Even from my home in Italy the American spirit and tradition, together with the whole ‘60s culture, have always inspired my life. So much so that when I opened the doors to my shop Chop Works I have been living that life ever since.
Unlike my other bike builds, this project took me into the custom world’s ghettos. From my home in Turin, Italy, to East Los Angeles and down to the tip of Baja California, the lowriders’ paint and upholstery magic surely inspired my design. Hence, the bike’s name: El Cholo.
For me, this bike is a perfect mix between lowriders and diggers from the late ’70s. The build started from a ’69 Pan/Shovel I stole from an original Electra Glide imported from the USA a mighty long time ago. That 74ci engine deserved a rebuild and some more power, so I stroked it at 1,340cc and finished it off with an S&S super E carburetor and a 3-inch beltdrive.
The motor found its place in a Santee hardtail frame with a 30-degree rake. The fork was a pile of parts I had laying around the shop. It consists of a mix of FL and Sportster frontends with some funky triple trees, and front cover from a ’50 K-model H-D. The other little parts of the frontend I madly reworked and engraved just to give the bike more of a Chicano style. To top off the frontend I found an Aris headlight that fit the K-model bucket very nicely.
To get the bike sitting right it needed the right set of rollers, so for the front I chose a 21-inch wheel with a mini drum brake and used an Avon Speedmaster. In the rear I used a 16-inch chrome drop-center wheel wrapped in a Firestone rear tire.
Once we mounted the fork and wheels to make it a roller, my mind started to brainstorm regarding the other ancillary parts I wanted to use. Tons of parts such as tanks, handlebars, and fenders were mocked up endless times. We switched the telephone off and closed all the doors to the shop, and the struggle lasted several days and nights. For the gas tank, I hacked up an old used Sportster tank, narrowing it and lifting up it Frisco style. I found the fender of it in the back of my shop, and with just a bit of trimming it just looked right at home with the rest of the bike.
Other custom parts made by yours truly were a taillight taken from a ’59 Cadillac, some hand-fabbed rabbit bars, and a sissybar made to look like a Mexican goat’s horns. Even the forward controls and footpegs were hand-crafted by us here at Chop Works.
Together with Roberto La Rogna, we developed a paint scheme inspired by my idea of combining the looks of multicolor ’70s diggers and lowriders. Lowrider paintjobs have always been one of my favorite forms of artistic expression, but shooting crazy paint on such a minimized body like a chopper is not so simple. Roberto first shot the frame’s entire surface with silver metalflake, shot it with candy graphics, then enriched it with gold leaf.
Once we completed the painting, I mounted everything back on, wired the bike, and on the fourth kick the nervous V-twin started its inaugural parade echoing throughout the Italian city streets and down the countryside. STC