ESU brothers open family bike shop

Kellen Jenkins / The Bulletin

Chance and Charles McNeese, owners of McNeese Customs, sit among customers, motorcycles and their custom creations in their shop at 11 West 8th Avenue in downtown Emporia. The McNeese brothers ran the business out of their home garage for three years until 2006 when they opened up shop at their current location.

If, while walking down Commercial Street on a sunny afternoon, you notice the glint of chrome and the unmistakable sound of a motorcycle firing up, do not be surprised if you look up and see McNeese Customs. The shop is owned by two brothers, one current ESU student, Chance McNeese, and one alumnus, Charles McNeese.

“It was a pastime, a hobby we did out of our garage,” said Chance McNeese, sophomore crime and delinquency major.

At McNeese Customs, it is truly a family owned and operated business. The McNeese brothers’ father comes in to help them with welding and such after he gets off of work at his full-time job. Their mother helps clean up and organize.

Shining trophies adorn the walls around the shop. There are approximately 25 trophies; among them are several Best in Show and Audience’s Choice trophies.

“I wanted a chopper and I went in to a place and looked at the price tags on some choppers,” Charles said. “Big Dog, and the stuff like that, and they were around $30,000, I think, and there’s no way I can afford that. So the only way I could do it was to sell my Harley and build one for myself. So that’s where it started out.”

The brothers have been able to use the money from their shop to help pay for college.

“I built one, sold it, cut the profit off of it and I paid for my schooling up at Emporia State,” Charles said.

Charles graduated at ESU with a degree in business management, which he says has helped him a lot throughout the years.

“It was nice because I knew what I wanted to do when I got done with Emporia State,” Charles said. “I was in the higher up business classes, where you needed make your own business plan. It was nice because I made a business plan up for this and I used this as an example in all of my classes, which was nice because I’d have the teachers help me get everything kind of organized and help me out with that.”

One challenge that has affected Chance is finding a balance between his small business and homework.

“In the beginning, it was tough,” Chance said. “I wanted to put the shop first, then I realized that school is more important. But I go down there in all of my free time.”

When the brothers first opened the shop, Charles struggled with different obstacles.

“(The most difficult part was) all the paperwork, getting your L.L.C. acquired for your corporation, all of your sales tax forms to come up with, shopping around for insurance, for general liability, then your garage keeper’s insurance… just the initial boom of everything at one time,” Charles said.

Directly out of college, Charles had the option to work with a prestigious bike builder, Jerry Covington out of Oklahoma. Although he chose to open his own shop instead, he was inspired by Covington’s bikes and their talks together.

If the brothers could have their own dream bikes, Chance’s would be in the style of what he refers to as, “old school,” with a pan head motor, springer front end and a hardtail, meaning the only suspension is in the front end. This is the style known as the “bobber.”

“My all-time favorite is Jesse James, but I built two bikes that I personally owned and I got all of my ideas from Billy Lane,” Chance said.

If Charles had his choice of an ultimate bike, he would pick the exact opposite. His would have a fat tire, it would be low and long, and have a big motor with plenty of horsepower. This style is known as a “digger.”

But motorcycles weren’t always the McNeese family’s primary passion.

“(Our) dad was always interested in street rods, hot rods and muscle cars and that’s kind of where everything started,” Charles said. “We would help him out and learning some of the stuff that goes on with the vehicle end of it and then we switched over to motorcycles and started customizing them.”

Apparently hot rods and muscle cars just are not enough for the McNeese family.

“We went to enough car shows that it kind of got boring, we wanted something new,” Chance said. “We all had Harleys at the time and we thought, why not build one?”

The brothers started building bikes in 2003, making only one or two a year for personal use and then selling them. They ran the shop out of their garage for many years, but in December 2006, according to the McNeese Customs Web site, McNeese Customs moved to its current location at 11 West 8th Ave. The prices of the bikes vary.

“We go anywhere from a basic bike that starts out at around $15,000 to $16,000 which is going to be a single color bike, not very many options as far as chrome goes, but it’s still going to be a fat tire chopper,” said Charles McNeese. “Then, of course, we have bikes that go up to about $35,000.”

But when the point of getting a custom motorcycle is to stand out, price is sometimes a secondary priority.

“(The price is) depending on what the customer wants, basically – how wild they want to go,” Charles said. “A lot of our high-end bikes are pretty much a one-off, we build the gas tanks, we build the handlebars, the exhaust, all that stuff is made from scratch.”

For more information, check out McNeese Customs on the web at www.mcneesecustoms.com.