OLD CUSTOM HOUSE

Built on contradictions, Bombay Custom Works tells you not to do it — and then shows you exactly how it's done

- By Kartik Ware Photographs Kaizad Adil Darukhanawala

'Don't do it.' — that's the honest advice Shail Sheth has for aspiring custom-motorcycle builders. Which is a bit strange, considering he himself has been running an outfit called Bombay Custom Works for 13 years and counting. Another quasi-aphorism from Shail that easily contradicts the first — 'I've always said yes first, no matter what the job, and then figured out how to do it.' Which was a surprise the first time I heard it; the end results of whatever rolls out of his workshop made it seem that he always knew what he was doing. He is also the only health-conscious hypochondriac I know... but that has nothing to do with motorcycles, so we shall let that be.

Being terminally addicted to custom motorcycles, it came as no great surprise when I ended up orbiting around the gravitational attraction that BCW exerts. And my life has been all the richer for it. The fact that Shail is a friend has no bearing on my objectivity, I assure you (in fact, my friends would rather that I didn't write about them at all, since my observations have been from close quarters, in varying degrees of consciousness or the lack of it. You'll see what I mean shortly).

BCW's creative process usually begins with Shail holding his head in his hands, with a facial expression usually found in the most busy room of a maternity home. And its origin story's comic quality is matched only by its founder's knack for theatrics. After getting a bachelor's degree in automotive design from Coventry University, UK, Shail landed in the US to become part of the automotive design industry there; to this day, I cannot imagine him merging with Detroit's Motor City history. He'd stick out like a soft thumb, I'm sure. Not long after, he found himself in Delhi... designing mixer-grinders, door handles, fans, coolers, beer caddies, and so on — what happened to motorcycles?!