HOT BIKE: Describe yourself in three words.
BOBBY SEEGER: Real white man.

HB: Haha, nice.
BS: It’s the truth.

HB: All right. Talk about how you ended up in the motorcycle industry.
BS: I got into the motorcycle industry through Indian Larry. He and I had a very good friendship. He wanted me to stop breaking his balls about stuff. The only way that could happen is if we, in his eyes, became partners. That’s what got it going. I didn’t care to. He was brow beating me every fucking day, man. “What’s up? We’re going to be partners. It’s going to be great.” And me telling him, “No, it’s not. It’s going to suck. It’s queer. Just shit.” A lot of good shit talk, I’d say. And that’s how I got into it. All I ever would tell him was, “I don’t understand why you’re not making some money over here. How come you’re not making some money over there? Why are you letting this guy tell you this?” It was because he didn’t own Gasoline Alley. People thought he did, but he didn’t.

HB: Wait, I’m going to back up a little bit. You were going somewhere… you were working with the city… And then how the fuck did you and Larry even get to know each other? Talk about the very beginning and how you guys even met, and that relationship, and how you guys ended up becoming partners.
BS: Larry used to give hand jobs. At this point, I was working for the city of New York, and I had a good thing going.

HB: Doing what?
BS: Working for the MTA, the transit. They have one department that’s an emergency department, working on water pumps and ventilation fans. I just happened to get in on that. That was good. I was in a maintenance gang, and it was fantastic. It’s not like that anymore. I had 17 glorious years. But anyway, then I got in with Larry. It was fun because I had a lot of good times laughing and joking with him.

HB: How did you get in with Larry? How did you guys meet?
BS: Really from just riding around in the city. Just hanging out. I had a full dresser. I was the only one at 25 years old with a full dresser around ‘95, ‘96, ‘97. I ended up getting rid of that bike around 2002-2003. I’d been sober for a number of years at the time. Larry was dabbling in and out of sobriety. We had a few mutual friends who worked at a shop called American Dream Machine in Soho. Larry would also do motor work at his apartment, which was called Under the Stairs. That was decent for him. Then Jesse James asked him to do Motorcycle Mania. There was a lot of excitement. It was good. Then he got Monster Garage, and that’s when they were talking about doing Biker Build-Off from there. Monster Garage was like a transformer. So that excited Larry.

HB: Got it. So you guys just became friends through riding and…
BS: Yeah, early on, it was a lot of mutual friends. I knew him through Iron Horse or knew of him. I couldn’t be bothered with Psycho Cycles and all the antics, so I never went around that. But I would see him in this lady’s tattoo shop that started tattooing me. I started getting tattooed the end of ‘93 into ‘94. He would be in there because he hung out with her all the time. This lady, Andrea, showed up on the place called East Side, Inc. Her boyfriend at the time was this guy Frank, and Frank was Larry’s roommate. Then Kenny, who ran the shop in Soho, he needed a place to live, so he became Frank and Larry’s roommate. I hung out with Kenny just about every day. It was a little circus in Larry’s house. Then it was just breakfast and lunches and dinners, just hanging out. We didn’t really talk much about motorcycles. We’d talk about legit massage parlors, what’s a good place for coffee, and life stuff, how to get through certain life stuff. That’s really the basics on it. Then Elisa, my wife at the time, she was a buyer. She has her head on pretty good. I said, “Hey, Larry keeps asking about being a partner. What do you think? Maybe we go into the garment industry and do some parts and stuff like that, see where it goes. I think it’s something pretty good. I can’t fucking take him asking me anymore. Let’s see what’s up.” She was like, “Absolutely.”

HB: Nice. You’re like, how do I get this guy off my back?
BS: Yeah, it was great because every day I would just show up for a couple of coffees, or I’d meet up with him and have breakfast. The last thing I wanted to do was be in business. Again, I worked for the city, and we had a four-family house. That was a big gamble at the time. Then it was like, “Oh, how do we put money into a thing that we’re going to help make when all these other things were up and down with Larry?” You know what I mean? Then having people that knew Larry for five, 10 years earlier saying, “Don’t do it. All these other guys that invested, all that shit just never worked,” and blah, blah, blah. I was just like, “No, man, we’ll go at with this. I got no desire to screw him or anybody else. I’m not into that. That got it moving. In the first week after we agreed on everything, the guy that had Gasoline Alley burnt himself out and burnt out his welcome. He left and we just went with Indian Larry, basically.

