Mind over motor - Summer 2007 Wartburg Magazine - Wartburg College

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Mind over Motor by Karris Golden '98

As a perennial Wartburg dean’s list fixture and successful eBay entrepreneur, Zach Parham ’07 of Anamosa, Iowa, has bright career prospects.

While attending Wartburg, Zach completed a job shadowing experience in Asia and honed his business skills. This fall, he plans to take the Certified Public Accountant exam.

But despite his bright outlook, accounting is a “fallback plan,” because within Zach beats the heart of a gear-head businessman.

Upon graduation, Zach went to work full-time at J&P Cycles, a company founded by his father in 1979. As a nod toward his intended career, Zach built a motorcycle that he dubbed “Chaos.” The project bike signifies his intention to commit himself to serious work doing something he loves. “If I’m going to be in the motorcycle industry, it’s important that I learn what it takes to actually build a motorcycle,” Zach explains.

With the proliferation of popular television shows on motorcycle building, such as Discovery Channel’s American Chopper, some may have the impression that anyone with a set of plans and a few tools can build a bike. “Those TV shows make it look easy,” Zach says. “What they don’t show is that if a part doesn’t fit, you have to change it, weld it or fix it some other way. Things don’t just work perfectly, and you can’t make them.” Chaos is based on Zach’s design. His objective was to build a bike primarily using parts and materials that can be purchased from the J&P Cycles catalog.

Full shot He began the project during his sophomore year at Wartburg. “I had Tuesdays off during that Winter Term, so I’d drive home and work on it. We only worked on it while I was there, so it took awhile.”

Over the next six months, he and professional motorcycle technician Kody Wisner of J&P Cycles worked on the bike. As it took shape, an interesting problem arose: Zach’s intricate design meant that even he had to wait for parts.

“Chaos is painted down the front side of the frame,” Zach explains. “ ‘Chaos’ is how I built it; it was a chaotic time.”

Despite the frenzied pace at which Zach juggled school, his eBay business, the building project and other activities, he had a firm foundation.

To many, it seemed a given that the son of motorcycle magnates John and Jill Parham would build a motorcycle.

Likewise, moving full-time into the family business is natural. However, Zach says his dad left career decisions up to him. Wartburg provided a “good foundation in general business practices,” Zach says, and he now plans to define his role at J&P Cycles.

“I’m open to finding my niche,” he says. “We have opened a retail store in Daytona (Fla.), and I’d like to work on that. I like motorcycles a lot; it seems like more fun than work.”

Zach believes his May Term in Hong Kong solidified his feelings about working at J&P Cycles. There, he shadowed Tom Ellsworth, who works in product development for Küryakyn, an international company that produces custom parts and accessories for Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

Zach on bike “I followed him to learn about what he does,” Zach says. “We visited 33 parts manufacturers. It was good for me, because I got to see how the different things (J&P Cycles) sells are made. That’s helpful, because then when you’re helping a customer, you understand how a part fits, how it was made, how it was chromed—everything.”

During the visit, the pair also traveled to Taiwan and other parts of the Republic of China. Zach’s post-graduation plans include a return visit to East Asia.

The experience also helped Zach understand J&P Cycles’ modest beginnings. When his dad started the company in 1979, it was a distributor of Harley-Davidson parts and operated primarily out of a dirt-floor garage.

In the ensuing years, John Parham built J&P Cycles into a multimillion-dollar business. It is the world’s largest retailer of aftermarket parts and accessories for Harley-Davidson and Metric Cruiser motorcycles. John is now considered a motorcycling legend and was inducted into the Sturgis (S.D.) Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2006. The Parhams are also widely known advocates who promote the motorcycling industry across the globe. Blessed with this motorcycling legacy, Zach started out on dirt bikes at a young age. He graduated to street bikes at 16 after taking a Motorcycle Safety Foundation course. Today, he also owns a 2007 Harley-Davidson Street Glide.

At the end of July, Zach and his father regularly ride their motorcycles to Sturgis, S.D., for the annual motorcycle rally. Each year, father and son leave from a different destination—Orange County, Calif., Las Vegas, Seattle—and plan to depart from the Carolinas this year.

But Zach won’t make the 1,000-plus mile journey on Chaos, which is primarily a show bike and has already been featured in motorcycling magazines.

Like many high-end “show motorcycles” being built today, Chaos is great to look at but requires skills to ride. After all, the bike is 10 feet long and its front end is raked at a 49-degree angle.

“It’s not too hard to ride, as long as you’re going straight,” Zach says.

The handmade seat does offer some comfort, with adjustable air compression that raises and lowers the seat.

To increase the bike’s power, Zach took a 92-inch S&S motor and upgraded the cam and other parts.

In the looks department, Zach went to well-known painter Scott Takes of Underground Art Studios in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, who has done famous custom paint jobs for motorcycling elite.

For Chaos, Zach let Takes interpret his vision of the theme for the paint job. The result is a tribal flame design in silver, black and red.

In all, Zach estimates Chaos’ worth in the neighborhood of $50,000. “If this wasn’t my first bike—if I had a big name—it would sell for about $70,000.”

But Zach wouldn’t sell the first motorcycle he built, right? “I think I will sell it, to build another one,” he says, smiling. “I’ll build another one I can ride more often.”