Watching old Snoop Dogg music videos gave a Gqeberha firefighter the inspiration he needed to turn his old trade into a future side hustle by building one of a kind bicycles from scraps and custom parts.
Algoa Park’s Lester Sauls said while business was not necessarily booming, each piece of custom furniture, braai accessories or low-rider bike improves his skills as a welder and fabricator.
“So often, people want to achieve, but they never get around to it because they are too afraid of making mistakes.
“I have made mistakes, I have broken things, and I have rebuilt them.
“It’s all part of the journey, and with every step I become a little better,” Sauls said.
The 49-year-old family man’s hobby for custom fabrication dates back 22 years, when he completed a welding course and started working at a family-owned business.
About four years later, he became a firefighter, and has been working in emergency services for the past 18 years.
“But I didn’t want my trade (training) to go to waste, because I like working with my hands.
“So I started doing welding and metalwork in my spare time.
“I mostly make sliding gates, custom furniture and braai stands.
“But my favourite pieces are definitely my bikes.”
Being an avid fan of rap music, Sauls naturally watched a number of Snoop Dogg music videos throughout the years, and recalls his favourite rapper often featuring some unique bikes in his videos.
He admits to always wanting to be different and when Sauls could not find a low-rider bike to his liking, he decided he would try his hand at making one himself.
“I still have two bikes at home that I worked on, got wrong, rebuilt, broke, fixed and just never got around to finishing.
“But to date, I have seven completed projects that I am very proud of.
“Five of them I own, and I’m trying to teach my eight-year-old son to ride them.
“The other two were gifts for family members,” he said.
The process of building a custom bike takes Sauls three to four weeks.
Sometimes it’s as simple as taking an existing bike and making slight modifications.
Other times he starts from scratch — making most of the bike from steel tubing and speciality order parts.
“The frames I put together myself, and when I can't find parts I want, like handlebars, I make those too.
“Gears and chains I order to the specification of the bike, and for some of them I had to order white wall tyres from as far away as Durban and Johannesburg.”
While he is reorganising his backyard workshop in Algoa Park, Sauls hopes that one day his custom bikes could be a handy second income for him and his family.
“I already have a logo in mind for LS Designs — something incorporating an English pound, or American dollar sign, to represent my name and my lucrative side hustle.
“Who knows?
“Maybe one day we will see LS Design bikes feature in some local music talents’ videos, just like the ones in Snoop’s videos,” Sauls said.
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