High end motorcycles are a loss for one maker

Los Angeles — In a narrow workshop off an alley, Michael Woolaway uses a wooden mallet to shape an aluminum bracket for a motorcycle.

The metal part is one of dozens the craftsman known as Woolie will spend an estimated 400-500 hours hand-shaping for the custom-built bike. This one’s for actor Orlando Bloom.

When it’s done, the V-twin street racer will cost Bloom $60,000. It will lose money for Woolie’s employer, the lifestyle brand Deus Ex Machina.

That’s what happened with custom bikes Woolie built for actor Ryan Reynolds and singers Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen and Jason Mraz.

“That’s why we make clothing,” said Deus founder and owner Dare Jennings. “Otherwise, we’d go broke.”

Deus isn’t the only company selling expensive motorcycles.

A high-end Harley-Davidson — by far, the country’s bestselling brand — costs $40,000. In L.A., Arch Motorcycles, co-owned by actor Keanu Reeves, offers a KRGT-1 for $78,000. A new replica of the Los Angeles-born classic Crocker goes for about $55,000.

But Deus may be the only company making high-end bikes and losing money on them.

The company was born in 2006 from the riches of Jennings’ piece of the reported $75 million sale of the Australian surf apparel company Mambo.

From humble beginnings with a single storefront in Sydney, Deus now boasts retail outlets at ritzy addresses in Tokyo and Milan, and on the island of Bali, with a new shop set to open shortly in Paris.

The artful retail spaces are part cafe, part music club, part hip urban haberdashery. In L.A., locals and tourists buy Deus jeans at $259 and hoodies at $220, and spend hundreds more on Deus-branded surfboards, wetsuits, motorcycle helmets, boots and gloves.

The shop, which calls itself an “Emporium of Post Modern Activities,” hosts a monthly Sunday “Mass,” which draws hundreds of “sinners, winners and hodads” — translation: motorcycle riders and enthusiasts — for a half-day of free music and food.

On a typical weekday, the shop is busy with young men and women who bring their laptops, dogs and children to hang out and drink high-priced java from a local roaster. Julia Roberts is a regular.

“It’s a lifestyle experience,” says Deus General Manager Julian Heppekausen. “If we build a strong community, sales will come with that.”

The privately-held company does not release sales figures.

Clients have included a cable company executive who shipped Woolie two brand-new Kawasaki W650s, to begin taking apart and customizing, and a Disney executive who paid Woolie to completely re-imagine a new $30,000 Ducati.

The line of Hollywood clients began with Reynolds, in 2008, three years before his breakout movie role as the Green Lantern.

Woolie was working on a hand-built custom bike fabricated from all-American parts and components.

Reynolds saw the bike, called “The American,” and wanted it.

“OK, but it’s $60,000,” Woolie recalled telling him. Reynolds didn’t blink.

“It’s a crazy hobby,” Joel said. “But it’s a lot cheaper than cars or boats.”

Making motorbikes for high-end clients invites headaches, the Deus executives said. Some celebs are impatient, like the one who, told by Woolie that his custom build would take at least a year, called a week later and said, “How’s my bike coming along?”

Then there was the big-name musician who ordered a bike in a specific tone of green, insisted on several changes in the exact shade of green, but when he received the motorcycle said, “Why is it green? I wanted it red!”

Some of them, despite their riches, don’t want to pay for the bike at all. “A lot of these people, they already get everything for free,” Woolie said.

“The very first thing we tell them is, ‘You are going to have to pay for this,’ ” Jennings added. “Please don’t tell us this will be good for our careers.”

But it hasn’t hurt Deus’ apparel sales to be connected to cool motorbikes ridden by celebrities.

That’s why the custom bikes are an acceptable loss leader.