Xavier Muriel is the lead custom builder onboard High Seas Rally in 2023. Xavier is an award-winning custom builder and owner of Providence Cycle Worx. He has built another jaw-dropping, high-tech, tricked out motorcycle that will go home with one lucky guest on the 2023 cruise. To win, all you have to do is be onboard!

We sat down with Xavier and asked him about his process of designing and building the motorcycle, and all the nitty gritty details.

What was your inspiration for this year’s build?

I don’t really have one until the frame is sitting on the lift, and bit by bit it starts to just do what it does. It kind of creates itself, you know? I don’t ever have an idea in my head like “oh it’s going to look like this,” “it’s going to look like that.” But I guess the inspiration is to always just build something that looks bitchin’ and is ridable and something that I think that if I were to win, I would be stoked and over the moon about. So that’s always the goal. It’s not so much for me to build the coolest or the baddest or whatever. It’s just to build something that I hope that whoever wins is extremely excited about it and will be proud to ride it. So that’s really the inspiration.

“It’s definitely different than the last year’s motorcycle and again, I’ve never done this.”

I’ve never built motorcycles for companies, much less people that I don’t know. With my customers I have the ability to sit down with them and go you know, that’s not going to be really conducive to what you’re trying to achieve, and the end game is not going to yield this result. It’s always the idea to have something that’s ridable throughout the demographic. I think that this bike is definitely different from the last one, especially because it is on a different chassis. But just the overall look of it, it has a completely different look, which most people notice first. They don’t notice the intricacies of the build and what goes into it. And that’s OK because that’s not what they do. But for me being able to do subtle things like shave the entire frame where there’s absolutely no mounts visible. The guy who is a builder will look at that go, that’s a stock frame that he spent hours and hours and hours shaving and massaging and doing all that stuff to make it look completely different than any other 91 Harley Softail out there.

What was the thought process behind the color scheme or the design?

I usually have an idea of the color before I even start to build, which is really weird. Thus far, in my experience, when I talked to other builders, they don’t have an idea of what the color is until they actually get the bike completely mocked up and they look at it.

I knew that I wanted something different than last year’s bike and I wanted a different color. I’ve honestly never done a bluish type of bike. Blue was something that I saw on a Lexus, and I just fell in love with it. It was just this blue. And I was like, wow, if I could figure out how to mold out with some silvers and some blacks and some Chrome. Because you never really know until you get it done and then you put it on the bike and you go, oh God, that’s awful. Or you go, wow, that came out so much better than what I had perceived in my mind. That’s always my goal. Is that I sit back and go Holy crap. That came out ten times better than what I thought…and this is no different.

“I’m not a painter, so I don’t have any ideas of how it should visibly look other than what I have in my head”

Eric Malotke from Open Throttle Customs, he killed it. I mean he hit this one out of the ballpark. The crazy thing is, is I’m not a painter, so I don’t have any ideas of how it should visibly look other than what I have in my head. Obviously, I can’t deliver that to the painter. So, it’s always a 50/50 roll of the dice to see what’s going to happen with the idea versus the actual product. Eric did an amazing job on it and the only thing that I was ever certain about was that it needed to have multiple shades of Blues in it and the scheme needed to move. The texture of the paint and the texture of the design had to have movement to it. We went back and forth I think only once about an idea, but this is what I’m kind of thinking with a pencil drawn hand sketch. Then I shot him a picture and he was like oh yeah, no problem and there it was done.

“It’s always really weird to have somebody, like be able to pull off what you have in your brain”

It’s always really weird to have somebody, like be able to pull off what you have in your brain, you know? Because if we could transfer that, like we transfer files, it’d be awesome. But we can’t. So, when you can collaborate with somebody like that, it’s really cool because it becomes a process and you’re like, oh, I have this idea and then it’s like it’s like playing tennis — I hit him the ball, he hits me back, I hit the ball, he hits it back. So, when the when the final result happens and you pull it out-of-the-box, it’s like, oh, man. OK, OK, we did good. We’re gonna be OK.

