Created and narrated by Thom Beers, the series was originally conceived as a single special called The Great Biker Build-Off.

The show proved so popular that more episodes were produced in succeeding years, to the point that it was turned into a regular series (and its name shortened to just Biker Build-Off) in 2005.

Biker Build-Off was originally an irregularly-grouped series (termed "rounds") of contests that spanned a calendar year.

In 2005, the program was turned into a regular series in which each round would feature a total of 13 contests each.

When the show became a regular series, the current rules of the Biker Build-Off were defined as follows: 1.