Walking into Camtech Custom Baggers, a customer would be greeted with a lineup of unique motorcycles, all brightly painted with wild, custom graphics and front wheels measuring up to 32 inches in diameter.
Camtech has been open for seven years. It is located at 200 Miles Road in Summerville, its home of one year. Camtech was previously located off Central Avenue. Shane Phillips took over the business more than two years ago from Cameron Jurow.
Phillips is originally from Ohio. He said he was Jurow’s “right hand man” for four years before he took over. He had previously met Jurow at a bike show in Ohio and said Jurow liked his work.
Phillips said he has been in South Carolina for about seven or eight years now.
Camtech specializes in building custom baggers, fiberglass parts and billet parts. Jack Hyman, office manager, said the business is known for its custom paint jobs and airbrush work; that is what he credits most for the success of the business, adding that he defines their success by the sense that they “strive to always do our best and give great customer service.”
Hyman said the custom work is what Camtech is really known for. It is a service shop that specializes in Harley-Davidson motorcycles. They are called “big wheel baggers.” A big wheel is considered anything between 26 to 32 inches. Wheels alone can range from $2,500 to $8,500.
Hyman said he likes interacting with the customers and getting on a first-name basis with them. A low to the job, he said, is it gets stressful.
“You’ve got 30, 35 motorcycles in here and sometimes you just want to get aggravated but you can’t, you just always got to keep rolling with the punches just like anywhere else,” he said. “But I enjoy working here, it’s great…we’re all kind of like a family. Not too many lows, honestly.”
There’s a minimum of six to eight bike shows the business travels to during the year. Hyman said they last usually anywhere from five to 10 days long; they most recently ventured to Panama City, Florida.
The business has won a number of awards, according to its website. This year alone it has won second place for Radical Bagger at Full Throttle in Tampa; Best of Show at World of Wheels in Alabama; John Shope’s Pick at the Columbus Easy Rider Show; Paul Yaffe’s Pick at the Charlotte Easy Rider Show, among other listed honors.
Phillips said they are crew of about nine employees.
Hyman and Phillips said most of their customers actually come from out of state – Phillips said about 85 percent of their customers are from out of town.
“We are more well known for our custom paint, we have the best air brush artist in the country...we’re one of the pioneers,” he said. “When the big wheel custom baggers got started, we were one of the first custom shops to get it rolling.”
Phillips said it takes a lot of hard work and long work. People need to be willing to give up a lot of freedom, he said.
Hyman said he would tell someone starting a business that “hard work pays off and to never stop pushing to do your best because in the end you will succeed if you never give up.”
Something unique about Camtech – if the giant motorcycles are not enough – is that all the work is done in house, from making the fiberglass parts, to the air brush work and paint jobs, to cutting and raking the bike for a big wheel, to motor work, to assembly.
“It’s definitely not something anybody can do,” Hyman said, adding it took a while to find people with the right professions.
Camtech is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information the business can be reached at 843-552-0336 or info@camtech.com, or visit http://www.camtechcustom.com/.
