About Carlini Design

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Carlini has been designing custom motorcycles and accessories since 1969.

Mission statement

What is your approach to the design methodology?

"We read all of the publications and attend all the biker shows and build offs, we get a general sense of what style is currently, where it's been, and where we see it going - we try to discover the voids."

"We find where there are deficientcies in the marketplace, and try hard to come up with something innovative. We don't ever believe in coming with something just to jump in the market. We find what is deficient, come up with something innovative, we develop a design, make a working prototype, and bring it to market."

"Once our product is released to the market, we watch all the knock-off artist people go crazy seeing what we do."

"Everything is always original, we don't ever come up with anything that's been done before. Everything gets an application for a patent, and if it doens't receive a patent, we don't market it."

All Carlini parts are designed and manufactured in USA!

Style

About the Ape Hanger Handlebars: Gangster Ape and Fly'in Ape

Sleeving fat inch and a half traditional ape hangers - creating a big fat look with a big fat front end, so it looks like that's the way it should've rolled off the showroom floor stock. We have this saying, don't go steering with a coat hanger, because one inch bars come stock with a bar that has this huge inch & a half fork tubes and they put these skinny ass little handlebars that look chincy. So we saw a deficiency and we capitalized on it and created the inch & a half ape hanger...and after 10 years we thought it needed a facelift, so to give some new dimension, made some real expensive tooling, and put the bends in it that go forward for the gangster ape so it looks like a gangster bicycle...and flying ape hanger looks more like a streamlined ape hanger that got caught in a wind tunnel making it look aerodynamic, making it look a little faster, quicker style. Looks like your moving & flying.

History

How did we get started in 1969?
Carlini Sr. always loved motorcycles & cars. We're from Dearborn, Michigan (MI) which is Ford's headquarters. Always been involved in motorized vehicles...started with painting...opened his own shop in Garden City, MI...and he basically started there...next shop in Dearborn which became a full custom shop for motorcycles, he built a name for himself. Started out with Arlen Ness and worked at it hard...Arlen used to stay at Carlini's house...he had his own ideas about the overall paint in that particular way was his own unique thumbprint, style of constructing a cycle, items fabricated that were not in existence when parts companys didn't exist, for example the taillight is a '32 Ford, even the key is done by hand, all the way to the core, he caught butterflies on the tank to put underneath the laquer of the finish. What can you say? If it was in his head and it wasn't available didn't exist, he'd make it. Never say that something can't be done. Carlini focused on choppers & hot rods - mostly cycles. He love different things.

Our clientelle includes: Willy G Davidson, Eddie Van Halen, George Foreman, Hulk Hogan, his choice of friends were eclectic that shared his vision.