Dain Gingerelli
Former Editor
I began my stint at Street Chopper the summer of 1971 as an intern working towards my bachelor's degree in communications at nearby Cal State University Fullerton. I wrote two articles for SC's sister publication, Chopper Guide, and a couple days later our editorial director, LeRoi "Tex" Smith asked me into his office. Tex was an icon in the history, and had been on the editorial staff of Hot Rod and Rod & Custom magazines. He wore huge cowboy boots, and in his spare time he picked and plucked at his banjo. I entered his office, and there he sat, those big cowboy boots propped on his desk, a banjo in his lap.

Amidst America's cultural maelstrom in 1969, two hot rod enthusiasts took separate chances that grew into 40-year legacies. At the start they hadn't met, nor did they live near each other, but the chances they took grew like vines and intertwined on occasion as the custom motorcycle industry flowed, ebbed, then repeated the cycle. The first guy was Tom McMullen, who launched Street Chopper that year in Southern California. Meanwhile up in the Bay Area, Arlen Ness went into business in San Lorenzo. Although Tom's legacy outlived him, Arlen's still a daily part of his, now with two generations of progeny to carry the torch. Aren was kind enough to give us a few minutes out of his busy day for some reflections on his past, and ours.

This Poor Old 1960 650cc

Triumph feature was found in a dusty old box that had been tucked away for guys like us to uncover and put our greasy mitts on. The archive has no question been moved from building to building to building, until finally ending up again in good hands of some tender-loving Street Chopper editors. This gem of a Trumpet is an essential bike to the chopper days and we wanted you to have a look-see of the parallels of what builders were doing to the Triumphs back then, that today's builders are doing to the old, iconic bikes nowadays. Can you see the similarities?

1n 1969 where were you or how old were you? Did you see Neil Armstrong walk on the moon or were you out on some farm in upstate New York rocking out at Woodstock? Maybe you were home watching ABC's new show The Brady Bunch or you could have been luckily spending $1.50 to see the Easy Rider premier in 1969? What does all of this have in common with each other? Well, this was the same year a new magazine called Street Chopper hit the newsstands.

"Dude, there's this really cool guy in northern California who kicked ass in all the shows back in the day. We want you to do a story on him for the 40th," Jeff Holt told me over the phone. "No, shit, Jeff. His name was Arlen Ness and you've already got me doing it," I reminded him.inline_mediumwraptextright31059213/features/0910_stcp_bob_cecchini_1972_honda_special_construction0910_stcp_08_z+bob_cecchini+bars.jpgTrue

Not all of the famous builders got started early on. Some were in grade school (or younger) when Street Chopper first hit the stands. Russell Mitchell was one of them. He was born in Frampton on Severn, a small farming village in the west of England. They barely had color TV, let alone imported American chopper magazines back then. When he hit his teens, he was a huge skateboarder but by the time he was 16 he'd made the jump to a motor and two wheels and hasn't looked back since. "I had a buddy of mine who was big into cars who'd occasionally come across American bike magazines like Street Chopper. I remember seeing crazy things like Arlen's two-engine Sportster," he reflected.inline_mediumwraptextright25708949/features/0910_stcp_russell_mitchell_exile_chopper0910_stcp_01_z+exile+russell_mitchell.jpgTrue

Things only got crazier. For example, in 1970 Tom bought a twin-screw Cessna 310. "His total experience was that he was a seaman on a submarine," Jim Clark mused. "That didn't qualify him to be anything. "

Would you believe that this Knucklehead was picked up for a measly 500 smackeroos in 1972? And that it only cost $600 more to make it look the way it does here? Man times were good back then. Yes we're aware that the value of the dollar is much different today then it was almost 40 years ago, but it sounds like a good deal to us! Once we stumbled upon Jay Harrison's '47 Knuckle archives at the Street Chopper headquarters we knew it was necessary to bring it back from the dead for you to check out once again. It only took Jay four months to rework the stock Knuck into this beauty. Not bad for a first-time builder from back in the day.inline_mediumwraptextright25715810/features/0910_stcp_1947_knucklehead_jay_harrison0910_stcp_01_z+1947_knucklehead_jay_harrison+.jpgTrue

And suddenly your life is never the same. You've quietly been bit by a bug so to speak-the chopper bug. But not just any chopper bug-and now you have a need to seek out and unearth some of the most famous choppers of the last 40 years! This is how Kayelynn Johnson got into choppers-Denver's Choppers to be exact. Most people reading thus far have probably heard of Denver Mullins of San Bernardino (AKA Berdoo) at some point in time and probably have seen in person or in pictures at least one of the reportedly 2,000 bikes built using a Denver's frame, frontend, and many of the other parts they made or one of the countless yet distinct choppers built under Denver's roof.

