BEHIND THE BRAND
Founder/Bike builder - Jay D. Patel
My childhood dream was to become an automobile designer, actually. Was very passionate about cars but not so found of Motorcycles, But I think it’s all started with the vision in mind to create good designs and shapes, and that is the reason I can’t just make motorcycles creative, but anything & everything comes to me.
It’s begun with the sketching hobby, there were all car sketches on my each school book or anywhere. During those days (I think around 2010) discovery channel started telecasting OCC bike building show in India, which raised my interest into motorcycles but especially into the bike building process. It was so fascinating for me that I started sketching choppers and visualizing the whole build process like the OCC did in the show, instead of reading for exams!
After finishing my 12th grade I really wanted to pursue Transportation designing or Automobile engineering but unfortunately due to low merit I did not got admission in any of the field & had to choose IT engineering as a last option, also my father was very strict about paying any donations.
Collage was going good in the beginning, but after first semester, I started realizing that it’s all about getting marks & certificates, Nothing practical or creative! Which leads me to start a conversation with my parents about leaving the studies and do something on my own which can fuel my dreams. But as you know in India if you tell your parents or anyone that you don’t want to study further, they will treat you like a terrorist! So that phase took 2 years of discussions and consulting psychiatrist etc.
By the end of 4th semester I understood that I need to try something hard to convince my parents. On that time, photography was also my hobby and I was also leaning towards cinematography. Which leads me to the idea of making a short film to convince my parents.
Here is the link of that Short film -
After watching this short film, my dad somehow understood that I am not going to give up easily & he allows me to do whatever I wanted to.
And that’s how my story started. Basically, my father owns an engineering workshop where I started learning fabrication and other technical skills. After working for 4 month I started restoring my dad’s 1984 Land Rover Defender. I think that was one of the greatest experience of my lifetime! Which taught me many lessons. After completing some work of the car I built my first custom motorcycle from scratch and that is how J&D Custom Co. started taking shape......
