'04 Mountain MotorcycleWorks Custom - Temecula

"This isn't personal, Sonny. It's strictly business."

Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in The Godfather, regarding Vito Corleone's would-be assassin.

Although Don Corleone was talking about mob warfare when he said that quote, the important lesson here is that often times your personal and business lives mix like beer and ice cream. Some buddies make horrible business partners as they tend to take advantage of the friendship, thus screwing up the business end and killing both relationships in the process.

Mike Farrington found this out firsthand when building this chopper, Temecula. Named after his favorite California town (the Temecula area has some really nice, twisty hill roads), he wanted it to be a tough, ridable rigid chopper as well as an example of his shop's work. Farrington has been building bikes for about four years now and, as is frequently the case with builders, he started creating his own, then buddies started wanting him to build for them, and in a short time he was running his own shop, Mountain Motorcycle Works in Ephrata, Pennsylvania. With such a personal history to his business, it's no surprise that he'd kick work to a friend given the chance. That decision, however, would later snap right back and bite him in the ass.

He'd dubbed this project Temecula, but as it turned out, Painter's Nightmare might have been a better title. Sure, it all started smoothly enough. Mike drew up sketches of what he wanted - a tough, lightweight, reliable rigid that could handle the rough roads of Eastern Pennsylvania on a daily basis and look really good doing it. He then spent five months gathering parts - a 96-inch Ultima motor that combines great low-end torque with reliability was shoehorned into a stretched Midwest rigid frame and mated to a JIMS five-speed transmission, BDL primary, and a loud set of pipes from Revenge Cycle. Others, like the tanks and fenders, his shop fabricated with great care. When all the construction work was done, Farrington had exactly what he wanted. Once the initial mock-up was done, all that was left was getting it painted.

That's where the trouble began. Mike farmed out the paintwork to a buddy and paid him up front for it in good faith. Months flowed by and so did Farrington's patience. Finally, six months after the sheetmetal had gone out to his friend for coloring, Mike got his mitts on it again. And yes, his pal painted it, sloppily. What's more he'd dropped it. Frustrated, Farrington searched out an established professional, Brian Myers, to fix the mess. It took him a mere two weeks to correct a clusterfuck six months in the making.

In the time since then, he's ridden it every chance he gets, weather permitting. Not only does it ride well, it's also a great advertisement for his shop. He's gained quite a few customers who wanted a similar chopper - ridable, reliable, and reasonably priced. Although this particular deal didn't go so smoothly, Mike's very happy doing what he does.

"This taught me three major lessons in bike building," Farrington told us, "Choose your suppliers very carefully, never do business with a friend, and never pay before the job is done. I guess that's what you get for trying to give a buddy some work. Beyond that, the finished product is a blast and very fast."