Our Story

The spirit of BarCraft is about freedom of self-expression, giving your bike a personality as you envision it, and finding that perfectly tailored fit for your ride.

Beginning in 2017, BarCraft was born out of a passion for bikes and a desire to live life differently.

Riding my old chopped Triumph to university, I found that the handlebars would give me sore shoulders after every ride, and I just couldn’t find the right bars for my setup. Every set of Ape Hangers I found was either too tall or too short, or the grip angles just felt all wrong. And to try and get something custom made? Good luck!

With a Mechanical Engineering degree behind me, I thought to myself: “Well if I can build the rest of this bike, surely I can make the handlebars too.” And so the journey began.

 

Growing up with a hot-rodder Dad in East Gippsland, Victoria, cars were destined to be my first passion. At 15 I got the chance to buy my first car: a 1966 XP Falcon. Together with my old man we spent the next few years rebuilding and customising the whole car.

By the time I was 18 I realised that I had the mind to do quite well at engineering. My high school girlfriend, Tahlia, and I had been accepted to the same university, so off we went together.

Moving to Melbourne for study posed a few challenges. I no longer had a garage for my car, so I got creative, converting my tiny dorm bedroom into a workshop and turning my attention to vintage motorcycles. I quickly uncovered a deep passion for bikes.

By the time my 3rd year studying had come around, I knew deep down that I didn’t want to resign myself to corporate life. To prove the point to myself, I undertook a prestigious 12-month placement with a world-renowned marine engineering consultancy, (knowing full well I would hate it) and guess what, I hated it!

I knew I wanted to strike out in my own direction in this one life we have, and this was the final push to do so. My passion for bikes had moved from café racers to radical 70’s choppers, as these embodied my heartfelt belief in self-expression, individuality & freedom. I had to find a way for my career to follow the same path.

Heading back to my final year of study, I started to draft up an idea for a company making custom motorcycle parts, and decided to make my own handlebars as a test concept. Tahlia was 100% on-board, and was part of the company from day one.

My Mechanical Engineering degree gave us plenty of expertise in designing our own tooling, which we continued to test and refine over the next few years. Many of the tools in our workshop today were hand-made by me in those early years.

Over time the business started to grow, slowly at first, as I was constantly listening to customer feedback, perfecting and refining our handlebar designs. Our customer satisfaction was exceptional, and eventually this snow-balled and gave the business legs of its own.

Today Tahlia and I are happily engaged, and have moved back to East Gippsland, where we do all of our manufacturing either in-house or with local businesses.

It feels great to see people getting more enjoyment from their rides, solving hard-to-cure pain problems and making their bike look bad-ass along the way. Motorcycles are not only a means of freedom and fun, they're also an expression of ourselves and our tastes.

Have fun out there.
Will – BarCraft