25/09/2026
Today I want to brag a little. ❤️
I made a purchase that, five years ago, would have been completely unimaginable to me.
More than 40 cylinders and over 20 fuel tanks.
Not as a random stockpile of parts “just in case I might need them one day,” but as a conscious investment in materials I know I will use. I know you want these urns. I know how many ideas I already have for future projects. And most importantly, I finally know where I want to take Last Ride next.
Looking at this whole pile of parts today made me think about how it all actually started.
It was January 2021.
I had a few ideas, probably around six cylinders, and two tank halves.
One of those halves came from a motorcycle project I had bought earlier. When I looked through the fuel filler opening, you could practically see daylight through the holes underneath. 😄 Someone had welded it so “beautifully” that restoring it for use on a motorcycle simply made no sense at all.
And I remember thinking:
If it can never go back on a motorcycle… maybe it can have a completely different life.
That tank became one of my very first urns.
Then I bought as many small cylinders as my budget allowed at the time.
There was no big inventory.
There was no certainty that anyone would even want something like this.
I didn’t know whether I would still be doing it a year later.
There was simply an idea, a few parts sitting on a shelf, and a huge desire to find out whether I could turn them into something truly special.
A little over five years have passed.
And today I can buy more than 40 cylinders and over 20 complete fuel tanks in one go — which, once they are split, means more than 40 additional tank halves that may one day become memorials.
And the best part is that this isn’t even my whole arsenal. 😄
I probably already have around a hundred different tank halves waiting on the shelves, along with another few dozen cylinders.
And moments like this are when you suddenly notice the progress.
Because when you live it day by day, it is incredibly easy not to see it.
You finish one order.
You start another.
You search for parts.
Answer emails.
Design.
Sand.
Paint.
Pack.
Ship.
And most of the time, all you can think about is what still needs to be done.
It is only when you look back over several years that you really see the difference between:
“I’ll buy a few cylinders because that’s all I can afford right now, and we’ll see if this idea even works…”
and:
“I’ll take the whole lot. I know I’m going to use it.”
And I think that is what makes me happiest today.
During the first years, I had absolutely no certainty that Last Ride would ever become such a major part of my work. It still isn’t the only thing I do — there are motorcycles, custom projects and a few other things — but today it looks completely different from how it did back then.
Over the years, a few people have written to me saying:
“I had a similar idea once, but I couldn’t get it off the ground.”
And I completely understand that, because the beginning was genuinely difficult.
I had to show people something they had barely seen before. I had to earn the trust of families living thousands of miles away. I had to prove that an old cylinder or a used fuel tank could become something much more meaningful than just a piece of metal.
I think I found a niche that practically didn’t exist.
And since I’ve been given the chance to grow it, I’m going to do everything I can to become the best at it that I possibly can.
I still have so many ideas.
I want to do more.
Better.
More precisely.
More efficiently.
More boldly.
And I definitely don’t intend to waste this opportunity.
So yes, today might look like one enormous pile of used Harley-Davidson parts. 😄
But to me, it looks like the next chapter of Last Ride.
And damn, it feels good sometimes to stop for a moment and realize just how far the road has already taken you. ❤️
The Ride Never Ends.
