Arlen Ness is not your typical fine artist. Unless your typical fine art has independent rear suspension and over 100 horsepower.

Arlen is a Bay Area treasure who's been crafting game-changing motorcycles that merge grease stains with hand-engraved gold relief since the 1960s. His motorcycles (almost) always win their category in competitions. And, seriously, he just looks like the nicest guy in the world. Just get a gander at that smile and honestly say you don't want to give him a hug.

There's a theme that's run through the naming of his works. There's QuickNess, Smoothness, Ness-Tique... and on. He's not afraid to really experiment with what a motorcycle is, either. For instance, Nesstalgia morphs a '57 Chevy into the shape of a motorcycle. With Mach Ness, he'd had enough with motorcycles having top speeds and used a helicopter's jet engine to give it some get-up-and-go. His first bike, however, was a 1947 Harley Knucklehead he customized and named Untouchable.

After Untouchable said "can't touch this" to the competition, he started quite the profitable mail order custom parts business out of his garage in San Leandro. The set-up moved up to a brick-and-mortar storefront in Oakland until he had no choice but to upgrade to a facility in Dublin that doubles as a motorcycle dealership and triples as a kind of Mecca for all things Arlen Ness.

He was on Discovery Channel's Biker Build-Off twice. The first time, he lost. But to his son, so it's totes adorbs. They don't know how to express their complex emotions to each other on camera, it's amazing-ness. Then, his second go-around was a walk in the park. His bike, Top Banana, took top prize. His grandson currently stars in a reality show on NatGeo that trades in on grandpa's legacy. Arlen doesn't pop up, it looks like, but the motorcycle action is still top notch.