A person's life can be thought of as a path marked by firsts. First bicycle, first day of school, first car, first time having fun in back seat of said car, first speeding ticket... you get the idea. But positive or negative, all of these events gauge progress or turning points in a person's life.
This chopper was a first for two people. For Mike Stafford at MGS Custom Bikes, it was his first single-sided swingarm project, but for its owner Ken Shirley, it was his first custom build and the realization of a childhood dream.
Ken's been a cycle enthusiast since he and his dad added extended forks to his Schwinn as a kid, and as time passed he graduated to his first dirt bike and eventually spent a few years as a pro ATV racer, flat tracker, and motocross racer. During that time, he'd souped up plenty of those machines, so when he got his first Softail he felt pretty comfortable with tweaking bikes and upgraded it on his own. However, once the allure of it faded, he found himself wanting a long chopper like the one his dad rode when Ken was a kid and knew the time had come for him to have one of his own. This is where MGS came into the picture. MGS's full-blown customs have been featured in plenty of magazines; if you need its resume, look no further than the back issues of STREET CHOPPER and other titles.
Ken came to Mike looking not for a finished chopper but for a rolling chassis in which Ken could fill in the blanks himself. They sat down and worked out the details for a chopper with a long single-sided swingarm to really clean up the right side of the bike and also freak people out a little bit.
While there've been more than a few single-siders built throughout the history of chopperdom, creating a reliable one can be daunting if you've never done it before. But if you've seen the sheetmetal art that passes for tanks and fenders on an MGS ride, you know Mike's not one to shy away from a fabricating challenge. He took on Ken's project, and as it progressed he took it with him to shows. Ken was so hot to get his hands on the roller that he practically started stalking Mike; he and his wife Gia made the 3-hour drive every month from Madera, California, to the MGS facilities in Lancaster, California, to see how the roller was coming along. The good folks at the shop were always very friendly while also offering ideas and suggestions on how Ken could finish the project after Mike turned it over to him.
When he eventually got his hands on the chassis, Ken wasted no time completing it. He added an S&S 113-inch mill with a Baker six-speed - then the real learning process began for him. Although he'd done a fair amount of his own work on his other bikes, a street ride presented him with new obstacles he'd never dreamed of. Installing the guts inside the frame went pretty smoothly, but no one hides the cables and lines on a quad or dirt bike and that was a really big hurdle for Ken to overcome. But thanks to Mike's expertise and counsel, he got through that task pretty well.
In the end, Ken and Gia had a blast putting together this chopper, and since its completion they've ridden it up and down the beautiful Cali coast on many a sunny weekend. They've enjoyed the whole process from build to ride, and they might make another one. But they'll always remember their first chopper and the shop that made it possible.