Pat Patterson, of Led Sled Customs, using ingenuity, artistry, innovative ideas, and unconventional design, is a rising star in the custom Sportster scene. Pat is a complete custom builder, who embraces the unconventional. Led Sled parts, in Dayton, Ohio, are extensively researched and developed prior to being fabricated, giving them an authentic style always focused on functionality. Patterson’s style is authentic and unconventional, with originality from bike to bike, never attempting to imitate other builders.
Patterson’s first forays into a full custom build included The Impaler, famous for its flaming burnouts and Whiskey Bent, where he split the transmission off of a Sportster motor and used a kicker tranny and beltdrive. The bike industry immediately recognized Led Sled as a force in the V-twin industry with the unveiling of these two innovative bikes. Patterson’s ingenuity illustrated that building another chromed, Easter-egg pastel paintjob was well and good, but unconventional was cool—flat paintjobs and recycled beer patina on raw metal—was sleek.
With Patterson’s first go at Monkey Wrench, he just couldn’t be bothered to make sure all his bikes were featured in bike mags. He and his crew were cranking out bike after bike as the Led Sled business was booming. He took a couple of shots to illustrate his unique artistic perspective for customers.
Rich, a Led Sled customer, was so drawn to Monkey Wrench that he requested a bike so similar, Patterson had qualms about building the same bike twice. Luckily the original Monkey Wrench was for sale so Patterson sold Rich Monkey Wrench and agreed to do more custom work that would highlight his refined skills.
As Patterson worked on the bike, he felt like he was getting reacquainted with an old friend. He began observing how he as a builder had grown—his changing techniques, his altered styles, how he had raised his standards since he first worked on the bike. He could see that his building and customizing skills had risen to a new level and he wanted display those in the second incarnation of Monkey Wrench.
This reincarnation of Monkey Wrench included the original narrow glide frontend being replaced with a Led Sled Springer frontend complete with a custom front brake caliper mount to give Rich stopping power because he was going to run a jockey shift; trading out the stock H-D foot controls for a custom Led Sled black ball milled foot controls including a foot clutch setup; the bike was one of the first to have the Led Sled kickstart setup for Sportsters and it fit the bike to perfection.
As Patterson and Rich examined Monkey Wrench when it was finished, they reflected that with creativity, imagination, love, and a little elbow grease a bike can always be born again. STC