There’s a small Swabian village near Rottweil which has some rather unusual visitors - sheikhs and princes, no less.  Not every sheikh and prince, of course: only those who are keen on motorcycles. For Zimmern-Horgen is where the most beautiful motorbikes in the world are made.

When Volker Sichler has an illustrious visitor, the place stinks. The smell of burnt gasoline mingles with the sweeter smell of engine oil as the boss of Hollister’s MotorCycles screws back the throttle to demonstrate the sound of the new bike.

It can even happen that a Saudi prince flies in from London in his private jet, lands at the small airfield in Villingen-Schwenningen and has himself chauffered to Volker Sichler’s workshop to pick up a motorcycle that has been custom-built for him. The prince even has a real name - Prince Bandar Al Faisal Al Saud – and he has already been on two shopping trips to Zimmern to buy a motorcycle. He was so impressed by Hollister’s products that he had Sichler build another one for the Crown Prince of Bahrain, Sheikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa. A gift from one motorcycle fan to another; a small token of friendship.

The enthusiasm is well-founded. Three years ago, Volker Sichler and his company – Hollister’s MotorCycles – received a special mark of distinction at the annual Daytona Bikeweek in Florida. They were officially designated makers of the most beautiful motorcycles in the world.

When Volker Sichler talks about this occasion, he is naturally proud of his achievement – but it’s clear that he sees it only as another milestone on the path to his real goal: “When I started out, I had nothing, and everyone said I was off my head. Now they hold their tongues. My goal is quite simply to establish Hollister’s as an internationally recognized brand.” The key to that is quality. There’s not a piece of plastic anywhere on his bikes, and he swears that everything except the engine comes out of his own workshop. All that costs money. You can get a genuine Hollister’s for upwards of 25,000 euro ($31,000 or £17,500) – that’s only for the smallest range. The top-of-the-range Excite starts at 100,000 euro: beauty has its price. 

But even if you’re a customer with money to burn, Volker Sichler doesn’t necessarily make life easy for you. Hollister’s is expanding and hopes to open branches in Australia, Monaco and Russia in the near future; but the workshop is staying in Horgen. I’m a real Rottweiler, says Sichler. If a customer can’t drop by right away, Sichler will call him up and let him listen to the roar of the engine over the phone.

“We have to be more global in our thinking”, says the motorcycle builder, and adds that as it happens, he’s currently on call. Sometime in the next few days a ticket to Saudi-Arabia will be left for him at Stuttgart airport. Prince Bandar’s motorcycle is ready and he has asked him to deliver it.