Any specific challenges that you faced while building?

Life for me in 2023 was really, really difficult. Life was happening for me as it is for everybody. The most difficult thing was time. I have never missed a deadline thus far and this one was really scary because I had a lot of personal stuff family wise go down. It took me away from this build for a little over 90 days so it threw me way, way, way back. So the biggest thing was time. There was a couple of issues with shipping parts but that was it. Literally, I mean just time.

Time is always a factor and when you’re doing something like this because I don’t know how to just whip something together. With each build I learn more and more about timing versus commitment versus deadlines etcetera. I don’t know how other people are, but I work well under pressure. What I don’t work well under is there’s a difference between pressure for the motorcycle. But when you have the pressure for the motorcycle and then pressure for the business and then pressure for a personal life and then pressure for a family member and everything else that ensues that’s pretty intense so I’m. Super blessed and super grateful that even as late as it was the product that everybody got to see in Arkansas was something that everybody that so far everybody dug. And that’s the only thing that’s important you know is that hopefully there will be a passenger that gets to walk up to me and gives me a gigantic hug and says I cannot wait to ride this thing. Time is always…if the only thing I had to do was build High Seas Rally bikes. It’d be great! But I have multiple customers and that’s life and that’s business.

So, I would say time. I don’t know one builder that’s like “oh dude yeah I finished like seven months early” like, what? Wow. We’re trying some different things for ’24 and that’s the goal is to have all of the stuff ready to rock by the early part of ’24, so excited to see how that’s going to go.

Is there anything else that you would like to mention about the bike?

I think this one was a really nice melding of some custom stuff that sets the bike apart, like the tank. It was made by Rick Bray for me because he knew how much pressure I was under. He offered his services and one thing about this community is that they’re willing to jump in and help with whatever. So, it’s really cool to see if a product sitting on my showroom floor and think that wow, that part has Rick Bray’s fingerprints and that part has Brian Klock’s fingerprints and that part has Pat Patterson’s fingerprints. It’s really cool because I don’t ever want to be the guy or the builder that’s just like, “oh, it’s all me. I do it all myself and you know, screw everybody else.” That’s no fun. It’s really hard to have a baseball team without a team.

“I’m very proud that I have a very small circle of friends that I can always count on”

I’m very proud that I have a very small circle of friends that I can always count on, and that all the guys that needed to deliver to help me deliver in the timespan that we had. Eric Malotke from Open Throttle Customs, Rick Bray from RKB, Brian Klock, Kurt from Bare Bones Leather, Pat Patterson from Led Sled, Martin from SMT Wheels, my connections at S&S motors, I mean, Gary Dubouis from Plating and Polishing…it’s hard when you have paint, powder, and chrome and everything out and you go “hey man yeah I’m going to need that by this date” and they go “what?” Everybody delivered and I’m so grateful for that. The bottom line is lots of lessons learned in ’23 and were going to have a good time onboard and send it off with a bang and start all over again.

What are you most looking forward to onboard High Seas Rally?

Oh man. Well one, I’m looking forward to being on the ship for the whole duration of it. Last year I had to leave early because my brother was sick. So, I’m looking forward to being on the ship the entire time and being able to really experience the High Seas Rally cruise in its full form. And to be able to sit back with like the likes of all the people at ECP and the builders and just enjoy the fruits of the labor.

I’m also looking forward to playing some rock’n’roll with my guys and seeing Lita Ford. I haven’t seen her in decades. And just to breathe and go “OK, we’re here,” because it’s a long build up. It’s a long build up throughout the year. I’m traveling all over the country taking High Seas Rally product as well as Providence product to the rallies. Then, you know you build up to this one seven-day event and then by the time you realize it, it’s time to get off the ship and you’re like wait a minute what happened? And it’s time to start all over. I mean we started thinking about ’24 months ago and things are starting to start to fall into place for that. But for right now, I’m in the present and I’m just looking forward to getting on the ship and seeing a lot of people that I’ve been corresponding with via social media platforms for nine months. It’s cool.