BIKERNET INTERVIEWS THE NEW BOSS OF BIG BEAR CHOPPERS

Simon Scott, who faced losing serious bucks when Big Bear folded, stepped up and took over.

By K. Ball with photos from Russ Germain, Ron Sinoy and the Big Bear Crew
Simon Scott, now 54 years of age, married with two young children, has worked all over the world in mining supply and remote location logistics for over 25 years in Papua, New Guinea, and Indonesia. He is currently a mining supply chain executive, living in Jakarta, Indonesia.

He is also the 100 percent owner of Ragehard Choppers, Inc. Ragehard owns all the intellectual properties of Big Bear Choppers and hired Kevin and Mona Alsop, the former owners. Big Bear Choppers is an open wound in the chopper industry and recently chose to advertise on Bikernet. We have received complaints, so we thought it best to interview the new owner first hand.

So many companies were devastated by the 2008 economic slump. Some 75 percent of all custom shops are gone, and virtually all the chopper manufacturers, with the exception of Brass Balls Bobbers. But the desire never dies, and new manufacturers are attempting to come on line every month, including Arch with Gard Hollinger and Keanu Reeves, Crocker motorcycles, Viper, etc. Sucker Punch Sally’s is trying to stay afloat, and Saxon moved their market to Europe in an attempt to stay alive. The economy may stink, but the desire to ride cool motorcycles will never go away, and more potential enthusiasts are born every day.


Let’s see what the affable Simon Scott has to say about the future of Big Bear Choppers.

BN: Tell us about yourself and your history with motorcycles.



SS: I was born in the UK and relocated to Australia when I was 14 with my family. My father decided that Australia held a better future for the family of five than the UK. I got kicked out of school at 16 and had my first motorbike at 17, which I bought on a credit card. It took me four years to pay for it. It was a motocross bike. I raced motocross and sidecar rigs.

My first big motorbike was the first Suzuki GX 600 released. That gave me the addiction from power and speed. I road raced and drag raced. Drag racing was a passion. Riding is still the way I clear my head. Hop on a bike and have a near-death experience. It does it every time. I’ve owned many bikes over the years. Italian bikes captured my fancy.

It wasn’t until I moved to Indonesia, and I didn’t have a bike for a couple of years, that the chopper bug bit me. Every Sunday morning in Jakarta, I heard this rumbling of the Harley Owners Groups on their coffee shop-to-coffee shop Sunday morning ride. I said to my wife, “I’ve got to get a motorbike.”

I bought my first Harley, a 2009 Rocker. During that year, I was diagnosed with prostrate cancer and had an operation in Singapore. While I was recovering, I used my laptop to buy $20,000 in accessories and had them shipped back to Indonesia, so when I returned I could put the bike back together. Ultimately, I had the coolest bike on the block. I love to customize. Anything I own is customized; cars, bikes, you name it. Did it myself. I built my first drag bike. That’s where working with Yoshimura came into play.

I put it together myself and stuck my fingers in my ears when I first started it, in case it blew up. It worked out okay.

But after I modified my Harley, I decided I wanted to build a chopper and I started researching on the Internet, and that’s when Big Bear Choppers came into play. I ordered a chopper kit from Kevin and had it painted pearl orange and shipped to me. I built it in Indonesia and had local artisans handle the graphics. Lady Luck became the center of attraction in our area. We started to discuss forming an Indonesian Big Bear dealership.


I worked closely with Kevin and Mona and built a solid trust. But then with the economic downturn it became harder and harder for Big Bear Choppers to stay in business. Finally, one day Kevin called and said he could not keep his doors open or make payroll. We had invested considerable funds and my wife and I decide to look at the situation and see if something could be done to rectify the situation and save our investment. At that point, we could have bought and sold the assets of the company, sold the equipment and recovered our money, or built motorcycles with Kevin and Mona. We decided to have a go at resurrecting the brand.

BN: Could you salvage the intellectual rights?

SS: Yes, I worked with the bank. Big Bear Choppers had a considerable name, it was well branded, but it was getting some bad press because of the bankruptcy. No one wins in a bankruptcy. It’s a very sad state of affairs, but it’s a fact of life. You are forced to do it for your protection, but it’s a no-win for anybody. I felt the bikes were still strong. Kevin is a helluva designer. Even in a group of choppers, a Big Bear stands out. They flow, their sexy, and rugged. They are very rideable. Kevin has the eye for choppers.

Gary rode a new BBC Redemption to a Bike Night and immediately took the Best of Show honors. That 145-inch locomotive would stop a riot.

