With more than 32 years of experience as a mechanical engineer in the aeronautical industry, Bill Souza, of Lancaster, California, started customizing motorcycles for himself and his friends in the early '80s. In the mid-'90s, Bill's son, Chris, began helping out building bikes and fabricating parts. Family and friends were so impressed with the father and son's ideas and craftsmanship, that they couldn't understand why they didn't open a shop and do what they love for a living. After several years of pressure, Bill and Chris decided to open up Death Valley Choppers (DVC) and figured that since the 2003 Las Vegas Bikefest event was right around the corner, it would be the perfect venue to show off their skills.
Bill and Chris sat down to come up with a design for their premiere chopper. Chris began sketching out some ideas for wheels and came up with a dollar-sign design. Bill and Chris decided that since they would be debuting the bike in Las Vegas, they should create a theme chopper based around Vegas and gambling. They wanted to create a chopper with smooth flowing lines that would show off their fabrication and bike-building skills without going overboard on the Vegas theme.
After all the details were nailed down, an order was placed to RC Components for one of its Street Comp frames built to DVC specifications. When the frame arrived at the shop, it had 6 extra inches in the downtube and 3 more added to the backbone, culminating at 40 degrees of neck rake. Once the frame was secured to a work bench, Bill and Chris began setting it up with some suspension. To help with handling, a set of Perse Performance 6-degree triple-trees was secured to the neck along with a 10-inch-over frontend from the same company. The RC Components swing arm was treated to a pair of Progressive Suspension shocks to smooth out the ride.
With the suspension taken care of, it was time to put in place the first theme-oriented components: the dollar-sign wheels Chris designed and machined. The front measures in at 21 inches, while the rear is a stocky 18x8.5-inch. Both wheels were treated to Avon rubber, with the rear being a 250. In order to stop when needed, an RC Components floating rotor and four-piston caliper were bolted to the front wheel, and to clean things up out back, Bill and Chris used an RC Components drive-side rotor/pulley along with another four-piston caliper.
Now that they had a roller, Bill and Chris went to work on getting some horsepower between the framerails. They decided that a 100ci RevTech mill would have plenty of horsepower for their inaugural chopper. To dress the motor up a bit, they sent the cylinders and heads over to Diamond Heads so they could diamond-cut the fins. After cutting the fins, Diamond Heads sent the components over to Sumax for a layer of Ultra Emerald powdercoat. When Bill and Chris got their hands back on the heads and cylinders, they re-assembled the motor and secured it to the frame. Next, they added a polished Mikuni HSR 42 carb, a D&M spike air cleaner, a Crane Hi-4 Ignition, and a set of Martin Bros. pipes. The 100-incher's output is transferred to the rear wheel with the help of a RevTech six-speed transmission, a Rivera clutch, and a Primo 3-1/2-inch primary.