The New Crocker Motorcycle Company: Reviving an Icon

(Page 4 of 4)

November/December 2007
By Margie Siegal 
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Markus and Michael realize that getting a motorcycle production facility off the ground isn’t for the faint of heart. In the last decade, failed attempts were made to revive Excelsior-Henderson, Norton and Indian. The only successful revival has been Triumph, which took years to turn a profit.

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 “We plan to follow Triumph,” says Markus. “They avoided making a lot of mistakes, and we plan to use their good example. To this point, Michael and I financed the effort out of our own pockets. The first money is the hardest — you have to establish yourself. Once you establish yourself, money is easier to get. In Canada the government has an exceptional grant program and may guarantee loans.”

Markus and Michael plan to offer 100 bikes as kits, and say that their engines will soon be DOT certified. The rest of the bike can’t be DOT certified and remain even remotely true to the original, and the kit concept meets legal requirements. “The lighting and braking can’t come up to present-day standards and still be true to the original — it’s a reproduction of an old Crocker, after all,” Markus points out. And that, of course, is central to the appeal: It’s not supposed to be “new,” it’s supposed to trade on the mythical status of Crocker motorcycles. And if the new Crockers are even close to what Markus and Michael are promising, they just might succeed where other brand resurrections have failed. MC

 
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  • Mike 8/20/2008 10:36:33 PM

    Not an accurate article. Although Markus Karalash did contribute to the Crocker project by borrowing the two original Crocker's from collector Harry Buck, he did so by promising Harry a free restoration. That was back in 1998. Harry's bikes have not been restored to date. So goes the rest of the Crocker story in regards to Mark.
    Mark (his real name) has taken credit for the work of many people like Ole Kiprianoff and Brian McCabe, the two pattern makers who were responsible for all the Crocker patterns. The "triple tree" improvement Mark Karalash took credit for in the article was really a request by Michael Schacht to Ole Kiprianoff to create the casting as one piece unlike the original that had the lower boss attached by a sloppy weld. Being the excellent pattern maker Ole is, he did exactly that. Although Ole is now retired after 40 years of pattern making, he would be more then happy to talk about his time with Crocker and back up all these facts.
    Karalash's "world wide sales" was 20 unmachined tail light castings sold to a builder in Japan and Schacht was already part of Crocker at that time. It was Michael Schacht who worked with the foundries, pattern makers, engineers, metal spinners, fastener people, ect. All facts can easily be proven.
    Mark Karalash is in no way an engineer. All engineering was done by and Marko Goffman, the in house engineer at Crocker and Maziro Inc, a prototype engineering company in Toronto Canada who specializes in automotive . They are the same people who rented Crocker factory space due to Michael's friendship with the president of Maziro, Zenovi Mallots.
    Mark Karalash is no longer with Crocker Motorcycle. The company was bought out of bankruptsy by Michael Schacht after Karalash failed to invest his share of money based on his and Schachts shareholders agreement. Schacht is now in the process of moving Crocker back to it's original city, Los Angeles.

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