July 6, 2006
Bill Rucker: A True Performer
A Few Minutes with America’s Premier Bike Builder
What’s Shakin
Thursday, July 6, 2006 – If you’ve ever spent any time in Hollywood Choppers, two names should be instantly recognizable – American IronHorse and Rucker Performance. Each is a prestigious example of an American motorcycle company, and each is a creation of Bill Rucker, an entrepreneur in the bike-building and hot-rod business for more than 30 years. Besides being a successful guy, Rucker is interesting and kind enough to chat with us by phone from his Fort Worth, Texas headquarters. If you’d like to see his handiwork, visit www.ruckerperformance.com or better yet, see the bikes in all their chromed glory at Hollywood Choppers.
You were the founder and CEO of American IronHorse and moved on after eight years. What made you want to start over?
One of the reasons I started over and founded Rucker Performance was that I wanted to create a new company that would be a legcy for some of the special young people who worked with me at IronHorse and some of the special people with me now. I wanted to build a company that was first class in its people, in its products, in its customer service – in everything we do – so that within five years I have a top-notch company to hand down to the next generation. I’ve already done my thing, if you know what I mean. For me, now it’s really a challenge to train the second generation...
So why couldn’t you accomplish this at IronHorse?
The company was structured around a much larger corporate structure and we didn’t have the freedom to do whatever we wanted to do. We wanted to be creative and do the very best product we could build. And that’s not really what IronHorse’s business model is. It’s more of a production company. We’re more of a custom company. We’re a one-off bike builder but were using some of the same techniques that I developed at American Ironhorse.
Speaking of the “one-off” bikes, I was looking at the Meridian Marvel and the Blue Hawaiian and wondering: How many hours go into a bike like that?
Probably 800 to 1,000 hours total man time, everything from design to fabrication, to paint and body to assembly – it can easily be a thousand hours.
Is it ever hard to part with one?
It is if it’s going to somebody who doesn’t appreciate what they are getting. But when it goes to somebody who is “wowed” and we’ve exceeded their expectations, then it’s really easy because when you see the delight in their face when they receive the bike, it’s worth everything we do. We’re making people’s dreams come true.
Obviously, this is one of your passions. Does it go back a long way?
Absolutely. My passion for automobiles and bikes goes back to when I was a teen. As a teenager, the only mode of transportation was a motorcycle. One of my first bikes was a Yamaha 175 that I spent a lot more time working on than I did riding.
As a tremendously successful entrepreneur do you have any words of wisdom for others looking to be their own boss and be successful?
We have a lot of young people here who are budding entrepreneurs and what I try to do is talk to them about how important the people are that you work with. And that the business revolves around the people...If I can really share anything with any group of entrepreneurs it’s this: They’re only as good as the passion, the skills, and the dedication of their least-enthused employee. You really have to work hard to make your people be a part of your dream. If you can do that, you can multiply your efforts and you can be successful.
August 8, 2006 11:15 AM | send page | Press Releases