Anthony Rickley, Colton Fisher Create Custom Island Bikes
By Leslie Rott

Colton Fisher (left) and Anthony Rickley with five of the seven bikes they have customized. Both boys are also wearing the Mackinac Island Custom Cycles T-shirt that Mr. Rickley designed.

What does it take to get an idea from paper to production?

That is the lesson Gregg Sutherland wanted to teach his nephew, Anthony Rickley, when the youngster came up with an idea for customizing bicycles. Mackinac Island Custom Cycles began as a Tshirt design, but it has evolved into what could be the future look of bicycles here.

Anthony Rickley wanted to paint and customize bikes so that he and his friends could ride them in the Lilac Festival Grand Parade. He also designed a shirt to wear in the parade, which he sent to an artist for rendering and screen printing.

The seventh grader has been drawing cool bicycles since the age of seven, and concentrates on creating bicycles without motors to look like motorcycles. Along for the ride since the beginning has been fifth grader Colton Fisher.

The two boys have created seven bikes so far, which they have named Red Bull, Old School, Flame, Orange County, Widow, and Twisted. They created Red Bull for the 57th Annual Lilac Festival Grand Parade, which was sponsored by the energy drink company.

Creating a custom bicycle takes patience, noted Mr. Rickley.

"It takes tools and a lot of help," Mr. Fisher added.

Their efforts take about 30 hours over the course of a week, although with practice, they say they are getting faster.

Plans for future bikes include upside down bicycles with their parts mixed up, but still functional, and police and fire bicycles.

Mr. Rickley wants to make 12 bicycles so he can create a 12-month calendar.

For now, the bikes are being housed in a shed at the Rickley house, but when that is full, some may have to be sold. Mr. Sutherland said that there was a lot of interest from bike enthusiasts at the parade, so finding new homes for them shouldn't be difficult.

To promote their creations, the boys plan to send pictures of the bicycles to well-known customizer Jesse James, as several of the bicycles are emulated after his creations, to Low Rider Bicycle Magazine, and to Red Bull.

Mr. Sutherland said that the idea for the custom bicycles was formulated on a rainy day, while Anthony was drawing bicycle designs.

"He said, Uncle Gregg, my drawing is no good. I'm just a kid."

"Now he knows what it is to have an idea and see it all the

way through," Mr. Sutherland said. "Where it goes from there is another chapter."

Mr. Rickley now owns the rights to Mackinac Island Custom Cycles.

Mr. Sutherland married Islander Sara Bunker and the couple live in Orlando, Florida, where they build custom motorcycles as a hobby.

"We turned what if into the real deal," he said of Mackinac Island Custom Cycles.

Mr. Sutherland hopes that the boys and their friends will

participate in the parade at least one more year and that, maybe one day, Anthony will make a career out of building custom bicycles.

"He's Mackinac Island's next Jesse James," said. Mr. Sutherland of his nephew.

Participating in the parade this year, along with Mr. Rickley and Mr. Fisher were fourth grader Kyle Shunk, eighth grader Jesse Straight, seventh grader Austin Jaruzel, fourth grader Mackenzie Bean, and seventh grader Caleb Kolatski.