John Shope is the founder, owner, and operator of Dirty Bird Concepts (formerly Sinister Industries), a premier custom motorcycle building business that operates from Scottsdale, Arizona. What makes Shope special, however, is his knowledge and skill regarding the customization of baggers.
What's a bagger, you ask? A bagger is a motorcycle that has either been designed with or modified to have saddle bags. While bagger motorcycles have found a massive surge in popularity recently, Michael Crenshaw of Rides reminds us that "baggers weren't always popular… they were an old man bike." It used to be the case that if you were a motorcyclist with saddle bags on your ride, you suffered under a social stigma in motorcycle enthusiast circles.
There have been many reasons given for why this stigma disappeared, including such things as the comfort factor of the ride and the ability to store more things on your bike than what could fit in your pocket.
The other theory as to why the social stigma for riding a bagger has disappeared is that baggers have a lot more options for adding some very impressive custom mods than standard choppers. With a bagger, a customizer has unique opportunities and challenges because of the additional saddle bags. The designer or customizer of the bike has to take into account the saddlebags when building the customization, as motorcyclists tend to lean their bikes as they make turns, which can cause the bags to scrape against the ground. Shope has included a way to counteract this in the design of his 8" stretched bags by shaping the bottoms at an angle that prevents excessive contact with the ground during a steep turn.
For more than 20 years, John Shope has been a top-tier customizer of chopper motorcycles, and he brings his extensive experience and passion for customizing motorcycles to each and every rig he works on. Shope's work is routinely featured in magazines such as American Bagger, Quick Throttle, Hot Bike, Easy Riders, and Motorcycle Bagger. John's custom bike build concepts cover an expansive range of options, from the blue-flame stylized "Ryan" to the fire-spitting "Brent's Sickness" and the "Radio Flyer" which has a design inspired by the classic red children's toy.
Although American Bagger's Dave Withrow describes John as his "favorite Arizona bad boy" in their October 2010 issue featuring a custom bagger Shope built which was named "The Thief," John is good with kids, as his picture on the Dirty Bird Concepts about us page demonstrates. Friends of Mr. Shope would call him "quite a character: a good, funny dude that I would hang out with anytime."
A true artist, John mentally visualizes his projects before beginning work, and then he executes his vision flawlessly. His artistic vision and ability to execute it has led Shope to become one of the most renowned custom cycle crafters in the U.S.A., and he has more than earned the recognition.
Shope's business also extends to the manufacture of custom parts so that you can have your own custom bike mods, but with the satisfaction of installing them yourself. A patriotic businessman, Shope proudly proclaims that his parts are all "Made in the USA!"
Over the years, as Shope has accumulated countless appearances in news and trade magazine articles for his brilliant, creative, and flawlessly executed motorcycle mods, he has preserved and displayed his achievements with a collection of In The News article and magazine plaques. Now, thanks to his collection of plaques, Shope can share his love of customizing cruisers and baggers with the world for years to come, and his customers can see the long, storied record of excellence behind this talented artist and businessman.
Shope's custom plaques are a perfect fit for his custom bikes. Each plaque details and celebrates one of Shope's many custom jobs or victories at a show. By placing these plaques in his shop, Shope has created a memorial for customers, co-workers, and himself to enjoy and reminisce about his favorite creations and achievements.
New customers can look at these plaques, and see just how many creative custom cycle concepts Shope has built in the past, and just how attention-worthy a Dirty Bird Concepts bike will be on the road. Having an entire wall's worth of product demonstrations showcasing your work in different magazines can do a lot to help establish authority and trustworthiness in the eyes of a new customer who may be shopping for a custom bagger for the very first time.
An In The News plaque helps to establish credibility by showing your proudest moments as reported by your publication of choice. Even better, each plaque is designed to last for years, preserving your article for decades so that you, your customers, friends, and family can all continue to take enjoy the story of your accomplishments for decades after the original story has been taken out of circulation.
Each In The News plaque is professionally arranged and engraved to create interest in your story and generate positive buzz and excitement. This way, every plaque becomes an opportunity to engage customers in conversation and build a relationship with them. Remember the old sales nugget of wisdom, "people like to buy from people they know?" Every plaque is one more chance to let a customer get to know you, like you, and trust you.
Whether you want a classy, attractive display for your business' showroom or office for clients to be mesmerized by, or just want a trophy that you can hang on your wall at home, a wooden magazine article plaque is the perfect way to preserve your achievements. Creating your own wood plaque is easy, in fact, you can try out our custom plaque creation process here.
If you would like to talk to Hal Ramsey, a senior account executive who has helped John Shope with numerous plaque purchases, please email halramsey@inthenewsonline.com, or call us at 1-800-548-3993 Ext. 3078.
