How I Made It: Talking custom motorcycles with award-winning designer Max Hazan
Max Hazan has quickly established himself as a gifted designer, builder and artisan of custom motorcycles.
Max Hazan has become, at only 35 and with dizzying speed, one of the custom motorcycle industryâs most admired bespoke bike builders. But he only turned his head to design after a motorcycle injury sidelined him for several months.
The accidental artist
Hazan wasnât aiming for the artistic life. The New York native and son of a third-generation garment manufacturer had low expectations for himself.
He chose to attend Tulane University in New Orleans âbecause it was warm all the time and it was a party town,â majored in psychology âbecause it seemed easy and thatâs where all the pretty girls were,â and took a carpentry job on Long Island âbecause the money was good.â
But in 2011, when he was 29, he had a terrible crash riding an off-road motorcycle and spent long, painful months recovering and unable to work. To pass the time, he started designing a motor-driven bicycle.
Building a better bike
By his own admission, the first effort was a mess. So he started over. But this time, instead of trying to fit an existing motor into an existing frame, he built his own frame.
The result was more successful, and capable of speeds of 60 mph. That seemed unsafe, on thin bicycle tires, so he started a third machine, using motorcycle tires, motorcycle wheels and motorcycle forks.
Thatâs when he had the epiphany: âMaybe I should just go ahead and make an actual motorcycle.â
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When I first saw his bikes, I thought, 'This is art.' As a designer, he's unlike anyone else.
â Anthony Bourdain, host of "Parts Unknown" and "Raw Craft"
The right genes
Hazan â itâs pronounced to rhyme with âraisinâ â credits his father with giving him âthe design gene.â The senior Hazan had built sailboats and always kept a fully stocked wood shop.
Creating his early machines, young Max used and ruined woodworking tools for metalworking projects. âI was cutting aluminum with a wood router,â Hazan said. âIt used to drive him nuts.â
Still, it was his father who drove him to pursue motorcycle design as a full-time career.
âHe told me, âI think youâve got something here. I want you to give yourself a year and just do this,ââ Hazan recalled. âI said, âI donât think I can afford that,â and he said, âIâll take care of it. You got a year.ââ
An unpromising beginning
Hazan rented a garage space in Brooklynâs Greenpoint and began building custom motorcycles. A year of work produced bikes but not a single sale.
Then love beckoned. Hazan met Sarah Mayer. She was moving to the West Coast and asked him to come along. Hazan gave up his shop in Brooklyn, starting to lose hope that he would ever sell a motorcycle.
Then a childhood friendâs uncle showed a picture of one of the Hazan bikes to the owner of an upscale Malibu clothing store, who offered to display one in his window. That machine sold â and orders for others began to come in.
The artisanâs way
Working alone in a small second-floor studio in downtown L.A.âs Fashion District, Hazan starts each build with nothing more than a motor â a 1938 JAP speedway engine for one project, a modern KTM 520 for another.
Then he hunts for vintage-looking wheels and tires. Only then, with these parts suspended on his custom-built steel work bench, does he begin to sketch the actual motorcycle. On most of his bikes, every part except the motor, wheels and tires is entirely âscratch-built,â he said.
His most recent project, a just-finished machine built to look like the motorcycle version of his first custom bicycle build, took four months of all-day, every-day work.
How many hours is that? âI donât know for sure,â Hazan said. âI donât want to do the math.â
But he recalled that the custom fender he designed and built for an earlier machine had to be redone, from start to finish, a full 12 times.
A little acclaim from Anthony Bourdain
Hazan began winning prizes for his bikes early in his design career, taking the 2013 Bike of the Year award from Pipeburn for his free-form 1965 Harley Ironhead â and then winning again in 2014 for his Royal Enfield 500 and in 2015 for his Musket, an unprecedented three-peat from the respected motorcycle publication.
Sales followed, with some bikes going for $100,000 each. Several were bought by mega-developer Bruce Makowsky, who installed one in his $250-million spec house in Bel Air.
Motorcycle historian and journalist Paul DâOrleans, of the Vintagent and Cycle World publications, called Hazan âexceptional.â
âHeâs a sculptor, and his medium is motorcycles,â DâOrleans said. âHe has a keenly developed aesthetic sense, and itâs all his own. Itâs remarkable how far heâs gone and how fast.â
Now Hazan is getting a taste of mainstream acclaim. His latest motorcycle build is featured in an upcoming episode of Anthony Bourdainâs âThe Balvenie Raw Craftâ online series.
Bourdain heard about Hazan and asked to see some of his motorcycles, thinking they might be artisanal enough for the series. He was impressed by both man and machine, especially after getting a chance to ride one of Hazanâs masterworks.
âWhen I first saw his bikes, I thought, 'This is art,ââ Bourdain said in an interview with The Times. âAs a designer, heâs unlike anyone else.â
Life in Los Angeles
Having followed Mayer west, Hazan set up house in Venice. (The two were married in Brooklyn in July, and now live in Westchester.)
Hazan took to the local scene immediately. âYou can ride a motorcycle every single day of the year, and you can surf almost every day of the year,â he said. âIâll never have a better commute than sitting in I-10 traffic after catching a couple of good early waves.â
He commuted by motorcycle every day until he got spooked by a slow-speed fall on the freeway, and now drives his truck more of the time. Though he keeps a supermoto bike for the track, he also cut back on the dirt bike riding. âI really, really like what I do,â he said. âWhen you get hurt, you canât work.â
A few words of advice
Hazanâs bikes all wear the Hazan Motorworks crest â the letter H, ringed by a laurel, topped with a crown â but the builder said he has no particular motto and doesnât generally give advice.
But if anyone asked, heâd say, âThe biggest thing is to take risks. Dare to make something hideous. Dream as big as you can. You may fail, but you will learn so much.â
Also, donât plan too much: âIf you have a set plan, you can miss a lot of opportunities that come along.â
Future tripping
Despite the accolades, Hazan retains a sensible, workingmanâs attitude about his craft â and about his future. He keeps his overhead low, signs a contract for each project and delivers on time and on budget.
âIn the beginning it was scary because I didnât know what I was doing, and someone was paying me money,â he said. âNow, I trust the process more.â