In some large OEM motorcycle manufacturers, the term designer can also be applied to the project leader or chief engineer charged with laying down the principal architecture of the vehicle.
The most misunderstood element and the most dangerous to the success of a product, is the idea that team members should evaluate the design based on personal tastes or preferences.
Of course, many complex variables such as the OEM brand identity, past successes and failures, and whimsical trends often skew or distort styling decisions.
While there is an increasing amount of digital design input in the modern OEM design process, nearly all major motorcycle manufacturers still rely on full scale clay models to render the master style model, then scan and import the styling surfaces into suitable 3D software packages (Alias, CATIA, ISEM Surf) for integration into the 3D engineering CAD platform (CATIA, ProEngineer, etc.).
Once combined, the design team can virtually refine the motorcycle by optimising component assembly, checking for any undesirable interferences between parts, and predict and eliminate possible engineering problems.
As a whole, these vehicles are not designed in the professional sense, but rather crafted by hand by metal workers and artisans using traditional skills.
The resulting vehicles tend to be very elaborate, expensive and difficult or impossible to reproduce in mass production, but are highly valued for the same reasons.
Among custom motorcycle culture, certain names have become famous for their creations and have led to mainstream acceptance of previously unacceptable design solutions such as extreme ergonomics, totally rigid rear wheels without the benefit of suspension, minimal lighting and limited ground clearance for cornering.