HB: So essentially with Larry, Gasoline Alley morphed into Indian Larry Motorcycle?
BS: Yeah. And it was really like, what took a change? The change being the guy that was in charge. Because the guy in charge, he really loved, say, Arlen Ness stuff. And as great as Arlen Ness was and the innovator made fantastic stuff. That’s not the style that Larry was making. You know what I mean? Then I was just like, “Look, I don’t give a fuck. I think you should just make the bikes you make, and we should have a good time. Let’s go around the world. You’re invited to all these places. Elisa will manage whatever you need…” And then to look back on it, I am still happy that I didn’t get involved with TV because I thought it was queer. And when Discovery would say something. Pretty much, they didn’t like me because my responses to them were never what they wanted. We’re not here to play games. They want to have a good time. In the long run, it was good. So it was like, did we want to be on TV even when he died? We didn’t want to be on TV. We were like, all these people are clowns that are getting on stage. They weren’t even in the shop every day. It’s like the one person that should have been up there was Paul or maybe Elisa because she fucking held hands with Larry, guiding him through a whole bunch of shit. But nobody else should have, but yet everybody else claimed to be… I learned a lot then, and I had refreshers as well. But I’ll say this, when we agreed on doing shit together, Larry and I, it was great. There was a good amount of excitement. I said, ‘Oh, motherfucker, we’re going to get your name in lights’ Bo went out and fucking had a neon sign made that said Indian Larry on it, 6 feet. I thought Larry was going to jerk off. It was exciting. It was goofy. And nobody else would ever really commit to doing stuff like that. “Why waste the money on that?” That’s what most would say.

HB: So you go into biz together in 2002, and then he passes in 2004. When did you decide, fuck, do we carry on or do we close the shop?
BS: Right out the gate. So right before he died, I was like, we’re going to have a block party. That’s something that you used to have in the street. Some blocks still have it, but not many. Because the turnover of people from who was here, say ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, they moved or they died. Their kids don’t want They want to be in New York. They want to be in Jersey or Florida or California. You know what I mean? I thought, No, this is 2004. I want to have a fucking block party. Block parties are great. Then boom. We’re having a block party. Nobody wanted to have a block party because it’s really an undertaking. I said, “It’s not going to be a problem. And it worked out. We cooked a pig in the street. A fucking guy came with a jet car from Jersey with the engine off of a plane. It melted the street. The fire department came and they loved it. It was fun. This was in June 2004 and then Larry died in August. The outpouring we received because he’d been on two Biker Build-Offs, the Jesse James stuff, and a variety of magazines at this point. We’re going to have a block party. We’re going to just throw a fucking party. It’s going to be awesome. That’s what we did. A crazy amount of people came from around the world, more mind-blowing than you could imagine because after he died in the Carolinas, we got home and pulled up to the shop, and all there were flowers, cards and notes outside against the wall. And people were portraying it that Larry died doing a stunt. When realistically, that wasn’t the case. He was dehydrated and he blacked out and he fell off the bike, going very, very slow. It was just one of those freak things and he hit his head. It was like that. Then the choice to go forward with Paul Cox was fantastic, but none of us really knew. Paul was not a real… Paul was one of those super talented guys. If he doesn’t know it, he’s going to read up on it and he’s going to fucking dominate it. He’s just going to do it. That’s been him the whole time I’ve ever known him, and he hasn’t slowed down. But then it’s to the point of there was no time to mourn. It was just like green light, go. We finished off the easy ride a tour, then we had to finish this, finish that. From motorcycle building, clothing, some parts. It was like, Okay, what is this? It’s Larry’s legacy. Great. We’ll call it Indian Larry legacy. Fantastic. That lasted a little bit. Then Paul wanted to go break off on his own, which was really good. Then it was like, “Wow, I wonder what it would have been like, have we all been under one umbrella?” Paul is one of those few people I actually love. I tell him all the time. I think he’s a fantastic guy. He’s a great father. He’s a great husband. He’s an all-around, somewhat quiet man, but he’s on the ball. But when we split up, I call it the divorce because he went one way and we went the other, all Elisa and I wanted thought was how do we keep Larry’s name up? The offers to do stuff with the Walmart and stuff like that, we didn’t want to do that. We didn’t want to do it when he was alive. We said no to stuff. We didn’t want to do it when he died because we didn’t think there was longevity. And it wasn’t a money thing because have we been looking to have a money grab, we would have went for the deals and just said, fuck it. But we didn’t do that because we thought, longevity. Fuck it. We can make it, man. Come on. Sometimes I wonder. I should have been hitting that head a little bit more. I’ve been hitting that head a lot. I should have been maybe a little more.

