Saving Vintage Motorcycles Utah Style: Salt City Builds

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Most Utah motorcycle shops will not touch a 1974 Indian 50cc small enough to sit on a table, a 1977 Capra 360 with fewer than a hundred sisters ever imported to the United States, or a chromed frame CB750 chopper handed down from a customer's father. Salt City Builds is the shop that does. Austin, the operator behind Salt City Builds in South Salt Lake, sat down with Peter Anthony on the Utah Business Spotlight Podcast to walk through the reverse engineering, the vintage restorations, the auction bike surprises, and the philosophy that has made his shop the one Utah riders trust with the motorcycles the dealership network has moved on from.

The story that opens the episode sets the tone for everything that follows. Austin and the team at Salt City Builds had just finished rebuilding the motor on a 1974 Indian 50cc. The bike was so small the whole thing could fit on the studio table. Its electronic components had to be imported from Italy. Austin could not source the exact original stator, so he rebuilt one from scooter components off a different, very similar bike that happened to spin the opposite direction. It was reverse engineering in its purest form, custom fitting vintage parts just to make the bike run. Today it is a runner.

Filling A Gap The Dealerships Left Behind

Austin traces the story back to being four years old on the dirt bikes his dad started him on. Old Hondas, leftover stuff, and a love for machines that never left. Salt City Builds is now filling the market gap where most shops will not deal with old vintage bikes because the skill and the knowledge to work on them is quietly disappearing. Austin built the shop specifically to keep that knowledge alive for Utah riders.

Salt City Builds specializes in vintage Japanese bikes, old Hondas, Kawasakis, Suzukis, and Yamahas, and steps well outside of that range on a weekly basis. Austin just finished a 2006 fuel injected Harley the morning of the interview. The shop does full restorations on Ducatis vintage and fairly modern, plus Bultacos, Montesas, and a long list of rare European brands the dealership network has walked away from. Austin is not a brand loyalist. He is a bikes loyalist.

The 1977 Capra 360 That Stopped Supercross Pros

One of the recent shop favorites was a 1977 Capra 360. Only about a hundred were ever imported to the United States that year. The customer has two of them. Austin cannot personally say he has seen another one in the country. When Salt City Builds finished the bike and brought it out to a recent event, Supercross World Championships were in town, and a couple of pro riders spotted it and asked to ride it in the race the next day. That is the kind of moment that makes the work worth it, and it is the kind of moment only a shop willing to take on the rare stuff ever gets to have.

"We fill the market where most shops will not deal with this old vintage stuff. The skill and the knowledge to work on them is disappearing and we are here to keep them going."

Tracking Down The Strangest Parts On Earth

The reality of running Salt City Builds is that the team is constantly shifting gears, switching distributors, and tracking down parts almost nobody else can find. Austin takes pride in being good at tracking down the strangest and the weirdest parts. The 1974 Indian 50cc is the recent trophy. A bike meant for a tiny child, imported components sourced from Italy, and a stator rebuilt from an entirely different bike. Salt City Builds is a shop where the parts hunt is often the job.

Austin also gets asked constantly about the bikes he wishes he had kept. He regrets getting rid of his 1975 Yamaha DT250, a very unassuming bike, but the most fun he has owned. He loves 1970s bikes for how simple and mechanical they are, no computers, everything user serviceable. Simple, in Austin's world, is beautiful. He references a chromed frame CB750 chopper from the early 1970s that a customer inherited from his father, a bike Austin has offered to buy multiple times and knows will never be for sale. Salt City Builds is rebuilding the motor on it right now.

Why Sentiment Drives Utah Vintage Motorcycle Restoration

Austin's advice to any Utah rider hunting a vintage bike is direct. Stick with the classics that still have a following and parts availability, and choose something sentimental. Salt City Builds does a huge amount of this is my father's bike, this is my grandfather's bike, this is my mother's or grandmother's bike work. Old Happy Days Triumphs like the 1970 TR6 Austin owns himself, factory candy and flake paint jobs, and the family heirlooms nobody else will touch. Sentiment is the reason those bikes exist in the modern era, and it is the reason a shop like Salt City Builds is still needed.

"A dealership is there to sell you a bike. We are here to fix your bike."

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