Custom-painted urns reflect motorcycle riders' free spirit

A memorial fit for hog heaven

Custom-painted urns reflect motorcycle riders' free spirit

April 10, 2006
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=414653

Old bikers never die . . . Actually they do, and a Milwaukee paint
expert is hoping that a lot of them will want to end up in their gas
tanks when the time comes.

Jim Moritz, who spends his days developing new paints for a large
Milwaukee company and his free time doing custom paint jobs on
motorcycles, has launched a new business offering a product for that
last ride: Motorcycle Memorials.

Moritz and his business partner, Ron Winkler, have already sold 50
cremation urns designed to replicate motorcycle gas tanks, and more
than a dozen funeral homes carry their product.

"I wanted to call it 'Tanks for the Memories,' " Moritz said, "but
that name was trademarked."

The buyers can choose a custom paint job that duplicates the look of
the deceased person's bike, or they can pick a design that
memorializes another aspect of the person's life: military service or
a law enforcement career.

"I'm working on an Iwo Jima design," Moritz said.

The urns are formed from heavy plastic at General Plastics in Glendale
and sold mounted on stands made by a woodworker in West Allis. Kevin
Timm, a Harley owner who works in the service department at Hal's
Harley-Davidson in New Berlin, thinks Moritz's urns have a lot of
potential for sales to riders, even though most of them don't want to
think or talk about death.

"If it was a hard-core rider, do I think they would do something like
that? Absolutely," Timm said. "This is not just a hobby. It's a
passion for people. I can see somebody wanting to be part of their
bike, rather than in a container."

Mark Simonson, a funeral director at Altstadt-Tyborski Ermenc-Mcleod
Funeral Service on S. Howell Ave. in Milwaukee remembers a funeral he
organized last year for a biker in his 50s.

"His girlfriend brought in his leather jacket and it was cremated with
him," Simonson said.

Another family of a deceased biker brought in the entire bike and
parked it next to the casket during the viewing. Both Simonson and
John Rozga, a partner at Rozga Funeral Home on W. Lincoln Ave., say
the gas tank urns are getting a lot of attention in their product
display rooms, which are open to the public during viewings at
funerals.

"I've never had anything in the funeral home that has drawn that much
interest," Rozga said. "I've had a gentleman take his wife by the hand
and say, 'When I go, that's where I want my remains to go.' "

Rozga hasn't sold any, but he's had people who are pre-planning their
own funerals request the tanks. They are definitely a baby boomer
product, not something that appeals to the oldest generation, he said.

Moritz and Winkler aren't the first to market a motorcycle gas tank
urn. There's at least one other company that makes one, and another
that offers a final resting place inside a motorcycle engine block.

But Moritz and Winkler believe that their ability to do custom work
and the growing interest in cremation across the country add up to a
big opportunity for them to make a living offering a final alternative
to those who live to ride.

"The whole funeral industry is going toward memorialization and
personalization," Moritz said.

The Cremation Association of North America agrees, and the trade group
has invited Moritz to talk about his gas tank urns later this month,
when the trade group meets at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

"It's a very large market, increasing every year," said Jack Springer,
executive director of the trade group. The association estimates that
by 2025, 46% of deaths will lead to cremations, for a total of 1.4
million cremations.

In Wisconsin, 14,376 people were cremated in 2003, the most recent
statistic available. That represents 31% of deaths in the state,
slightly above the national cremation average of 28.5%.

Shot from a gun

That growth has spawned a quiet but burgeoning industry, ranging from
sweetly sentimental to downright weird.

Two Janesville women, Joni Cullen and Lisa Saxer-Buros, started a
cremation jewelry business 14 years ago, ahead of the trend.

Saxer-Buros' mother, Madelyn, was close to her family, and she loved
to travel. When Madelyn died, Saxer-Buros designed a hollow circular
pendant and had copies made for each of her siblings, who placed some
of mom's ashes inside.

Ever since, part of the late Madelyn has accompanied her children on
all their vacations. And Cullen and Saxer-Buros are running a
million-dollar-plus business, Madelyn Co., making and selling keepsake
jewelry. The products are sold to bereaved families through funeral
homes, hospices and distributors.

Eternal Reefs Inc. in Atlanta puts remains into environmentally
friendly concrete reefs and lowers them to the ocean floor. The
Eternal Ascent Society in Crystal River, Fla., goes to the other
extreme with hot air balloons, sending heavenward the remains of those
deserving or otherwise.

For those who want to go out with a bang, there are people who will
put the remains in a shotgun, a cannon or fireworks. Or for those
seeking an artistic end, there's a sculptor in New Orleans who will
mix remains with sculpting materials and make a bust, and an artist
who mixes the ashes with paint and puts them in trees in her
paintings.

Just about every cremation is the result of a choice made ahead of
time by the deceased, according to a survey from the Cremation
Association.

With this in mind, Moritz plans to expand his marketing beyond funeral
homes by taking his gas tank urns directly to consumers at biker
rallies and events.

There were 5.8 million registered motorcycles in the U.S. in 2004,
according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

"The beauty of the product is, because of its artistic value, it's a
piece for the recreation room," Moritz said. The urns range in price
from $750 to $1,500.

A bike owner might buy one now, hang it on the wall and tell his
friends: "That's where I'm going to end up someday."

Rebuffed by Harley

Moritz is not a biker himself, but he's been painting bikes for
customers since he was 12. He made his first gas tank urn from a real
tank that he bought at a junkyard about eight years ago. He made a
gift of it to the family of a deceased biker whose bike he had
painted.

He and Winkler saw the chance to turn this into a business because
they knew bikers tend to celebrate their passion for riding, even in
death. They patented the urn design last fall, and they launched a Web
site, www.motorcyclememorials.com.

Moritz's biggest disappointment so far with his business is that the
hometown motorcycle maker, Harley-Davidson, isn't interested in a
licensing deal for the gas tank urns.

"We do license products very selectively," Harley spokesman Bob Klein
said. "In the past, we've declined to license such products. We would
rather be out there riding the products down the road."

Moritz says his urns have added value for the man who doesn't ride
alone. There's enough room inside for him to take his biker chick
along for eternity.

- - -

Motorcycle Gas Tank Urns

http://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/news/img/apr06/urn1040906.jpg
Photo/Mark Hoffman
A depiction of Iwo Jima is added to this replica motorcycle gas tank
destined for use as an urn.

http://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/news/img/apr06/urn2040906.jpg
Photo/Mark Hoffman
When it's time for the last long ride, custom-painted urns like these
samples can reflect a motorcycle rider's interests.

http://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/news/img/apr06/urn3040906.jpg
Photo/Mark Hoffman

http://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/news/img/apr06/urn4040906.jpg
Photo/Mark Hoffman

http://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/news/img/apr06/urn5040906.jpg
Photo/Mark Hoffman

http://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/news/img/apr06/urn6040906.jpg
Photo/Mark Hoffman


By The Numbers

1.4 million
The number of deaths that will lead to cremations by 2025, according
to estimates by The Cremation Association of North America, which says
that number will represent 46% of deaths.

5.8 million
Number of registered motorcycles in the U.S. in 2004, according to the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.


http://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/news/img/apr06/urn7040906.jpg
Photo/Mark Hoffman
Blaine Heilman uses an airbrush Wednesday in his New Berlin home to
paint a replica of a motorcycle gas tank that will be used as an urn.


Number Of Cremations

http://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/news/img/apr06/cremation040906.gif
Graphic/Journal Sentinel


On The Web
http://www.motorcyclememorials.com/