Tools Down With Jeremy Tagand

Jeremy Tagand lets his work do the talking. You might assume that's pure metaphor but anyone who's perused our Sydney Temple for more than ten minutes knows that's not the case.

Every day like clockwork a build in progress gets fired up for field testing and the office is treated to the babababraaap (technical term) of his current project(s).

However this time around we snuck in during a rare quiet moment and heard from the man himself.

You’ve been at Deus basically from the jump, what’s changed about custom motorcycles since then?

For starters the scene has changed so much, the amount of spare parts and new components that can be used now is enormous. The spirit of customisation remains the same but the trends and styles are changing constantly. When I started we were targeting some very specific donor bikes and styles strongly inspired from Japan. Now, I work on any models and any styles that a customer or I would want to work on. As the culture has grown so has the variety of styles people are looking for. On top of that, social media has opened up so many sources of inspiration and comparison.

What’s your current daily driver and how did it earn its place?

To be honest I've been spending probably too much time in the shop van because it's so handy for the school run. Not a very sexy answer but it's the truth!

As far as bikes go, I have the luxury to be able to pick from the handful of projects we have going at any given time, and somehow there's always something new on the shop floor to try out; That sort of eliminates the need to pick a single ride.

What was the first bike you owned, and the first one you built?

The first bike I ever jumped on was a KDX 250 Kawasaki when I was sixteen and I immediately turned it into a Super Motard.

My first real full Custom build was the Duo SR555 Yamaha, a one-off SR on steroids with a white frame and lots of polished Alloys.

I'd like to think I've come a long way since those days.

What’s something people don’t know about what you do?

It's funny because having a workshop that's somewhat open to the public, you hear all kinds of questions and comments every day; But the one thing that always throws people off is seeing five or six benches loaded with bikes and then realising It's just one guy working on them.

What’s the most useful tool in the workshop?

I don't think I can answer that, to be honest, there are so many tools and even so many variations of all those tools. I'll cheat a little and say my hands because I've recently had some pretty major repair work done on both of them and that made me appreciate how useful they are. After that though it's got to be the grinder or spanner set.

Dream project?

Ah that changes basically every day but at the moment the dream bike is an FTR1200 Indian. I'd love to do a build with that which was just for me.

Can you describe your style in three words?

Original, details, fun.

Best piece of advice for the budding enthusiasts out there?

One, going with the apparently cheaper option will always end up more expensive in the long run and and of course there's the classic measure twice cut once which everyone learns the hard way pretty quickly.