Ahh the '80s. For most of us, there's plenty of Polaroids and VHS (or Beta) videos from that decade that inspire nostalgia laced with a little good-natured humiliation. Flipping through the pages of the April '83 issue of STREET CHOPPER, there's mostly nostalgia, but every now and then you can't help but chuckle at articles like "Second Skin, A Buyer's Latest Guide to Leather"; and they say leather is timeless. Of course, we realize future generations will be laughing at us 20 years from now, but come on, a muscled up Santa Claus wannabe in a leather jumpsuit makes you crack a smile.
You may notice that by the '80s, STREET CHOPPER also had a new title; it was reading HOT BIKE STREET CHOPPER. Due to the changing bike industry, STREET CHOPPER was morphed into HOT BIKE to feature a wider variety of bikes including more Pro Street and racing types of motorcycles. After a few years, HOT BIKE brought STREET CHOPPER back (are you still following this?). The important part of this little history lesson for those of you who weren't around for the STC evolution is these days, the name STREET CHOPPER is once again on its own.
There was a four-page section in the front of the mag called "Jammin." We wish we still had the room to put in as many great photos sent in by readers; wheelies, girls, rides, and overall timeless "day-in-the-life" moments were all captured within Jammin's pages. Even though we haven't resurrected the former article, we definitely try to capture moments like those in our event coverage.
Speaking of nostalgia, of a more classic kind however, the cover bike, "Winged Scarab" was named in honor of the old mummy flicks popular in the '30s. Owner Jon Kosmoski, being a big fan of Lon Chaney and Boris Karloff, stars of the campy horror films, decorated his '77 Shovel with scarabs, cobras, vultures, and Egyptian hieroglyphics. Not only did Jon choose his bike's theme, but he also handled all the sheetmetal fabrication, welding bodywork, engineering, and design.
In "Luau Longie", the Harley XF had a Hawaiian beauty to set off the customized bike. Makes sense considering owner Robert "Longie" Gandall spent a year and a half plus, "ten grand of the green on the rebuild." Part of that ten grand went to a Jammer wide-type springer, 3-inch over stock, Paughco fishtails and oil bag. All he needed to do was find a raging luau to roll up with his Hawaiian honey.
The bike that scored the centerfold status belonged to Warren Donovan, a guy who liked to sport his leather vest with converse high tops-black of course. His '61 SLH was described as "a highly refined, highly detailed street cruiser kept millimeters close to pure stock." Make no mistake though, Warren spent close to three years wrenching on his Duo-Glide to where he was satisfied with its performance and appearance.
Like we said, the '80s are always good for a humorous walk down memory lane. We hope it's inspired you to go get lost in your own '80s embarrassments, we mean memories. We'll catch up with you in the next issue of "Back in the Day."