It's been a shamefully long time since we've posted here, but we've been blitzed with orders since before the holidays. It's a good problem to have, as they say, and you'll get no complaints from us. That said we've been trying to figure out a reasonable way to handle new build requests and manage our waiting list.

As you can imagine, when someone asks me to work up a build proposal for them, it takes a lot of time. Definitely not like going into the Honda dealership and asking for a brochure. We try to design bikes that reflect the owner's personality based on a pretty extensive back-and-forth with them. And as much as I love this process, it's too time consuming to offer as a free service, when oftentimes the builds don't pan out for whatever reason.

Boom. You know what's coming next.

Starting next week, we'll be charging for a full design and pricing workup for potential builds. The fee of $250 USD will cover our time to concept and estimate your Classified Moto build, and it will reserve your spot on the waiting list. New to the process is that you'll receive a large format exhibit-quality printout of your dream bike complete with build specs and handwritten notes. And, the $250 will be credited to your build, provided you initiate it by an agreed-upon date. Seems fair enough, right?

Obviously this doesn't apply to the build proposals already in the works. Look for the listing in our online store next week.

And please note that we still welcome all your general questions about potential builds, pricing, your own projects and the like. We don't charge for that stuff, so keep 'em coming.

— JR

PS: There is so much nutty stuff in the works at Classified Moto in the coming weeks. Stay tuned to see how we handle it...