Isn't the Internet cool? You can go online and do all kinds of things in total privacy: Play games, chat, or even get in a little reproduction practice at a porn site (at least, that's what I've heard...). The point being, modern communication has not only shrunk the world, but made it so you can do business without ever meeting who you're dealing with; it's just how the cell phone/Internet era works.
That's what happened with Ed Hinkle from North Carolina and Russell Mitchell at Exile Cycles in North Hollywood, California. He'd commissioned half a dozen hot custom bikes from Exile over the years and never met Russell in person. He didn't even know how cool his chopped trike was until it arrived in his home town.
He could've made an educated guess, though. There are certain things Russell just doesn't offer on the menu, like chrome and big flashy paint jobs. Bling just ain't his thing. That was fine with Ed, who liked Exile's Biker Build-Off trike and wanted one of his own with a chopper feel to it, and that suited Mitchell just fine.
"Basically, we started doing trikes because they're big in Europe. A lot of people build them to get around helmet laws. If your vehicle had a seatbelt, you aren't required to wear a helmet, so riders would make three-wheelers with belts to get around the law. A lot of cool and tough trikes are made over there. Out here, trikes tend to be these outrageous things with houses on them. So we decided to give it a go for the Build-Off since we wanted to push the envelope of our aesthetic. We were super proud of the results," Russell informed us. "We wanted to show an American bike with European styling."