After being laid off in 2012, graphic designer Scott Halbleib has been building custom motorcycles in his Highlands’ home to show and sell for the past two years. Matt Stone, The C-J
The drawer in Scott Halbleib’s bedroom dresser contain the white v-necks he wore under button-down dress shirts while working as a graphic designer and web builder in a corporate cubicle. But after getting laid off in 2012, he’s found a new use for them.
“Now they’re my shop shirts,” Halbleib said. “I have the same drawer but every shirt in there is stained with grease.”
Halbleib, 43, now balances a new life building custom motorcycles from vintage Japanese bikes. “The bank account’s gotten smaller but there’s still food in the refrigerator.”
And there’s bikes to be wrenched on in his basement garage of his Highlands home.
“There’s definitely a difference now when I wake up in the morning than three years ago,” Halbleib said while drawing on a cigarette. “I enjoy the fact that I’m gonna come down here. I get my hands dirty and actually build something.”
His first custom motorcycle was a 1971 Honda CB450. When he bought it, the bike was already in good shape as a classic motorcycle. When Halbleib told his friends in the Louisville Vintage Motorwork — a motorcycle-enthusiast group that Halbleib belongs to — about his idea for a radical rebuild, they were a little shocked. “But I brought it back here, tore it down and started working on it,” he said.
Vintage motorcycles draw crowd to Ky. Kick Down (Photo: Matt Stone/The Courier-Journal)
With some help of local bike builder Doug Devine, the hot-rod-esque bike had the original frame chopped, added a custom gas tank and exhaust with a taillight salvaged from an old Ford. The bike would receive awards from several bike shows and get press from online motorcycle sites such as Pipeburn.
What started as a hobby now is part of a lifestyle where he works much of the week on his project bikes, slings drinks and conversation Sunday and Monday nights at Barret Bar and the occasional remodeling or construction job with carpentry and metal fabrication skills he acquired when he worked for a sculptor in his early 20s while going to school. “Since being laid off in 2012, I started (building bikes) as more as a full-time deal but I do other stuff to pay the bills,” Halbleib said.
Plus, a part-time job is good to alleviate the mostly solo nature of Halbleib’s bike building. “It’s nice to work at the bar and get out, be a little social,” he said with a smile. “It gets a little solitary down here.”
Currently Halbleib is working on two bikes, a 1983 Honda FT500 — “a good old thumper,” as Halbleib decribes it — and a 1978 Honda Goldwing G1000. Both will be shown at bike shows once completed and then sold. Halbleib also founded the Kentucky Kickdown — a vintage motorcycle show on Barret Avenue in September — with Scott Shuffitt.
Ideas for design come from sketching on paper. “I’ve got drawings from ten years ago. I’ve always told people when I did remodeling that I’ve got more ideas than houses,” Halbleib said. “It’s the same with motorcycles.”
But self-employment can be difficult. When he was working for someone else full-time, he knew he’d have regular hours. Bills were easily paid. Weekends meant time off. “Doing this, I enjoy it a lot more but there’s stress involved,” Halbleib mused. “When you’re working for yourself, you feel bad when you’re relaxing. ‘I’ve got a ton of work (to do) one set of stairs away.’
“If I could just build them a little faster,” he said. “One of these days…”
To see more of Scott Halbleib’s work: www.hgarage.com Video: bit.ly/hgarage
Local customizes vintage Japanese motorcycles - The Courier-Journal
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