Walt rode his first motorcycle race as an 18 year old. When he was 19, he left art school in his native Austria and joined a road racing team. He later worked in France as a shunter in a train yard and as a toolmaker and welder in Germany, Austria and Italy. A job with an Austrian steel company took him to Moscow, where he later joined the Austrian Foreign Service. In 1985 he transfered to New York City, for a position promoting  contemporary Austrian art and culture. That year, Walt began building motorcycles after work as a hobby.

In 2007, he moved his workshop and his family to an old mill town in southern New Hampshire to build motorcycles full time. He still road races V-Twins.