JACKSONVILLE — Halloween is past, but drivers here and elsewhere may encounter motorcycles decked out with skulls, dragons and snakes in the weeks and months ahead.

Chris Sixkiller, operator of a janitorial service for the past 13 years, has developed a line of headlights, taillights and handlebars to give bikers a ride with attitude.

"A buddy of mine and I sat around for nine years talking about our dreams, passions and ideas," says the 37-year-old Sixkiller. "We love bikes and cars. Every time we would go to a bike show, event or look at magazines, everything looked the same."

One day a couple of years ago, Sixkiller decided it was time to do something different. He's apparently succeeded.

Although Sixkiller hasn't regularly ridden a bike since his Suzuki Katana was stolen in 1990, he is an idea guy whose products catch the attention of bikers and passers-by alike. He's marketing his creations through his Next Concepts & Designs Web site as well as vendors in Texas and Grants Pass.

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While most of his products are after-market add-ons (and he asserts they are street legal), Sixkiller has teamed up with Thunder Struck Custom Bikes owner Mark Daley to develop a theme bike.

"We redid the whole bike and put it together as a dragon," Daley says.

Such themed bikes price out between $35,000 and $45,000. The two have talked about a skeleton bike that Daley estimates would be in the $50,000 to $60,000 range.

"It would take a lot of time making every joint looking like a bone," says Daley, who recently built a $100,000 "Hammer" bike that will appear on the December cover of Street Chopper magazine. "There are certain people out there that are into dragons, snakes and skulls and this gives them a kind of choice. This is a crazy industry and it makes changes fast and erratically."

Sixkiller has developed 10 models, from polished aluminum skulls and dragon head headlights to dragon claw tail lights, and anticipates he'll have another 10 designs on the market next year. Headlights begin at $350, with a polished aluminum dragon headlight weighing 10 pounds and priced at $595. A variety of 4-pound skeleton heads go for $449. Tail lights run between $175 and $225. Skull trailer hitch covers are priced at $669.

Although much of the process is conducted elsewhere, for now Sixkiller runs the company out of his garage. He estimates sales of $10,000 to $12,000 this year, doubling to $25,000 next year.

Sixkiller's roughed out ideas are transposed into resin mock-ups by Medford artist William Hennes of Hennes Productions, a multimedia company that develops three-dimensional character concepts and sculptures.

Hennes, whose credits include LucasArts, Disney Interactive, DreamWorks Interactive, Activision and Sega, starts forming the designs in clay.

"He's in my mind and knows what I'm looking for," Sixkiller says.

Once the clay model passes muster, Hennes creates a resin model ready to be cast.

Sixkiller's dream of domestic production ran head-on into reality when he weighed the costs of having casts done in Oregon against doing them in China.

An early batch of casts by Barr Castings Co. of Portland in mid-2005 cost more than $2,000.

"I was wanting to keep everything stateside and local, but the tooling costs were too high," Sixkiller says. "I can get them done for $500 to $1,000 in China. That's less than half of the costs and their product was easier to work with and a better quality."

Sixkiller connected with Taiyuan Best Castings in Taiyuan, the Shanxi province capital with a population of 2 million, about a year ago.

"I showed him a model and sent samples and he made two prototypes," Sixkiller says.

The Chinese company produces a sand cast in aluminum and sends a photo to Sixkiller, who then makes whatever changes he deems necessary before it's sent for final inspection. The shipping cost for a single skull is $150, he says.

With casts in hand, Sixkiller forwards them to Mad Gini Airbrush run by Jason Titus in White City for painting. Sixkiller then applies the finishing touches and it is ready to ship.

He's hoping to expand his market at the International Motorcycle Show at the Long Beach Convention Center, Dec. 8-10, in Southern California.

Presently, his products are listed in the Tejas Thump Cycles catalog and Web site, outside of Lubbock, Texas, and at Chilhowee Motorcycle Leather and Accessories in Grants Pass.

"When (Sixkiller) brought us samples, we were just floored," says Scott Breedlove, an assistant manager at Chilhowee. "We liked the quality and the attention to detail and we've had really good customer response."

He says the accessories are presently available only at the Chilhowee store, but it will soon go on the company's Web site.

"It's definitely a specialty item and not for everybody," Breedlove says. "But it's definitely generating customer interest."

Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or at business@mailtribune.com

"THE HEART OF THE MAN:"

The ghoulish skeleton and fierce dragon motorcycle headlights Chris Sixkiller has developed might not strike everyone with cosmic implications.

For the Nazarene lay minister, however, the skulls have significant implications.

"I look for opportunity to have an open door in sharing Jesus Christ with people and this has shown to be a great opportunity," says Sixkiller, a licensed minister who leads an evangelism team at First Nazarene Church in Medford.

"It represents the hill where Jesus was crucified, Golgotha, which means 'skull mountain.'

The dragons, a biblical symbol for Satan, also represent power and strength.

"To me, it's the rider on the bike and the heart of the man that matters," Sixkiller says. "The beast is on the bike and not in control. It's what's in the heart of the man that matters."

He plans to add crosses to his repertoire in the year ahead, but will delve into other directions as well. South Maui Choppers, a bike shop in Hawaii, is negotiating for a bat-looking bike.

"I'll do just about anything," he says, "that isn't distasteful or degrading to women."