here’s a lot to be said for hard work and perseverance, but don’t count out luck, and being in the right place at the right time. For Steve Seidner, who at the time had a company called Car Custom, the right place was a SEMA show where he was showing off, among other products he made for hot rods, some new billet mirrors. The right time was when Drag Specialties’ Tom Motzko happened by and was drawn to the mirrors. “Those are pretty neat,” he said to Seidner. “If you made those for motorcycles we’d be interested in selling them.” A deal was struck, and the mirrors were joined by more and more motorcycle parts until what started as a sideline became a line of its own. That was the genesis of the company that now manufactures first-class parts for custom motorcycles and goes by the name of Pro-One.

A beautiful custom Softail Chopper from Pro-One.
    
      “Pro-One has been in business for about 10 years now,” says Joseph Lee, vice-president of the company. “It’s a family-run business. Steve Seidner is the owner, and Steve’s son Josh Seidner is the operations manager.” Lee adds that Pro-One’s family of motorcycle parts and accessories has grown, too, since that first set of mirrors. “We have 1300-1500 parts in our catalog. Our 2005 catalog will probably go up to about 1500 parts.”
     In fact, Pro-One got into the motorcycle market right off the bat, and in a very big way, expanding its fledgling product line to include frames, rocker box covers, primary covers, belt guards, forward controls, and lots more. “Originally we sold Daytec frames, too,” says Lee. “Now we make our own frames.” Many of those frames go into Pro-One Roller kits, a rolling chassis kit that has everything needed to build a complete bike except the drivetrain.
     Basically, if it’s made of aluminum, Pro-One sells it. And not just sells it, like some companies, but manufactures it in-house to the strictest quality-control standards. With all the aluminum products on the market you’d think just about anyone could crank them out. Well, anyone can, but to do it right takes a lot of extra work and attention to detail.
     Take billet parts as an example. You hear the word billet a lot these days, but what does it really mean? A billet is solid block of forged aluminum. The forging process, during which the metal is subjected to extreme heat and pressure, aligns the “grain” of the aluminum for greater strength than cast aluminum, which is heated and poured into a mold, but isn’t subjected to pressure. Casting can result in air bubbles in the metal that reduce its overall strength—not good when you’re making wheels or engine parts that are subjected to a lot of stress.
     All Pro-One aluminum parts begin life as billets of forged aluminum so you know you’re getting a part that’s tough. Pro-One uses only aircraft-grade 6061-T6 aluminum, and they use a lot of it—and send a lot of it back to the recycler in the form of chips. “ If you’re making a headlight you might start with a 10-pound block of solid aluminum and end up with two pounds of headlight when you’re finished,” says Lee. “We sell several hundred pounds of chips every week.”
     Those chips are generated by CNC machinery, overseen by skilled machinists who change the tools and insert and adjust the parts as they’re being worked on. “The reason we use CNC is that part number one and part number 500 are identical,” says Lee, “because there’s no human factor involved. How you look at something, how good your eyes are, how you read a caliper or a ruler will vary from how I do it.” Pro-One’s reputation for precision has earned it the confidence of several motorcycle manufacturers, who trust the company to build their billet accessories, and the racing division of a major car manufacturer, as well.
     While Pro-One started out with just three employees, it now boasts almost 80. The machine shop runs two eight-hour shifts a day, as does the polishing department. Polishing is critical to a perfect chrome finish, and is too critical to the appearance of Pro-One parts to be farmed out. “The quality of your chrome, the finish of your part, really depends on the quality of the polishing process,” says Lee. “We have eight guys on each shift who do nothing but polishing.”
     But polishing is only the foundation of good chroming—the chroming itself is done at a certified plater. A certified plater, Lee explains, is one who works to your individual specifications, bearing in mind your product’s specific use and appearance. Their work must also past salt-spray tests and other tests to ensure quality and durability. Finally Pro-One sends the plater’s work to an independent testing lab four times a year to make sure its high standards are being met.
     If it all seems like a lot of work—the forged billet, the chips, the CNC machines, the constant testing—it is. But it’s for a good cause. Because when you stock Pro-One parts, you can be sure you’re stocking quality parts. And when your customers buy Pro-One parts, they can be sure they’re getting their money’s worth. “It’s the old saying, you get what you pay for,” says Lee. “We tend to be on the upper end, but it saves you money in the long run.”
     It might have been luck that got Pro-One into the motorcycle aftermarket to begin with, but it’s hard work and perseverance that’s kept them among the top companies in the motorcycle aftermarket ever since.

A line of choppers awaits customization in the Pro-One warehouse.

Pro-One’s machine shop runs two eight-hour shifts daily, as does the polishing department.

Welding on a frame

Pro-One has an eight-man polishing department that makes sure every part looks first rate.

A slick-looking Pro-One chopper, built using the Pro Street Rigid frame.

hen you have more than a thousand parts in your catalog, it’s hard to single out any one as your best seller. But Pro-One VP Joseph Lee says a few are especially hot right now. “There’s a tremendous market for kit bikes,” he says. “People want to build things and make them theirs. They don’t want another Harley-Davidson Heritage rolling down the road like everybody else.”
     For those riders there’s the Pro-One Roller, a complete bike minus the drivetrain. It comes with wheels, fenders, brake rotors and calipers, a front end, a gas tank, a seat pan, a handlebar, a headlight, forward controls—everything you need except an engine and transmission. “All the fabrication work is done here, including the heavy welding and fitting and alignment of the fenders, so that when the customer gets it they can focus on the creative end of it and on making it individually theirs. They don’t have to worry about spending a day aligning the rear fender.      That’s been done for them. It comes disassembled, packaged in one box. It carries one Drag Specialties part number. Just add engine, trans, and wiring.”
     For those who already have a running bike and just want to dress it up, Pro-One wheels are on a roll. “We manufacture a wheel called the Sinister 1 and the Sinister 2. They come with interchangeable decorative blades and we offer 10 styles of blades. The wheels come polished or black anodized or chrome, so you can get a black wheel with chrome blades or a chrome wheel with black blades. And since you can get them in polished you can have them painted or powdercoated to match the color scheme of your bike so you can be really creative.”
     Contact your Drag Specialties rep today to find out more about all the great products Pro-One has to offer.

The Sinister Rotor in chrome.

For customer’s wanting to add a custom touch, Pro-One’s Sinister wheels are a perfect choice. These wheels come in polished or black anodized or chrome, all with interchangeable decorative blades, and with 10 styles of blades offered, there’s sure to be something for everyone.