When I saw the pink motorcycle parked out front of the auction house, I thought Mary Kay. She was the entrepreneur who for a time gave a pink Caddy to folks who sold a gazillion of her beauty products to their poor “I can’t say no” female friends and relatives.
But I had never heard of Mary Kay gifting them with motorcycles, so I figured I’d check out the bike, which you couldn’t miss sitting there separate from the rows of metal and stone garden ornaments and benches in back of it.
Despite the powder-puff pink color, it was a sweet bike, one that even I could probably handle if I were into motorcycles like a friend who bought a more powerful one a couple years ago or like the men who drooled over a dozen or so at an auction soon after.
The color meant that this bike was obviously made for a woman (remember pink – girl, blue – boy), and it was dressed up with silver flames to match its gleaming silver parts. I walked around, my hands at my side, obeying a handwritten sign that warned “Do Not Touch.”
I finally found the manufacturer’s name just beneath the headlight: Johnny Pag.com. JUL/2007. There were also numbers beneath the headings GAWR, Tire, Rim, KPA (PSI) Cold – some of which meant nothing to me.
I was familiar with the names of Harley, Kawasaki, Honda and BMW as bikes, but not Johnny Pag.
I learned that Johnny Pag Motor Co. was founded in 2009, is based in Southern California and sells bikes through dealers all over the world. It specializes in motorcycles custom designed at its headquarters here and manufactured in China. That led to a hearty debate among commenters on a story about the company, with people on both sides defending and admonishing its decision to not produce the bikes in this country.
Pag himself joined in the debate, pointing out that the choppers are designed in the United States, and offering other reasons for why he has them assembled elsewhere.
Johnny Pag straddled his first Harley Davidson bike when he was 14 years old, according to the company website. In the mid-1990s, he stocked shelves, swept floors and did other grunge work in his father’s shop, where choppers were custom-made for celebrities and the like at top prices. He then apprenticed with his father in making these custom high-end bikes. His focus later turned to making choppers available not only for those with a lot of money but also those with a little, according to the website.
Although the pink motorcycle at auction looked dainty, Pag bikes are sturdy, according to the company, and can bear weight up to 300 pounds. They are street legal and highway worthy, with a max speed of 100 mph. They are full-sized bikes with fuel-injected engines from 125cc to 600cc, and can retail for up to $5,000.
The pink bike at auction was a Spyder 300 – a “ladies starter bike,” as one owner/seller described it – first released as 250cc in 2006. It was a big hit in several countries, and retailed for about $5,000. I wasn’t around when the bike sold at auction, but someone was selling one like it on eBay for $3,500.
A female commenter on one story told of buying a Spyder 300 on craigslist with 57 miles on it. “Because it’s pink and a chopper, when I pull up in a crowd, my bike gets more attention than all of the $30K Harleys that I ride with no matter how loud they make their pipes!” she wrote. “I regularly get asked if people can get their picture of either themselves, their girlfriend, or their baby girls on my bike.”
A writer on another forum talked of donating his Spyder to help raise money for the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation. That’s a nifty idea.
A writer for motorcycle.com listed the newest Johnny Pag choppers for 2013 among the best products at this year’s Indiana Motorcycle Dealers Expo in Indianapolis, alongside Beartek gloves, Akari visor insert, helmet locks, 6D helmets and three-wheelers.
The mention of three-wheelers caught my eye because my friend Valorie had recently spotted two in traffic waiting for the light to change. She liked the three-wheelers, she said, but wasn’t that keen about owning one.
At least they would be easier to keep upright on the road – even if they do look like over-sized tricycles.
