After a long journey as a custom bike painter, Philip Saldivar, better known as Sneaky Talent, decided to hustle up the money to feed his own chopper fund. Living in Riverside, California, Talent had a lot of places were he could hustle, like the local pool halls. It took a little while for him to get his setups to work out, but once they did, he was on his way to having the money to build his custom bike. As long as he kept winning, the bike was spared no expense.
The big score came from a game that took more than four hours to win, and when it was over, he had enough money to buy the frame, motor, and all the sheetmetal for this chopper. The thing that was missing from his plan was a place that could help him build it. Well, luck was on Talent's side once more when he found Steve Mihali, owner of Big League Choppers in Riverside, California. Steve has been servicing bikes and building ground-up customs for more than four years, so he was happy to help Talent with this bike. The first thing that the two had to do was plan out just how the chopper was going to look and run.
A long chopper was the plan, so Steve ordered a frame from Carolina Custom with 51 degrees of rake in the neck and 8 inches of upward stretch in the downtubes, along with 5 inches added to the backbone. The swingarm is mounted to the frame with a set of H-D Softail shocks with a 1-inch lowering kit. As for the frontend, a set of 16-over Pro-One tubes and smooth lower legs were mounted in a set of one-off triple-trees that Talent made himself. Then, to top off the frontend, a set of handlebars from Choppers Inc. was mounted to the risers from The Chop Shop.
Both Steve and Talent felt the only wheels that look good on a chopper is a set of spokes wheels. A set of DNA 60-spoke wheels were mounted with a tall and thin 21x2.5 up front and a fat 18x8.5 out back, Avon rubber covered both.
The power that Talent was looking for was fast and strong without getting big and crazy, so an 88ci Evo from RevTech was fully polished then placed between the framerails. Added to the assembly was a Mikuni carburetor and WCC air cleaner, a RevTech ignition, and an exhaust from Martin Brothers. To transfer all the power to the rear wheel, a six-speed Access Unlimited transmission was bolted behind the motor with a BDL clutch and a 3-inch beltdrive.
The time came to cover the bike with some sheetmetal, so Talent went with a WCC gas tank, a Russ Wernimont front fender, and a rear fender and oil bag from Diamond Chassis. Next, Sneaky Talent got to show off how he earned the nickname with the paintjob. It started with a gold basecoat, with a custom color sprayed over that Talent calls FCKR Black. When it was sprayed over the sheetmetal, it had a golden brown tint. Then, the graphics were handed over to Big Sal who went to work laying out the two styles of flames: the old standard style and then some tribal flames on top. He incorporated all the things that got the bike built into the paint, like pool balls and Talent's life credo on the frame.
All the guys At Big League Choppers helped with this one so that Talent could get it done in time for an upcoming show. Steve started with hand controls from JayBrake, Arlen Ness mirrors, and a Headwinds headlight. To keep Talent's feet off the road, a set of Legends foot controls and Chop Shop pegs were bolted to the frame. The license plate mount was Talent's handiwork - installing a Diamond Cassis LED setup and keeping all the wires hidden in the frame. As soon as the wiring was done, Steve turned the key and the bike fired up. Talent was ready to start hitting all the bike shows that he could and hustle them up, just like the pool halls.
Talent took top honors at all the shows in his hometown, and then started to rack up wins at some of the bigger show. Talent was hoping that he could build another bike, but everyone knows his face at all the pool halls now, so he'll probably have a hard time hustling enough money this time around now that all the guys at the pool halls know his talent.