``Biker Build-Off" series' supervising producer, said via e-mail that Perewitz was chosen for the show -- this is his second appearance -- because he is a legendary master builder. Also, she said, `` He has a personality as big as Massachusetts."
Yet, the tall, tattooed Perewitz remains down-to-earth. Besides a motorcycle workroom, the happiest place on earth for him is his yard.
``Give me a pair of pruning shears, and I could walk around my yard just pruning and clipping for days," he said.
Suggest that he must be rich with all the personal appearances, books about him, TV shows, and now a soon-to-be released instructional DVD titled ``Master Builder with Dave Perewitz," and he will throw his head back and laugh away the notion.
``It's a very difficult business to be successful in, financially. I'm doing OK," said Perewitz, who is also involved in numerous motorcycle-related events that raise money for charity. ``I'm just the same as every other motorcycle guy. We're here because we love motorcycles."
Overall, though, he is a smart businessman and marketing machine who knows the value of publicity you can't buy. He doesn't advertise; all of his business comes by word of mouth.
Rothschild said Perewitz's popularity as a TV personality and builder comes from managing to retain the rough-and-tumble biker fans and at the same time attract lawyers, big-time athletes, and rock stars as followers. And the popularity of the build-off show indicates that people from all walks of life are watching, not just hard-core bikers, she said.
To be sure, Perewitz and other custom builders have benefited from the change in the image of the traditional biker in pop culture. Bikers still sport tattoos and cool leather jackets, but their alter egos also wear designer suits. Jay Leno , for example, is a motorcycle enthusiast.
Over the past three or four years, reality-based shows such as ``American Chopper ," which also airs on the Discovery Channel, have fed the interest in motorcycles among a broader population, said Mark Mederski , director of the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum. ``The more they get into the public eye, the more the public wants one."
That's a far cry from the 1970s, when Susan Perewitz's mother objected to her dating Dave because he was a biker.
``Back then, lawyers, white-collar people didn't ride motorcycles," she said. ``Back in the early '70s, the only people who had motorcycles were the bad guys."
Dave and Susan Perewitz have been married 27 years. Together, they have made motorcycles a family affair. She keeps the books in the company office. And the couple's three children, all in their 20s, work there as well. Daughter Jody has even built a couple of her own bikes, one of which will be featured soon in ``V-Twin " magazine.
Recently, Susan and Jody Perewitz sat at a table editing the loose pages of an upcoming book on Dave as their two dogs played nearby. Asked to explain what motivates her husband, Susan Perewitz didn't miss a beat: ``He's always had this drive, this push to do something new, start something new, take an ordinary motorcycle to the next level and beyond. He can see the design in his head. I don't think a lot of people can do that."
When he started fooling around with motorcycles as a teenager, Perewitz, who bought his first bike at age 18 for $800, was just having fun, he said.
``I had no idea what I was going to do," he said. ``There was no such thing as a bike builder back then. You did it because you loved it."
He's still motoring on that singular obsession.
``I just love the whole industry. I just love the passion of it all. The people. The camaraderie . No other industry in the world is like the motorcycle industry."
Sandy Coleman can be reached at sbcoleman@globe.com. 
