Years ago bike builders would do anything they could to develop their own personal styles so people could recognize their bikes with a single glance. Nowadays, it seems like the majority of builders are content to tag along on the latest fad. They claim it pays the bills and that's fine, but sometimes it is hard to distinguish one builder's creation from the next. Noticing a style that is not only cool but also stands out from the rest of the customs is like the first cold beer after a hard day's work. Which would make a Kill City Chopper like an iced-down keg on a desert island.
The owner of Kill City Choppers, Steg VonHeintz, is not your run-of-the-mill bike builder either, he looks more like a member of some obscure punk band straight out of New York. Of course, it's no coincidence that he looks that way, New York is where he's from and he's the lead guitar player in a band called Fat Nancy. He's always had a passion for two things, chopping the hell out of bikes and playing guitar. He's been doing both his whole life, so you know he's good. In fact, during the late '80s and 90's most people on the East Coast knew Steg as "the Axeman," one of the partners of a shop called Psycho Cycles in Brooklyn.
About three years ago, Steg moved out to the other side of the United States. He still loves New York, but he felt it was time to experience something different for a while, and the West Coast was calling him. When Mr. Happy Pants was built (yes, Mr. Happy Pants is the name Steg gave this bike), the shop was located in Santa Ana, California, but he's already grown weary of sleepy town Orange County and is moving the shop closer to the excitement. By the time this issue hits the newsstands, the shop will be in L.A.
Mr. Happy Pants started out as Scott Holmes' oil-puking Shovelhead Wide Glide that was always a bitch to get started. Scott was able to keep the bike running, but he wanted to find someone who could make his bike roadworthy, different, and wouldn't turn his bike into a billet barge. Hanging out at his favorite bar one afternoon, he struck up a conversation with his friend who had heard of a builder in the area that wasn't your typical biker bro. They finished their drinks and headed down to the shop. Once they arrived, Scott looked around at the style of the bikes that Steg was building and liked what he saw. He asked Steg what he would do to his Shovel, and like most artists, Steg saw great potential in Scott's beater and accepted the challenge to turn the bike into something cool.
The first thing Steg did was tear the bike completely apart. Then he picked up a rigid Paughco frame with stock dimensions and 31.5 degrees of rake, and had it powdercoated in black satin. Stashed in the shop was a Ceriani Road Race 33mm frontend that he completely rebuilt and hung a 21-inch hoop with a mini-chopper drum brake hub and chrome spokes wrapped in an Avon tire between the legs. In the rear, a 16-inch H-D spoker was bolted to the frame with a Lindahl racing rotor and a PM four-piston caliper, an H-D sprocket, and an Avon 150 tire.When Steg tackled the motor, he went all out. He used the Shovel cases and stuffed them with Truet Osbourne flywheels, H-D rods, Weisco 0.030-inch-over pistons, a Competition Cam, and Andrews pushrods. Instead of using the original Shovelheads, Steg used a set of STD Baisley Stage 3 Panheads with full porting and polishing huge valves, a 2.0 intake, and a 1.8 exhaust, making the crazy motor a Pan/Shovel. A set of special pushrod tubes with skulls were made specifically for the bike by a guy named Zack. Instead of your typical ignition, Steg used a Joe Hunt Top Fuel magneto to fire up the fuel and air in the combustion chambers. He built the custom exhaust and finished it off with an S&S Super G carburetor and a Pro-Just oil pump with an adjustable pressure release cap. Behind the motor is a natural finish STD four-speed ratchet-top transmission filled with Andrews gears and topped off with a set of chrome covers. A beefy Barnett clutch and Primo 3-inch open belt drive transfer power from the motor to the trans.