Page 83 - FAST 2024 Calendar Yearbook

The front window at Thunder Road with two new springer customs that just might find their way into the next 2025 Iron & Lace Calendar.
you look for something custom, you usually end up here."
In terms of Thunder Road's future, West Hollywood may not be part of it.
"The city won't let me," he says, sharing an idea he's had about expanding into a "combination" retail-service-parts type business with a mechanic he knows who is "from my same home town, Hamburg."
"The city's master plan, as I understand," Hushahn says, before jumping back into the past: "I asked them, 'What is your master plan?' They said, 'we want to get rid of anything automotive...and have the area all boutique.' Get rid of all auto- motive businesses... get rid of the gas stations... get rid of the auto body shops. The only reason I'm still here is that I do own this place. I'd probably like to move to La Brea or Fairfax, areas that are relatively close by, then I'd be away from the City of West Hollywood so I can do more."
This creative, motorbike-obsessed entrepreneur strikes me as ultra-relaxed about his fate. "Unless you want to go to a basic new bike dealership," he ex- plains, "and a lot of people do because they have financing... and good deals." But people who want something more special, well, they come to him.
Perhaps his sanguine outlook is due to the advice of his father. "My dad told me to do a second floor," says Hushahn. In other words, when he moved to his
current location, his dad showed him how he could earn rental income with a loft apartment upstairs, and additional space for the restaurant next door. "This shop is not costing me anything as far as overhead."
It won't surprise you, but at one point one of his rental tenants upstairs was yet another well-known musician. "Marilyn Manson was upstairs," Hushahn tells me. "We did a music video with him," explaining how film and TV production rentals have been a significant portion of his business (films like "Jumanji" and "Ghost Rider"). Hushahn thought working with Manson "was kind of unique."
Hushahn has a photo of himself standing next to Marilyn Manson, who is in full make-up. I see what he means. Definitely unique. Just like Thunder Road, the only custom motorcycle shop left in Los Angeles.
Thunder Road Custom Motorcycles
7253 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90046 (3 blocks west of La Brea ) • Phone 1-323-876-1695
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