HB: Okay, I think I got it. Thanks for providing the history of the shop, etc. What would you say is your greatest accomplishment?
BS: Well, I’ll tell you that it’s sticking through everything. The fact that every storm that’s come my way, regardless of wanting to weather it or not, I’ve weathered it. And in a sense, I’ve prevailed. I’m above water. My glass has always been half-full. When I say to people, ‘Hey, you got kids? Yes. Where are your kids? I’d say, I had a boy, I had a girl. My boy got sick. He passed away. My daughter’s healthy and fucking just pumping along. They’re like, I don’t understand. How did he die? ‘Okay, this is how he died.’ But you’re not married anymore. I go, ‘No.’ What I’ve learned is when a when a child dies, usually a parent blows their brains out or they’re at least divorced. The relationships, there’s like a 2 percent chance that they’ll stay together. Me, I was a fan of staying together. I wasn’t interested in any other women. My wife wanted something different. She at least not to be married to me at the time. When I say to people, I go, You know what? It’s like my wife and I, in my eyes, we hit it off to where we had two Okay, great. She just happens to be that type that is the type A person. That type A person, had it not been for her and her personality and her drive, there wouldn’t have been any enactment to have a law of testing for this particular rare brain disease push forward, because many people tried, but they didn’t push. You know what I mean? The fact that we owned a relatively famous This motorcycle shop, that was surely a help, a stepping stone, if you will, with an outlet for around the world. You know what I mean? It’s like, Okay, Larry dies. Our son’s born. Larry dies not long after. A couple of years go by. Then if it wasn’t for being in the bike industry, I don’t think it would have gotten as much traction as it did. It can’t be that. Even before the bike industry, I knew somebody around the world, pretty much because I was always out, travel, run around, do stuff. The bike industry just fluffed up a little bit more for me. For me, I say, You know what? Just staying in the rowboat of life and at times just having to have a little Dixie cup to throw the water out because it’s filling. I don’t have the why me, but how did I learn to get through these things? It’s from other people’s experiences. It matters how you get through a particular thing? It’s just like, I’m not the famous guy. I’m not the guy that builds motorcycles. I’m not the guy that wanted this, but I’m the guy. Out of a whole group of fucking friends, everybody would have blown the next person if they could be the guy.

HB: What’s your favorite motorcycle of all time?
BS: The Grease Monkey. 100 percent. The Grease Monkey is badass. It’s the only bike I didn’t want to ride. I could have ridden it in ‘98. He was like, “Why don’t you just take it?” I was like, “I can’t afford to fix it.” And then even when he died, I’m like, I’m not riding the bike. That’s like the chalice. That bike’s badass.

HB: Who or what inspires you nowadays?
BS: I’m all about people, man. Regular people are the key. Don’t be a jerk off. That’s number one. It’s like my days are pretty much I must talk to my daughter who just turned 18 today. I talk to her 8-10 times a day on the phone every day. I could be in the mountains of Nepal. I could be in fucking Japan, Italy. It doesn’t matter. I’ll be cutting through Ohio. We talk.

HB: What would you say is your proudest moment?
BS: My proudest moment. I got to say, every day, man, it’s all about showing up. That’s where I’m proud. I’m happy, man. I show up. I may not always be the most level head in the room, but I’m one of those in the room. From the kids being born to the kids passing away, I’m there. And you show up, man. It’s one foot in front of the other. Sometimes it’s a motherfucker, but goddamn, man, I show up. So I don’t have those standards. Everybody’s got that cookie cutter of your regrets or your proudest or what’s your favorite color? Shit like that.

HB: Good. All right. Favorite place on Earth.
BS: Italy. 100 percent. I love it all. I mean, the Amalfi Coast is by far my favorite. I got married there. I’ve been there a lot. I’ve been fortunate to go to Italy over 30-some-odd times. I’ve been to every US state, but Alaska. I’ve been all over.

HB: Is there anything you’re working on that you think you want to just talk about?
BS: We got two bikes that we’re taking our time building because we don’t care enough right now about them because we build bikes at our pace. And if we feel like selling them down the road, we do. If not, we keep them. But really, the big thing is the amount of parts we’ve been doing. A lot of them are for the newer style Harleys. We’ve still done stuff for guys that are at home building choppers or building bikes, little bobbers or however they want to change their lingo. But really, the more dominant thing for us has been these bagger parts. I say bagger parts, you know what I mean? From all these M8s, the diners, bars, risers, trees. Again, we’re not interested in knocking anybody else doing it. Who’s in the business? Who’s fucking who? None of that is any of our business, really. We’re more interested in quality over quantity. That’s really where it’s at. And we don’t give a shit. If this guy sells more, this guy sells less. We care primarily about quality. And good things take time and all that. But listen, we cost more, we take longer.

HB: What do you see in this industry’s crystal ball?
BS: I see it’s pathetic, but it’s going to still go because, shit, getting around on a motorcycle is a lot more fun. But industry-wise, it’s primarily full of retards. I’m not exempt from that by any means. But my outlook on life is most certainly different than most. I prefer to be at the beach all day and go do whatever John and Gabby in the shop want me to do, be it load CNC machines or sweep the floor and clean the bathrooms. If that’s what it must be, I’m going to go do it. But otherwise, everybody wants to, like I said, farm out and push and not give credit where credit’s do. Listen, at the end of the day, the only reason that this Indian Larry name stays up is because of teamwork. It doesn’t matter. There’s no I in any of this shit. It’s all teamwork. If there’s people that have been in my little team that didn’t feel they were part of the team, and you know what? They’re not part of the team anymore. HB

PHOTOS: Michael Lichter