Last year in Daytona the STREET CHOPPER staff were out doing our thing on the street when we came across a few clean bikes parked on Main Street. We couldn't find the owners, so we left our card on the seat. The next day we saw the same set of bikes out by some bar, but still had no luck finding the owners. The day after that at a ride-in show at Willie's Tropical Tattoo, we came across Roadside Marty, who wanted us to meet a few guys he knew with some cool bikes. As luck would have it, it was Bob and Brian French-the guys who built the bikes we had seen all over town but never tracked down. That is what happens when you are bellied-up to every bar in your path. The next day we shot the bikes early in the morning; we did not want to risk the chance that the two would start hitting all the bars and miss the shoot. We convinced them that we would have doughnuts and Bloody Marys waiting for them if they showed up.
They were on time (and thirsty), so we shot the bikes and still had the rest of the day to hang out and party. When asked to tell their story about the bikes and their shop, it was like opening up a can of worms-they were all over the place. These guys not only build the bikes, they are painters-damn good ones as well. This is only one of the paint jobs; you need to head to the website to see all the other cool bikes and things they have painted.
When we asked for the story, this is what we got told by Hollywood. It was good enough that we just wanted to tell it like it was told to us.
This nasty green pan is the second bike build from three deranged and poor white boys working out of their garages. We have three door two-car garages: one for fabrication, one for paint, and the other for final assembly. The state-of-the-art bike lift (Lowe's $69.00) has to be moved from the fab shop to the final assembly shop-how convenient. Even with all of the running around and not having a lot of connections like the "pro builders" do, the bike was completed in about 40 beer-filled nights. Having day jobs, the shop hours are from 6 p.m. until we can't see straight, and sometimes that doesn't even stop us.