Arlen Ness, ‘king of custom motorcycles,’ dies at 79

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HAYWARD — They called him the king of custom motorcycles.

Arlen Ness, a designer whose wildly colorful customized motorcycles are sought after by riders and museums alike, died March 22 in the East Bay after a long illness, family and friends reported. He was 79.

Ness grew up in San Lorenzo and San Leandro and customized bikes at home before he set up shop on East 14th Street in San Leandro.

For the past few decades, his Alan Ness Motorcycles has operated out of a Dublin dealership, a 72,000-square-foot location that features new and used bikes, as well as riding gear and apparel.

“My dad was extremely well-respected around the world,” said Ness’s son, Cory Ness. “Everyone loves his artistic side and the creative things he did with motorcycles.”

Ness’s company announced on its Facebook page Saturday that he had died, describing him as a “visionary, loving husband, father, grandfather and leader of our family.”

“Arlen once said that, ‘Motorcycling has been a great ride … my whole life since I’ve been motorcycling has been wonderful. I’ve met so many nice people. Friends all over the world. … We can go almost anyplace and stay with friends. It’s been great,'” the company said.

The motorcycle world and other fans, including country music star Travis Tritt, took to social media to mourn and pay tribute to Ness.

As a young man, Ness earned money as a semipro bowler, parlaying $300 of winnings into his first motorcycle purchase, a 1947 Harley-Davidson Knucklehead, according to Bay Area News Group archives.

“I was into cars — hot rods,” Ness once recalled, according to a biography on the AMA Motorcycle Museum website. “On Friday nights, we’d cruise East 14th Street (in Oakland and San Leandro). That was what you did back then. There was a place where all the guys with bikes would hang out. I’d go by that place 20 times a night just to look at the bikes. I didn’t really know one from another, but I knew I liked the ones that had a low-slung look.”

With just his high school shop experience, Ness took the Knucklehead apart, added a peanut-shaped gas tank, painted it green and entered it in a motorcycle show.

Soon local bikers were visiting Ness, who made his own parts, asking him to customize their bikes, too.

That first Knucklehead ended up being part of a California lifestyle exhibit at the Oakland Museum.

“Nobody was doing what he was doing,” said Danny Perez, the retail manager of the Dublin shop, which features a museum of some of Ness’s creations.

The motorcycle pioneer’s work was showcased in numerous other collections and publications, plus was featured on FX’s “Sons of Anarchy.”

His achievements included helping found the Hamsters Motorcycle Club, made of riders who want to counter the popular image of custom bikers as outlaws and criminals, according to Buck Lovell, a longtime motorcycle magazine editor. Instead of patches, Hamsters wear yellow T-shirts.

“He’s considered the godfather of custom motorcycles,” Lovell said about Ness. “In the motorcycle industry, he was huge.”

Ness was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1992. In 2016, he earned the Sturgis Lifetime Achievement Award.

Ness is survived by his wife of 59 years, Beverly, and his children and grandchildren. His son Cory and grandson Zach are also noted custom motorcycle builders who run the Dublin operation.

The family said a memorial service and celebration of life will be held at a later date.

“He was the nicest guy,” Cory Ness said, adding that people have contacted the family from around the world as news has spread about the death of his father. “A true gentleman.”

Ness is survived by his wife of 59 years, Beverly, and his children and grandchildren. His son Cory and grandson Zach are also noted custom motorcycle builders who run the Dublin operation.

The Ultimate Motorcycling website said a memorial service and celebration of life will be held at a later date.

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