Alex G. Mardikian Biography

From the 80 chrome spokes in the front wheel of the mile-long Cruel World chopper to the old school lines that give tribute to the unexpected dimension of art and distinct colors that the Dutch Angel showcases on the pavement, everything about every bike in the Von Dutch Kustom Cycles line-up is a throwback to the era of the company’s namesake—the late, great Kenneth “Von Dutch” Howard, “counter culture icon”.

The Revolution of the Bobber Kulture

Under the pure retro look, though, thumps the hottest cycle technology on the road today: Patrick Racing billet V-twin coupled along with Primo Rivera Transmission and Drive train, encased in proprietary frame work by Diamond Chassis, hugging the road on Metzler tires compounding the stopping on a dime technology offered by Brembo’s braking system. Von Dutch Kustom Cycles builds 11 bikes in three styles—bobber, chopper, and pro-sport—and they all started in the unorthodox imagination of Alex Mardikian.

“I only know one way of building: It’s custom, and it’s high end. I only understand one way, and it’s the top. I do not compromise my quality for quantity,” says Mardikian.

As the Chief Operating Officer and Master Designer of Von Dutch Kustom Cycles, Alex Mardikian drew up, built, and finished the company’s first bike—a Dutch Angel pro-sport—in just three weeks.

In less than two years since the August 2003 rollout of that first Dutch Angel, Mardikian has had hundreds of ideas for additional models, narrowed those concepts down to 19 designs, and taken 10 of those to completion. The newest, the Flying Dutchman, a Softail bobber with a 113-cubic-inch engine, jockey shift, pancake gas tank, girder front end, and silver leaf livery, debuted in Las Vegas in April 2005.

“I’m very tuned in and every time I come out with a new bike, it’s exactly what I’m feeling,” he says, “And you haven’t seen anything yet!”

Alex Mardikian, 34, is a second-generation designer. His father and mentor, Albert Mardikian, holds 65 patents for a wide range of mechanical, power sport, and automotive applications. Internationally recognized, the elder Mardikian designed and built the hyper-exotic cars for the “Miami Vice,” earned a lifetime achievement award from Enzo Ferrari, and up-armored Lamborghini limousines for foreign government agencies.

He also bought the first Dutch Angel that Alex Mardikian built for Von Dutch Kustom Cycles. “To have a designer like my father order a bike that he’s going to use as a museum piece made me think I was on the right track. I’m creating artwork. I’m creating collectibles.”

Alex Mardikian owes his passion for motorcycles to the other side of his family. His mom, Joy, and father divorced when he was three. She moved to Arizona and married a biker who gave the boy his first taste of the Harley-Davidson life, hauling his two German shepherds and Alex around the Lake Havasu region in the coffin sidecar of his ’46 H-D Knucklehead.

After earning an associate degree in hydraulics from Mount San Antonio College, Alex Mardikian took a job as a service technician with a Fortune 500 company working on municipal water supply systems in Southern California. His entrepreneurial spirit led him from his one and only corporate job to the Laser Jet Performance, a jet-ski manufacturer, then to Sonic Boat Company, Patriot Motorcycle Corp., and Ultra Motorcycle Company Inc. before landing the contract to build Von Dutch Kustom bikes.

As a motorcycle designer, Alex Mardikian says, he draws inspiration from such legends as Arlen Ness, Donnie Smith, Zero Engineering’s back alley roots, as well as the granddaddies of Kustom Kulture—Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, Robert Williams and, of course, the man who started it all, Von Dutch.

“It’s all about the Kulture artistry, and I like to think I’m a principal of Kulture, not a master. The masters are those who started it but didn’t get credit—Von Dutch and Ed Roth, guys like that. As principal, I’m a promoter, not an exploiter. Von Dutch Kustom Cycles took a trend, turned it into a lifestyle, and said: This is what it’s about. See it. Hear it. Know it.”

Alex Mardikian
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