2006 Torres Bobber - It All Works Out In The End

Murphy's Law says that anything that can go wrong will. No one knows that better than Andy and Steve Torres, the owners of Torres Cycle. While getting a bobber ready for last year's Laughlin run, they found out that not only was Murphy's Law true, but Murphy himself must have been watching them the whole time.

The seeds of their interest in building bikes started early on in their lives. Their father, a hot rod mechanic in Texas, spent a lot of time teaching them how to take care of business. Starting at around nine years old, they soon began helping their father out. It was his tutelage that made them the hard-working and honest guys that they are today. He taught them that when getting involved in a project, you have to give it your all and you have to treat your customers and co-workers as if they were family.

Like many aspiring actors, they made their way to Southern California-but Andy and Steve wanted to be mechanics. They soon found out that they might have had a better chance getting into the movies. "No one wants to hire teenagers to work on hot rods," Andy said. Of course, they never gave up. They did have a little detour, though: College.

It was after college that they got their opportunity, but instead of hot rods they were working on bikes. Their cousins, being bikers, helped to get them in the door and they were soon making parts for motorcycles. Realizing that not everyone had a lot of money to spend on parts, and because they didn't get into the business to get rich, the Torres brothers decided that they were going to make good parts and sell them for a reasonable price. It was a premise that got them noticed by several large builders. They never had to do much advertising; the quality of their work was advertisement enough. Soon enough, Andy and Steve were making a great name for themselves in the bike world.

Working hard and having a good quality product helped Andy and Steve move from a garage to their own shop in Riverside, California. As their business grew, so did their crew. Nowadays there are usually around seven people working in the shop at any given time. This includes dear old dad, who makes sure that the brothers still remember what he taught them when they were little kids.

Being a family affair, their shop is very laid-back. Steve points out that it can, however, get pretty heated from time to time. Just like any family, everyone can start yelling at each other over the tiniest thing, but soon everything returns to normal and all is forgiven. They still believe in doing everything right, and follow a simple idea: If it can be done, they can do it, and as far as they are concerned, anything can be done.

Most importantly, they enjoy what they do. As Andy puts it, "I love the business. I wake up every morning and I know that I will be happy to go to work. Even if I were poor, at least I'm happy at work."

Of course, not everything goes so smoothly. Remember Murphy's Law? Well, it reared its ugly head while they were getting ready for Laughlin. With less than a week to go before they left, they got an idea to put a bobber together to show off. Okay, probably not the best idea to wait until the last moment. Yet the Torres Brothers knew that they could get something done. Now if only fate would work with them.

Everything started off well. They got their chrome work for the bike done by Riverside Chrome Plating in Mira Loma, California. That's about all that went well.

The crew worked 16 hours a day trying their best to get everything done in that short window of time. In a way it was their own personal Biker Build-Off. They had ordered a Shovelhead motor which must have gotten swallowed up in the Bermuda Triangle; fortunately, a buddy had a chrome motor that he was nice enough to let them take off his bike. Things were starting to turn around.

Then other bad things happened. In addition to the burns and puncture wounds that everyone suffered, the first oil cap wouldn't fit on the bike. The original gas cap blowing off and almost decapitating someone didn't help, either. "We had read some of the horror stories in STREET CHOPPER," Steve commented. "Then on this project we learned that these things really do happen."

Once, while the crew worked past three in the morning, a group of police officers rushed into the shop, guns drawn. They thought that the guys were robbing the place. After explaining themselves and showing some ID, the situation got straightened out. The officers were impressed by the bike and stayed to talk for awhile. In fact, two of the officers are now regular customers of Torres Cycle.

Everything was finally falling into place. Then at the last second they decided to twist the handlebars and fender struts, which really gave the bike its unique look. "I didn't think it was going to get done," Steve admitted. "But it did."

Finally, the Torres brothers and their new bobber were on their way to Laughlin. Of course, something else had to go wrong. Along the way the straps holding down the bobber came loose, and they thought that they were going to lose the bike. Fortunately they were able to stop before it could fall off the trailer, and there was no damage.

Andy and Steve finally made it to Laughlin with their new bobber, but one more quick part was needed. They bought a taillight there and slapped it on real fast. The bobber was a big hit. People were coming to see the bike that almost didn't make it to Laughlin. In fact, someone offered to the buy it. But Andy and Steve had already said that they were going to let STREET CHOPPER shoot the bike, and wanting their bike to make it into the magazine, they came up with the crazy selling price of $40,000. "We wanted to come up with a price that he wouldn't want to pay," said Andy. When their would-be customer asked them to work with him, Andy said he would drop the price to $39,999.99. "I couldn't believe he said that," said Steve. Steve was a bit upset. After all, someone did just offer them a hell of a lot of money.

Steve eventually forgave Andy, especially when something that Steve would never forget happened in Vegas. Showing off their bike again, they were soon visited by the legendary Mondo Porras of Denver's Choppers. Not only was meeting an icon like Mondo a dream come true for the Torres Brothers, but Mondo sat on the bike and told them that he was quite impressed with their bobber. That meant more to them than making a lot of money. It was a testament to their hard work, and they knew at that moment that they had made it.

Even though the odds were against them, Andy and Steve Torres show that with a lot of hard work, a lot of patience, and with the help of your family, Murphy's Law is nothing more than a little annoyance.