[Spyderman]

Over the next month or so, I'll be posting pictures and a summary of how each of the Corbin products is manufactured.

To start, I'd like to say "Thank you" to Mike Corbin for welcoming my fiance' and I to the Corbin Facility an even bigger "Thanks" to our tour guide Julio Alaya (the showroom manger) who showed us every corner of the facility from the R&D and photo-shoot areas to the paint booths and finishing rooms. The tour took over two and a half hours!

I love touring manufacturing facilities as my "day-job" is a Project Manager at a high production scroll compressor plant. I've been in manufacturing for over 25 years and have worked at a half dozen different plants. Corbin is a wonderful facility using many progressive lean and visual techniques to put out a quality hand built custom product in a timely fashion. I have over twelve pages of notes! Julio was great, With over 20 years of experience, he was able to answer every question.

 

[Spyderman]

First a little bit about the Corbin facility. The plant is located in Holister, CA. Hollister is absolutely beautiful, only a half hour or so from Menterey, and located in a valley surrounded by spectacular mountains. The facility is a comprised of a large display area, Wizards cafe, a ride in service department, design, prototype manufacturing, and shipping all under one roof. This is how Corbin describes the facility:

The small California town of Hollister is deeply rooted in motorcycle history and is considered the Birthplace of the American Biker image. It is also home to the world famous Corbin saddle. Currently our 82,000 square foot facility houses a staff of more than 100 American Craftspeople where every component of Corbin's products are built by hand and in-house.

At the factory we offer RIDE-IN service where you can have a custom motorcycle seat made while you wait or even have your pre-ordered Corbin Fairing &/or Saddlebags installed. For complete information, just check out our Ride-In page.

Let me say this..... meeting the people that custom make Corbin's products is worth the trip! Did you know every craftsperson signs their work!

 

[Spyderman]

The Corbin Facility

The Corbin Facility from the outside. The unique body on the upper right side is a product Corbin made a few years back called the Corbin Sparrow. It was an electric three wheeler a bit ahead of its time

On the right is the showroom, the center Wizard's Cafe, and the left is the prototype area.

The lobby is filled with all sorts of seat examples and many of the wild items that Corbin has done over the years, this one is a Harley salt flat bike body.

The nifty orange body is a prototype for a vehicle called the Merlin that apparantly only eight were ever made. If you like it, one was for sale on EBAy... but it's no longer listed:

As motorcycle-powered roadsters go, the Merlin is a close to a 1960s George Barris custom as you can get without having George himself pour the fiberglass. Powered by a twin-cam fuel-injected, 88ci Harley Davidson motor, the Merlin rides on three wheels driven via a four-speed manual tranny. A single sharply raked half-scissor door dominates the Merlin's dramatic design, penned by the supra geniuses behind the Corbin Sparrow. The Merlin's buy-it-now price is nearly $50,000, making the one-seater a toy for lonelyhearts who don't mind causing a stir at the drive-thru.