BN: During their tough times, customers were left out to dry. How have you addressed these issues?

SS: Look, we would love to be able to return all the deposits, or build bikes for every customer who lost out. Fundamentally, we were forced to start the company over. I bought the intellectual property and some of the tooling, but basically we are starting over, and I hired Kevin and Mona. It would be nice to try to pay folks back, but it would be committing commercial suicide. I couldn’t pay $6.5 million in debt and expect to move forward.

It’s sad, but hopefully one day… Actually there are not that many folks, and I have all the facts. I know exactly how many deposits were taken and how many companies Big Bear owed and exactly how much. There are not that many personal deposits.

Simon riding a Redemption to Sturgis.

BN: I heard dealers could recoup losses if they came back.

SS: Yes, if a dealer had lost a $10,000 deposit, we would replace it with the order of two bikes by taking a $5000 loss on the profit on each bike. Each issue will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

We’ve done that with a couple of overseas dealers, but the majority of the losses were generally accumulated right here. Kevin had the staff, the machinery, and infrastructure to build 100 bikes a month and suddenly there were no orders, none.

BN: Tell us about 2013 and where the chopper industry stands from your prospective

SS: We just finished 2012 and just at 70 bikes went out this year, or since April of 2012 to December. About five were distributed inside the US, one went to Canada and the rest were overseas orders. The big markets have been Ukraine, Europe, and a few bikes to Australia, just recently into the Middle East. In 2013, we are bringing a Russian distributor on line. Sochi, Russia will host the 2014 Winter Olympics on the Black Sea, the Russian Rivera. They are kicking off Russian Bear Choppers.

We are now moving toward a more rideable bike from Big Bear Choppers, a rider’s bike to be released in Daytona. A different style using different manufacturing options, providing a new adrenaline machine to the industry, plus something you can cruise to the market with. We are also moving into parts manufacturing. Kevin is designing a complete line of accessories for Harleys. We know he has the eye for products. We will manufacturer some in-house and some others will be outsourced.

BN: You mentioned improvements to the Big Bear Chopper line, including Race Tech components.

SS: Some of the items used on the new non-choppers include working with Hayes braking systems, Race Tech for suspension, and Yosimura R&D for carbon fiber and titanium items, and also California legal exhaust systems. We are going to start manufacturing stainless steel and carbon fiber pipes for Harleys and our own models.

With our own choppers, we will apply Race Tech suspension improvements. We are working with Hayes on our chopper braking systems. They already handle very well, but we constantly look for improvements in handling and braking. We are looking at improved sump drains under our oil tanks, and moving our front-mounted regulators for additional ground clearance.

Mickey Morisoli, our International Representative, helps set up service and quality assurance at overseas locations. He trains new dealers and is a roving liaison. He’s badass looking, but a very easy guy to work with and highly knowledgeable about bikes. There is nothing he doesn’t know about Big Bear Choppers. He builds his own bikes and makes a lot of product recommendations.

BN: You mentioned moving to the states in 2013. I’m curious about your take on the stateside chopper market. I’m concerned about freedoms in this country and believe the chopper, in many respects, represents the last bastion of freedom in this country.


SS: Big Bear Choppers has a destiny to fulfill. The global economic crisis caught everybody. I don’t care how big or small any company was, everyone got was hurt during that crisis. We are putting Big Bear Choppers back into the market. We have an elite destiny. It’s an expensive toy, an ego trip, but there is a place for it. I’ll move here in June, to ensure the company drives forward.

Choppers are apart of the culture. The bikes are USA-made. We are working with Yoshimura, but he is a US citizen and is based here in California. We will work on co-branding with Don Sukura, who is Japanese, born in America and never been to Japan. It’s an American company. Made in the USA means a lot. It means a lot overseas. It’s Americana, it’s over-engineered if you like, but it’s an American-made tool that will last you forever. Made in the USA means quality; it isn’t cheap, but it will last an owner forever.

BN: You mentioned the strength of the US economy and how that impacts any company.

SS: America is the largest economy in the world. The spending power of the US is phenomenal when things are good. At the moment, things aren’t good, but a lot of that spending power is in the bank, because people aren’t sure what’s happening around them. They are not making the investments they would normally like to make. The money is sitting in the bank. A lot of people have lost their jobs and their homes. It’s tragic, but the US economy will bounce, and when it does bounce, it will come on strong. In the future, whether it’s this year or next, choppers will be wanted again. Since Peter Fonda rode across the South, choppers have been embedded in the culture. When the economy returns with more enthusiasts than ever before, Big Bear Choppers will be there.