While perusing the Street Chopper bike-feature archives from the past 40 years, we came across Sunday Sims' 1958 Shovelhead. Immediately, we were taken back by the archetypal styles of the chopper movement from the past (bike and bike owner). Sunday's custom is no question a great representation of the chopper style that Street Chopper became known for featuring, which never seems to get old. We're sure you'll get a kick reminiscing the old days of some of the bikes this publication featured, like Sunday's Shovel. Enjoy!

The Early Chopper days were a different time. Motorcycles weren't accepted by the mainstream like they are today. In fact, the general population snubbed the folks that rode bikes. Acceptance didn't exist. Restaurants wouldn't serve "bikers"; doors were slammed in their faces; they were outcasts; vagabonds; nomads. Mike Vils remembers this all too well. However, he didn't care. He loved everything about motorcycles: the construction, the design, and more importantly building and riding them.

40th Anniversary Bike Build

When we first started to think about what we were going to do for Street Chopper magazine's 40th anniversary issue, a chopper build seemed like the perfect idea. What better way to celebrate than to build a bike commemorating the magazine's success?

This year we are celebrating our 40th year in the publishing business and would like to to join in on the fun. Starting with our two special issues which drop in May and October. We also will be having a few events commemorating our anniversary as well as a a tribute bike build that can be found on our forums section!

History is definitely on the side of the mighty Sportster. It's the lightest, sleekest, and inch-for-inch the powerhouse of the extensive Harley-Davidson history. Unveiled in 1957, the unit construction mill with trapdoor gearbox was the evolution of the K-models that ripped up the street and strip. A major innovation of the XL motor was the inclusion of overhead valves and the addition of the iconoclastic Shovelhead-style rocker-arm covers. Retained from the K were the four-cam configuration and transmission cavity cast into the crankcase. The quad-cam arrangement meant better valve control through reduced pushrod angles, and the one-piece motor/tranny case made the combo lighter and more rigid than a Big Twin.

Some people are born just knowing what they want to do in life. They feel as if they are destined to follow a certain path and, no matter what happens, they find their path and take it. Wil Thomas is one of these people. Ever since he was a little kid growing up in Chicago, Wil knew that someday he would ride. It just took him a while to get started.

In the not so distant past, there was a time when most bike enthusiasts were limited to the custom shops available to them. Most people out there riding motorcycles only associated themselves with a tight-knit group of friends within their neighborhood, relying on one local shop for all their needs. This was largely in part to the lack of information available to them during the late '70s and '80s, and even into the early '90s. The truth of the matter is, if you didn't hear about it from a friend, fellow rider, or happen to stumble across some blurb of advertisement in the magazines, then you would never know there was a diamond in the rough out there turning out custom bikes.

There are generally two sides of the chopper coin: an old restore job that's as high maintenance as a supermodel's diet, and a push-button modern bike with old chop style. Both have their merits; it's mostly a matter of taste and how involved you want to be with your ride. Mike Chan's pretty familiar with this concept, having bikes from both schools.

Thank God high-dollar choppers aren't cool anymore. The whole billet chopper boom has come and gone for those riding on the "next-cool-thing" bandwagon-we don't even want to know what they're ruining now. We're just glad that we can get back to bikes, good bikes, real bikes, built and ridden by real people, like it should be. People like Eric Webb.

There are few places left in the states that you can still find an old barn full of original and period chops. One of those places is Morries Cycle, about an hour north of Chicago.

What do you call a guy that used to be a skateboarder, listens to rap and punk music, rides motorcycles, and, during the day, is a business attorney? You call him David Polgreen.

In 1827 an adventurer named Henry Dodge founded the city of Dodgeville, Wisconsin. An area that approximately 40 miners, including Henry Dodge himself would stumble upon, and come to discover that it was not gold, but lead that the land would yield. Soon after, these adventurers set up camp, they built stone cottages, some of which still exist today in an area known as Sleepy Hollow.

Riding through 60 mph winds in the desert is cause for many things. White knuckles? Sure. Sphincter pucker? Count on it. Cursing? Damn right. Celebration? Hell no. Carl Sorensen knows this very well, as he found himself making the Phoenix to Houston run on his rigid Shovel. His maelstrom road trip was the end result of a severe case of peer pressure brought on by his rider buddies.

Tom Perrin is the kind of guy who just gets it. He lives in a 1930s bungalow on a tree-lined street, rides this here Shovelhead, drives an early '60s Cadillac, and has a doll of a wife. Though Tom makes the culmination of all these things look easy, this lifestyle does not come without a shitload of hard work and dedication to his occupation, family and friends. Tom learned this way of life from his hard-working father who is a real stand-up "paison" who transplanted from the right coast a few years before Tom was born. What Tom also picked up from his pops at an early age was the love of motorcycles. Back in the '70s his dad was always tinkering in the garage with both dirt bikes and Harleys showing Tom basic maintenance and other mechanical duties every motorcyclist should know. Lucky for him, this all went down smack dab in the middle of the golden age of choppers, so those Pans and Shovels were getting some major modifications at the hands of Tom's father.