Michael Lewis from Violent Choppers is a longtime friend of mine. We grew up across the street from each other. He had been building bikes for a few years, and since the first time I saw him roll a V-twinned beauty out of his shop, I wanted to have him build one with my name on the pink slip. When I could afford it, of course.
Knowing that any bike is the sum of its parts, I pretty much bought the bike you see here a piece at a time. After searching every bike swap both on foot and online, I had the pile of parts. After even a bit more time when I had a little cash saved up, Michael and I got a plan together. The bike would be a classic-looking dependable bike with a Santee straight-leg frame that possessed a 36-degree rake and a 2-inch stretch. Up front was to be a 2-inch-over narrow glide with a spool hub and no brake.
As far as the bodywork on the bike went, I had Michael stretch me a sporty tank in which he custom painted and pinstriped. The whole bike in its first incarnation was super clean and “showy” with an Evo motor and a kick start–only four-speed with a jockey shift.
Once the bike was completed, the daunting task of riding it was a reality. This would be a great day for most, but a bit of a struggle for me since I had never ridden a motorcycle at all. Yes, this was my first bike ever. I mean like no riding, not even a dirtbike, Vespa or anything. When the day came for me to ride it for the first time, I asked Michael, “Do you think I can really ride this thing?” He replied with a simple, “When you have this much money in something, you will figure out how to ride it!” Since then I’ve put some hard miles on it.
While I was riding this around with the Evo motor in it, Michael built a Panhead for another customer that just couldn’t seem to pay. Michael ended up keeping the motorcycle, and told the customer that he would help him sell some of the big stuff to get some of his money back. With a little coaxing from Michael, I ended up buying a pretty much brand-new 88ci panhead from the dude. Wanting to change the look of the bike once the motor was installed, I found the AMF tank at the Barber’s Vintage swap meet. I also had Michael make me some new exhaust pipes for the panhead.
The whole time with the evo and with the new pan motor, I rode it with some 16-inch apes on it. I blew a head gasket last summer and had Michael get it up and running for me. When I went to pick it up, he had cut a set of bars to be shorter so that he could reach everything comfortably to testride it. After riding it myself, I wished that we had done it a long time ago. This bike has been a great machine with only one issue: it had a transmission leak that just wouldn’t quit a few years back. We chased and chased it. One day while working on it, Michael said, “Maybe we should just call it ‘Loose Seal.’” The name just kind of stuck. SC
For more in-depth photos and a complete build list of parts used on this bike go to: streetchopperweb.com.