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From the Desk of...

Army Veteran Creates Own
Version of Easy Rider

Precision Cycle Works

Owner: John Stoick, a service-disabled Army veteran

Where: 1342 Prospect Avenue, Caro, Michigan 48732

Phone: (989) 673-8555

Email: precision@centurytel.net

Web Site: pcwbikes.com

John Stoick

To say that John Stoick builds motorcycles is like saying Michelangelo paints ceilings.

In fact, Stoick creates rolling, thundering works of art — swooping, gleaming, powerful, custom-built motorcycles.

He started Precision Cycle Works in Caro, Michigan, in 1999.

"We were the first custom motorcycle manufacturer in Michigan," he said.

"By 2005, we were building six bikes a week."

To date, Stoick says, his company has created about 600 custom motorcycles. All are built by hand, from the ground up, using mostly American parts, for customers all over the country and around the world.

These machines are so unique that each is assigned its own Vehicle Identification Number from Precision Cycle Works.

"Our bikes are made for street use. They're designed for show, engineered to ride," Stoick said during a recent interview at his company, housed in a 12,000-square-foot building in an industrial park just west of downtown Caro.

The bikes are powered by Harley-Davidson or S&S engines, ranging in size from 96 to 145 cubic inches and from 100 to upwards of 160 horsepower.

Stoick, who has dealers in seven states, said most of his bikes sell in the $20,000 to $30,000 range.

Stoick grew up in Reese, a small rural farming community in Michigan's Thumb. He went on to earn an associate's degree from Delta College and then, in 1972, joined the Army.

After basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and advance training at Fort Carson, Colorado, he spent the remainder of his military career stateside, doing mostly clerical work.

"I had it pretty easy in the military," he said. "I worked hard and studied and made E-5."

Looking back, he said, "I'm pretty proud of what I did in the military."

"I believe everybody should spend a couple of years in the service. They might learn that the world doesn't owe them anything."

To help his fellow veterans, Stoick has just launched a new discount program for them.

Veterans will get up to $2,500 off of a new custom-built bike from Precision and receive discounts on other work.

Sales were booming until the recent economic downturn put the brakes on things. That prompted him to diversify. Not that multi-tasking was anything new to him.

Before starting his custom motorcycle business, Stoick owned and operated Precision Concepts, which makes fiberglass molds for use in automobiles, boats, swimming pools and commercial displays, including some of those at the North American International Auto Show at Cobo Center in downtown Detroit. Among his more notable creations are the fiberglass Santa Clauses that promote attractions in Frankenmuth.

More recently, he launched Precision Pawn & Brokerage, an outlet and Web site that offers everything from cars, boat motors and bikes to shotguns, paintball gear and old military sabers.

In addition, he is a licensed real estate agent, a pilot and a farmer — a modern-day Renaissance man. No doubt, Michelangelo would approve.

Carl Stoddard
Maj. MIARNG (Ret.)

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